On Dec 11, 7:40*am, "William R. Walsh" wrote:

I bought a secondhand fridge (a Franklin Chef FCD401BL) a few months
ago for use in a house where I am only storing stuff. This fridge uses
R134A refrigerant. ... It was around 44 in the room where the fridge is.
I dropped into check on things and that's when I noticed the fridge
(in particular the freezer compartment) was not working. I have
thermometers in both compartments, and both were at around 35 degrees.

I turned the heat up in the house and the fridge began to work
normally.

This is normal operation for many refrigerators. The freezer
temperature
doesn't operate a separate thermostat, so the 35 degree setting of
the refrigerator thermostat determines the temperature of the
refrigerator compartment accurately, and the freezer compartment
loosely.

Only if the refrigerator has TWO thermostats and a complex controller
with valves to separate the cooler coils, will the freezer work under
cold-ambient conditions.