Fridge not cooling but the freezer still works

Why this happens

In most modern fridge-freezers, one set of cooling coils (the evaporator) sits in the freezer, and a fan blows that cold air up into the fridge compartment through a vent. The fridge has no cooling of its own. It depends entirely on that airflow.

So when the fridge is warm and the freezer is fine, the usual causes are: the evaporator fan has failed, the vent between the compartments is blocked by frost, or the automatic defrost system has stopped clearing frost off the coils so air can no longer pass through.

What you can check

1. Open the freezer and listen. Can you hear a fan running? If it is silent when the fridge should be cooling, the fan may have failed.
2. Look at the back wall inside the freezer. Heavy frost or a solid sheet of ice over the vents points to a defrost fault.
3. Check the fridge is not overpacked against the rear vents, because air needs to circulate.
4. Try switching the appliance off at the wall for 24 hours with the doors open to fully defrost it. If it cools normally for a few days and then fails again, the defrost system needs repair.

What a technician will do

• Test the evaporator fan motor and replace it if it has failed.
• Check the defrost heater, defrost thermostat and timer or control board, and replace the faulty part.
• Check the door seals. A poor seal lets in humid Abu Dhabi air that turns to frost and blocks airflow.
• Confirm the compressor and thermostat are working so nothing is missed.

A full manual defrost that fixes it temporarily is a useful clue, not a cure. If the automatic defrost has failed it will frost up again within days. Worth booking the repair rather than defrosting every week.