Warning! To avoid personal injury or

Warning! To avoid personal injury or even death, always disconnect your appliance from its power source--that is, unplug it or break the connection at the circuit breaker or fuse box--before you do any troubleshooting or repair work on your appliance. Also, because some components may have sharp edges, use caution while working on your appliance. First, check to see if the light comes on or if there is any fan, motor, or other sound coming from the appliance? If so, the refrigerator isn't really completely stopped--go to the specific problem you are having. If not, try adjusting the thermostat to a colder setting. If that doesn't work, read on. Second, check to see if there is power getting to the refrigerator. To do that, plug a lamp or other device into the same outlet the refrigerator is plugged into.
If there's no power, check the fuses or circuit breakers. If the fuses or breakers aren't the problem, contact a qualified electrician to restore power to the outlet. Unfortunately, we can't describe all of the possible problems and repair solutions here. If you are unable to troubleshoot the problem from here, you may need to contact a qualified appliance repair technician. The compressor is a football-sized case with no apparent moving parts. It's on the outside of the refrigerator at the back near the bottom. If it is humming or making a continuous noise and your refrigerator is still not cooling, there may be a more serious problem with one or more of several different components, we recommend contacting a qualified appliance repair technician for further help.
For an overall understanding of how refrigerators should work, read about refrigerators in the How Things Work section of our website. A refrigerator or freezer that is cooling, but cooling poorly, may have a problem in one of several areas: Poor cooling is often the result of a heavy frost build-up on the evaporator coils. You can't see these coils without removing a panel on the inside of your freezer. A sure sign that there is a build-up is the presence of any frost or ice build-up on the inside walls, floor, or ceiling of the freezer. Such a frost build-up usually indicates a problem in the self-defrosting system or damaged door gaskets. The refrigerator is supposed to self-defrost approximately four times in every 24 hour period. If one of the components in the self-defrosting system fails, the refrigerator continues to try to cool. Eventually, though, so much frost builds up on the evaporator coils that the circulating fan can't draw air over the coils. There may still be a small amount of cooling because the coils are icy, but with no air flow over the coils, cooling in the refrigerator compartment is quite limited.
Here's an inexpensive, though inconvenient, way to determine if the problem is with the self-defrosting system. Remove all of the perishable food from the refrigerator and freezer, turn the thermostat in the refrigerator to Off, and leave the doors open for 24 to 48 hours. (Be sure to have several towels ready in case the melting frost and ice causes the drip pan to overflow). This allows the refrigerator to defrost manually. When the frost and ice build-up has completely melted away, turn the thermostat back to a normal setting. If the refrigerator then cools properly, it indicates a problem with one of three components in the self-defrosting system:If it still does not cool properly, there may be a problem with the refrigerant level or the compressor. You may need to consult with a qualified appliance repair technician to further diagnose the problem Self-defrosting refrigerators all have a set of coils and a cooling fan, usually under the refrigerator, that need to be cleaned regularly. If these coils get coated with dust, dirt or lint, the refrigerator may not cool properly.

1. The coils may appear to be a thin, black, wide radiator-like device behind the lower kick-panel.
2. To clean them, disconnect the refrigerator from the power source, use a refrigerator condenser brush (see the Appliance Accessories section) and your vacuum cleaner to clean the coils of any lint, pet hair, etc.
3. You may not be able to get to all of the condenser from the front, it may be necessary to clean the remainder of the condenser from the rear of the refrigerator.
4. Self-defrosting refrigerators use a circulating fan to move the air through the freezer and refrigerator compartments.

This fan runs whenever the unit is cooling. The fan is located in the freezer, as follows: To find out if the fan is causing the noise, just open the freezer door and push in any fan/light switches. If the noise is louder when the door is open, the evaporator fan motor is the cause. You can't lubricate or repair this motor. You must replace it. There are three components on the outside back of the refrigerator that may become noisy: the compressor, the condenser fan motor (if self-defrosting), or the defrost timer (if self-defrosting). The compressor is a football-sized case wi.