On 4 Jun 2006 10:06:16 -0700, "
wrote:

My refrigerator is running..........however, everything in the freezer
has defrosted, and the refrigerator part stuff is just
semi-cold.......I turned the controls all the way to the coldest. I do

If the problem is the thermostat, this might work. But if it is not
the thermostat, it's already not cold enough to satisfy the thermostat
so this probably won't have any effect.

not understand what could have caused this, and what should I do? Is
it on its way out?

Everyone on earth is dying, but some of us have 99 years left in us.

It's a Whirlpool, and it does appear to be quite
old. It was here when I bought the house 3 yrs ago, I have no idea how
old it is.

My Kenmore, probably by Whirlpool, is 27 years old and working fine**.

A few years ago I had just the symptoms you had, plus no air blowing
out the front (it was a model where the air was supposed to blow out
the front. I don't think all models are like that.) So I rolled it
away from the wall, took off the rear cover, and with a flashlight saw
that the little fan wasn't spinning. Looking more closely, I saw that
there was a mouse stuck in the fan. Didn't want to touch the thing,
so I poked at the fan with a stick a few times. The mouse fell out
and the fan began to spin (and we all joined hands and threw the
fellow in. Oops). Then everything was fine.

A couple months later, same symptoms. Some people when they have the
same problem more than once seem to think it will happen again and
again forever, but not so. This time a piece of foam rubber had
fallen into the fan. Picked it out and everything was fine.

I let 2 or 3 months go by the first time, and 2 weeks go by the second
time, knowing or believing I might permanently ruin the fridge, when
the most it needed was a new fan, because I was lethargic and had
other things to do. But it's been three years or more and so far, it
doesn't seem to have hurt it, but I would recommend fixing it as soon
as possible. In my case, it actually only took 10 minutes and no
parts.


**It doesn't have any broken plastic or other broken parts. Of course
I'm careful not to break anything, especially since I know plastic
gets somewhat more brittle with age, as the solvents inside evaporate.

The door gasket didn't have any cracks until 5 or 10 years ago, but it
has quite a few now. None go all the way through, certainly not
through both sides of a box shaped gasket, and I don't think they have
effect on keeping the cold in, especially since it is all compressed
when the door is shut. If it gets bad, I'll replace the gasket, even
though they are expensive for just one part. 50 dollars? plus I have
to cut the pieces to the right length? 10 minutes?

thanks in advance for any advice!
Melissa