Our upstairs tenants (two family house, we live downstairs) thought that
their refrigerator was too warm, so they set both the freezer and
refrigerator to maximum cold. They now say that both areas are much too
warm. This is a 12 year old basic frostfree top-freezer Hotpoint
refrigerator.

I told them to set both freezer and refrigerator controls to "normal" and to
wait 24 hours. However, if this does not solve the problem, is there
anything I should try before just replacing the refrigerator? At 12 years
old (although ours is 24 years old) I don't think it's worth a professional
repair; nor do I want to spend a long time on a fix as our tenants deserve
working appliances. On the other hand, I don't want to throw things out if
there could be a reasonable fix especially because delivery is an issue (to
get to the second floor, the refrigerator will have to be turned horizontal
and lifted over the banister on the second floor landing).
--
Peace,
BobJ