small appliance repair

[DickR]

Originally Posted by bigdog

I have a 15 yr old KitchinAid Refridgerator, 'french doors, with freezer on the bottom'.

The freezer section just quit on me and things defrosting rapidly. I was able to move things from that freezer, to the second fridge in the garage for the time being.

I suspect the issue with the freezer may be the compressor is shot.
After 15yrs work, the main fridge section, may not be too long behind, before it totally shuts down. I guess after 15 yrs service, I've gotten my money's worth....

There have been other posts on this forum regarding freezer failure. In a refrigerator/freezer, there still is just one compressor. If that has failed, the refrigerator section won't stay cold either. If just the freezer section has failed to keep things frozen, the problem could be failure of the defrost heater or timer, or perhaps just too much heavy stuff pressing against a panel covering the evaporator coil. In that case, the defrost cycle isn't melting out all the frost/ice on the coil in the time allowed by the timer, and the coil eventually becomes clogged with ice, reducing air flow over the coil. That actually happened to me some years ago, and within the last few years someone reporting back on this forum after reading my suggestion about exploring the problem said that this was indeed the problem in his case.

I'd suggest poking around in the freezer section, removing what you can to get at the evaporator coil. If it is clogged with ice, you may be able to do a manual defrost with a hair dryer and see if that takes care of the problem. If that works, but the problem comes back over time, then a failed defrost timer seems more likely. That could be a DIY fix.