The guys at my parts house call them "generally expensive".
Your descrip is 100% agreement with my understanding of refrigerators.

--

Christopher A. Young
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"Jeff Wisnia" wrote in message
news Stormin Mormon wrote:
Turn both control knobs to the middle of the range. You can create this
situation by cranking both knobs to max. Trust me on this, I've seen it
several times.



Yes, and I think the reason, at least on my Generous Electric top
freezer fridge, is that the controls on it work this way:

The "Refrigerator" temperature control knob adjusts a real thermostat
sensing the temperature in the refrigerator. This thermostat turns the
refrigeration compressor and air moving fan on and off, keeping the
refrigerator temperature at its set point.

The "Freezer" temperature control knob just moves a damper in the air
path coming down from the freezer. When you adjust it for a "colder
freezer" it just throttles back the cold air circulated through the
refrigerator.

Taken to the limits of absurdity, if that damper could completely block
off the air flow, the refrigerator would never get any cool air, so the
compressor would run continuously and the freezer would get as cold as
the erefrigeration system could make it be.

That blocking off is what happens when the air passage gets iced up,
producing the results the OP described. It can also occur as you say if
both controls are set to maximum cold and the "freezer" control damper
is a little too agressive about throttling the air flow.

Jeff

--
Jeffry Wisnia

(W1BSV + Brass Rat '57 EE)

"Truth exists; only falsehood has to be invented."