Originally Posted by
xndrhome
Model Number: KSSC36FJS00
Brand: KitchenAid
Age: More than 10 years
About 1 month ago, our freezer in stopped cooling and caused everything inside to melt. Called appliance service and what they did was clean the condenser coils (top of the unit). That appeared to fix the problem but only for a few days. I noticed the freezer would cool down from 32 degrees to 10 degress and stay there for a while and then start to warming up again. Compressor will keep on running (not in defrost cycle) but the freezer temp is going up instead of going down. I would manually turn off the refrigerator (and therefore the compressor) and let it sit for 20 minutes and turn it back on again. The temperature will start to come down again but after 3-4 hours, the freezer temp will rise again to the point that ice would melt. Lately I noticed that the temp in the freezer will only come down to 20 degrees before it starts to warm up again. So the problem seems to be getting worse.
This is what I have done so far to diagnose the problem:
1. Condenser coils are clean.
2. Checked defrost timer and it is working properly. Defrost cycle is about 10 hours apart and lasts for approximately 20 minutes.
3. Compressor running. No clicking sound that indicates failure.
4. Checked compressor fan and seems to work just fine.
5. Checked evaporator fan inside the freezer compartment. Seems to be running just fine.
6. Checked evaporator coils for frost build-up. No frost in the evaporator coils. Not even a little after several hours.
7. Suspected perhaps it is a bad Thermostat/Cold Control in the freezer unit control panel. Went ahead and replaced that part. Same cooling problem still exists even with the new Thermostat/Cold Control.
8. Checked to make sure all air vents in the freezer and fresh food compartment are not blocked.
9. Checked for leaks in the freezer and refrigerators doors using "dollar bill" test. Seems to be somewhat "loose" in just about every place I used the dollar bill but I am not sure if that really indicates the door rubber gaskets are bad.
About a week ago, after a defrost cycle, the temperature will go from 30 degrees to about 5 degrees in about 5 hours before the freezer temperature warms up again. All this time, the compressor keeps on running. This week the freezer only goes down to about 17 degrees before the temperature starts to rise again even though the compressor keeps on running.
Since the freezer is still cooling to a certain degree, it seems the compressor motor is still working. I am at a loss as to why the temperature in the freezer is now having great difficulty getting down to the ideal range of zero degrees Fahrenheit.