Top of refrigerator and freezer has no air flow and is warm

You probably have a defrost issue with the freezer. Cold air is passed to the refrigerator section from the freezer, when the freezer does not defrost air flow to the refrigerator is eliminated causing the refrigerator to warm up. Check for icing on the back wall of the freezer. If no ice on back of freezer, check the damper assembly going to the refrigerator section.

Hi,

Many times a freezer and/or refrigerator do not work right because of a dirty condenser coil...there are also many other things that can go wrong.

If you are hearing a clicking or buzzing then check out the last two tips.

If your refrigerator is running but warm, then...

Check out these tips that I wrote about that... it is a great place to start trouble shooting your unit...and something that you can do rather then calling a repair person to do a simple thing for you...

Refrigerator Condenser Coil Cleaning Refrigerator Repair

Refrigerator Troubleshooting Refrigerator Compressor

Refrigerator Compressor Start Capacitor and Start Relay

Refrigerator or Freezer not Cooling or Getting Cold

heatman101
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check yor damper door, it's the little door at the top and or bottom of the fridge insid near the top and or at the bottom behind the crisper drawer when working right they open to let cold air in from the freezer and warm air out. top one cold in, bottom one warm air out.they work on a sensor/relay when the freezer fan goes on they open when cold air is needed.

Hi,

Check the air return on the bottom left wall of the refrigerator side. Check for cold air flow at the top of the refrigerator when the compressor is running. If you feel no air flow, open the freezer door and see if you detect significantly more air flow after opening the freezer door. This could indicate a return air flow restriction and make sure that there no blocking of air vent at the top of refrigerator section that supplies the cold air from the freezer.Check the door seal gasket on the refrigerator for leaks.

If there is still same problem then you need to replace evaporator fan.

Hope this helps.

Shane

Hi,

Check out these tips...they can help you figure out what is going wrong with your refrigerator and why it is not cooling

Refrigerator not Cooling or Fridge not Cooling

How to Defrost Refrigerator Defrost Timer Problem

Water Running in refrigerator from Freezer

Refrigerator or Freezer not Cooling or Getting Cold

heatman101

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This sounds like an air flow issue, If your freezer fan is running still you may have a defrost problem starting in the freezer cooling coils. This will cause the cold from the freezer to back flow into the bottom of the fridge and only the lower half of the freezer to keep very cold.
Most likely culprit for defrost issues would be the terminating thermostat (inside freezer behind back wall and clips to top of coils).
Good luck and let me know if you need more help!

Behind the back wall of the freezer about halfway down, probably behind the light bulb (if there is one there) there is a fan. My guess is that the fan isn't working, or is slow. To test, open the freezer door, then hold the door switch closed and listen for the fan.

This fan should be blowing air up the back of the freezer, and send some of the cold air through a vent at the top of the freezer into the fridge. The air then descends through the fridge and reenters the freezer through a vent at the bottom. If the fan is broken, or if the upper vent is somehow blocked or broken, the cold air will enter (rather than exit) the fridge side at the bottom vent. Because cold air tends to descend and warm air rises, the cold air will freeze the stuff at the bottom of the fridge, and the thermostat (at the top of the fridge) will say it is warm.

No air flow at all means Fan is not working. Also check damper between freezer and fridge.

Same problem with Frigidaire Gallery model#GLRT182SAW5 (dated 2002 on back of case)

Vents were blocked with ice. Vents (from top compartment to lower) located behind light. You can check by poking a chopstick up the (2) holes; be careful not to hit fan blades.

Solution:

- took freezer coil cover off in back; checked that defrost heater element was working (marked and rotated the timer in the hole next to light); checked that fan working. Found ice in the vents and defrost drip area. Got it out with hair dryer.

- cleaned compressor coils in back (check fan is rotating; also tweaked some of the compressor tubing bends to make them more smooth - read somewhere about a manufacturing defect ...); blew out drip tube from defroster while down there.

- Set the freezer control to WARM and the refrig control to COLD (THIS SHOULD IMPROVE AIR FLOW FROM TOP TO BOTTOM).

- Put thermometers in top and bottom. Checked that refrigerator cycles (not running continuously). Checked that cold air is coming down from (2) vents behind light.

OK: so far, so good. Lower compartment is 40 or under. Top is under 18.

CONCLUSION: Suspect marginal design. Had problems with another similar model where defroster ice doesn't drain correctly, pools and refreezes. Leading to blocked vents as well as blocked defroster drain and similar problem including dripping water from top to bottom and warm bottom.

MAYBE KEEPING THE FREEZER CONTROL AT WARM GETS AROUND THE PROBLEM?? ANYWAY, ITS WORKING FOR ME FOR NOW !!

sounds like the evaporator fan in the freezer is not moving the air. also there is an air damper door at the top center of the fridge that controls air flow from the freezer to the fridge. check those two components and you will find your problem.