WRT519SZDW01 Freezer not cold

[Dogmania]

Hi all,

Fridge with top freezer, less than 4 years old. My freezer is not cold; generally around 40F. I did not check temp in fridge, but cold enough to maintain food, barely. Removed evaporator cover. Fins were fairly frost-free, but there was a solid block of ice around the entry point of the tubes to the evaporator coils.

Manually defrosted; tested defrost heater with multimeter; variable readings between 40 and 80 ohms, but it was hard to hold the leads steady that deep in the freezer. Put it all back together; no improvement in freezer performance at all.

I did not test evaporator fan, but I can feel air flow from the evaporator cover ports (I could before I melted the ice as well). The evaporator fan is pretty well protected from the ice block by the styrofoam air duct.

I will follow up with photos if I can. Right now I can only "insert image from URL" and I have no place to host images.

Any thoughts??

Thanks

[Vance R]

3 hours ago, Dogmania said:

Fins were fairly frost-free, but there was a solid block of ice around the entry point of the tubes to the evaporator coils.

If frost has returned to only this area and not covered the whole evaporator this would indicate sealed system issue. Make sure the condenser is clean and condenser fan is running.

[Dogmania]

Thanks. Checked condenser, had a light coating of fuzz on it. Cleaned it anyway. Condenser fan was running. Freezer a few degrees colder than it was before, but still only around 33F. Will check evaporator in a few days.

Just re-read my post; when I said the evaporator fins were fairly frost-free, that was an understatement. There was no frost on the fins; just the ice block.

[Dogmania]

Just after removing evaporator cover:

https://photos.app.goo.gl/i8ZnoP7tM51GpBkp8

After just melting enough ice to remove styrofoam duct assembly:

https://photos.app.goo.gl/DncfTPCESj2LbhTk7

 

[Vance R]

Yup, some kind of sealed system issue.

[Dogmania]

Probably one last update. Freezer at 33F, fridge at 47F. Here's a photo after 6 days of operation after the previous photos where the ice was completely melted off.

https://photos.app.goo.gl/QR2kmJB8ripJzz1y8

Seems pretty certain of a sealed system issue. Thanks again for your insight.