New to Me Fridge--Freezer Cold but Ice Cream not Frozen/Compressor Seems Not to Run

Hello to All,

I just purchased my first Side by Side fridge yesterday. It’s a used one I found off CL. Because of the issues I’m about to tell you, Seller is offering me a refund but I told him that I will let it be for a few days to give it a chance to run properly.

  1. I was told that you could sit the fridge on its back while transporting, which I found out is a no-no. We had the fridge on it’s back for about 30 minutes, then immediately plugged it up (which I found out was another no-no). I have since unplugged it and will keep it that way until Monday at the advice of my cousin who is HVAC.

  2. Last night I noticed that the ice cubes and ice cream weren’t frozen and the frozen fruits at the bottom of the freezer were thawing. I turned the thermostat up to 8 I think. The temp got much cooler and everything froze except the ice cream.

  3. I hear the fan in the freezer and seems to be blowing lots of cold air in. The fridge cools great.

  4. Because my last fridge always froze ice cream I got concerned and took the cover off the back to take a look. I took off the start capacitor and compressor relay. Just to the eye, they both looked good to me. I didn’t hear any rattling of the relay but again, I don’t have an multimeter to test the continuity of such.

  5. The fan works fine but I swear I don’t hear the compressor come on at all:( I put my hand on the compressor, which felt hot but not enough to burn my hand. The compressor seemed to have a slight vibration when I touched it but I wasn’t sure if that meant it was on or if it was a slight vibration from the fan. I don’t hear any humming noise at all but then again this could be a very quiet compressor??? My last fridge was much noisier and it was easy to identify when the compressor turned on. The coils look clean too.

My question is …should I just get a refund because something sounds like it’s broken or is it just worth seeing how it goes on Monday? Or should I buy a compressor relay and run capacitor to see if that cools off the freezer even more to make sure I don’t return a perfectly good fridge?

Thanks in advance…I know nothing about fridges. I just did some research last evening on youtube and reading online articles.

I really like the fridge but just don’t want a headache or a money pit. My dad offered to get us a new top freezer refrigerator so I think I might go that way just to make sure I know what I’m getting.

Pull the back panel off the freezer and describe the frost patter, partial frost or complete, light frost.

THanks! I ended up unplugging it for 2 days and now it works great! Apparently the oil and freon had to settle after laying the fridge on its back to transport.

Thanks again:)