--- title: "Refrigerator warm and freezer cold" description: "Kenmore refrigerator warm and freezer cold — a specific and useful symptom, because it says the cold is being made and is not getting where it needs to go." url: "https://kenmoremiami.support/symptoms/refrigerator-warm-freezer-cold/" date_modified: "2026-09-01" Appliance type: "Freezers, Refrigerators" --- # Kenmore refrigerator warm and freezer cold ### Listen before you look Open the freezer and hold the door switch in. On almost all of these there should be a fan audible within a few seconds. Silence, with a compressor that is clearly running, is most of the diagnosis — either the fan has stopped or it is jammed in ice. ### What it usually means, by the company that built it Kenmore manufactures nothing, so the same behavior points at different things depending on who made the appliance. The three digits before the period on the rating plate are what tells them apart. - **106 Whirlpool** — The defrost heater and its thermostat. Ice builds on the evaporator until air can no longer pass through it, and the fresh food side is the half that starves first. - **795 LG** — The fresh food fan, which LG reports as Er rF, or the defrost heater circuit, which it reports as F dH. - **253 Frigidaire** — The damper that lets cold across from the freezer side, or the same defrost story. Frigidaire says less about it on the display. ### Making cold and delivering it are two jobs Nearly every cabinet in this catalog makes its cold in one place and blows it into both compartments. That is what makes this symptom so informative: whichever half is still cold sits nearest the source, and the warm half is at the end of a path something has interrupted. Interruptions are inexpensive. Cold sources are not. ### Why it keeps coming back after a manual defrost Because defrosting it by hand fixes the ice and not the reason for the ice. If the heater, the thermostat or the control that runs them has failed, the evaporator will freeze over again on the same schedule. That is not a wasted experiment though — a cabinet that works for a week after a manual defrost has told us exactly what to test. The evaporator is iced over Air cannot pass through a block of ice. This is the commonest cause of this exact symptom and it comes back until the defrost circuit is repaired. The circulating fan has stopped Either failed, or blocked by ice that the defrost problem produced. A damper or air diffuser The flap that lets cold across into the fresh food side. Mechanical, and it sticks. A door seal that stopped sealing The reason the defrost circuit was overworked in the first place. Repairing one and leaving the other gives the repair a return date. Is a fan audible in the freezer Door switch held in. Silence is a finding. Is there frost on the back wall of the freezer A thin even coating is normal. A solid slab is not. Does it improve after a manual defrost Unplug it for a day with the doors open and towels down. If it works afterward and fails again in a week, that is the defrost circuit and you have just proved it. Does the door close on its own from an inch open If it does not, the seal or the level is part of the story. One half working and the other not What it usually means The cold is being made — it is not arriving Rules out the sealed system almost immediately Usually defrost, a fan, or a damper Listen before you look Open the freezer and hold the door switch in. On almost all of these there should be a fan audible within a few seconds. Silence, with a compressor that is clearly running, is most of the diagnosis — either the fan has stopped or it is jammed in ice. What it usually means, by the company that built it Kenmore manufactures nothing, so the same behavior points at different things depending on who made the appliance. The three digits before the period on the rating plate are what tells them apart. 106 Whirlpool — The defrost heater and its thermostat. Ice builds on the evaporator until air can no longer pass through it, and the fresh food side is the half that starves first. 795 LG — The fresh food fan, which LG reports as Er rF, or the defrost heater circuit, which it reports as F dH. 253 Frigidaire — The damper that lets cold across from the freezer side, or the same defrost story. Frigidaire says less about it on the display. Making cold and delivering it are two jobs Nearly every cabinet in this catalog makes its cold in one place and blows it into both compartments. That is what makes this symptom so informative: whichever half is still cold sits nearest the source, and the warm half is at the end of a path something has interrupted. Interruptions are inexpensive. Cold sources are not. Why it keeps coming back after a manual defrost Because defrosting it by hand fixes the ice and not the reason for the ice. If the heater, the thermostat or the control that runs them has failed, the evaporator will freeze over again on the same schedule. That is not a wasted experiment though — a cabinet that works for a week after a manual defrost has told us exactly what to test. ### Can I just leave it defrosting overnight? You can, and it is a useful test. Doors open, appliance unplugged, towels down. Note how long it takes to fail again — that number is genuinely diagnostic. ### The freezer is now getting too cold. That often goes with this. When the fresh food side is not getting its share, some controls run the cold source harder, and the freezer ends up over-cooled. --- **[Read full article: Refrigerator warm and freezer cold](https://kenmoremiami.support/symptoms/refrigerator-warm-freezer-cold/)**