Whirpool not cooling

[bmastel]

I have a three year old whirlpool etowsrxml03. I returned from a trip to find that the door had been left open. After 36 hours it does not seem to be getting cold. The freezer is fine; just not the refrigerator. What could be the problem?

[HayZee518]

check the circulating fan. if the freezer is cold, its coldness is just distributed to the rest of the fridge. there's no seperate coils in the refrigerator section. check your door seal.

[The Builder]

In addition to checking the fan, check to see if its any blockages from the fan to where the fan blows the cold air into the refrigerator. A number of times ice buildup or other blocks the entry of cold air from the fan in the freezer to the refrigerator. But as Hazee said also check the fan, because certain times the fan motor dies out or the fan blades can get stuck.

[bmastel]

Thank you both. One of the building's maintenance men, who as it turns out is also licensed to repair refrigerators, took a look, found the fan not working properly and found ice buildup. So it seems that he has confirmed what both of you have said. He's coming back tomorrow to see what he can do.

[Dan O.]

I returned from a trip to find that the door had been left open. After 36 hours it does not seem to be getting cold.

Did anyone manually defrost it after it was found with the door open? The evaporator (cooling) coil was probably totally frosted over by the door being left open and will likely need a manual defrosting to get back to normal.

took a look, found the fan not working properly and found ice buildup.

Excessive frosting could build up on the evaporator coil to the point of stopping the fan's operation (besides just hampering the air movement through the appliance which would also cause cooling problems - see the following link).

LINK > My frost free refrigerator is not cooling properly. What might be the problem?

JFYI

Dan O.
www.Appliance411.com
The Appliance Information Site
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