Need quick advice on fridge...I noticed the ice cream wasn't very frozen the other night

[likesmountains 52]

but sort of forgot about it. Last eve I realized what even with the temp turned to the lowest, stuff was not really frozen hard. It's about 10 years old and with the holiday weekend coming up I thought I'd better just jump on getting a new one before the weekend. I put a few blocks of ice in the fridge and freezer, still cool inside. I just pulled it away from the wall to clean it up and when I bumped the fan with the vacuum...the fan started going. Could that be all that was wrong? Could the fan have been blocked by something I dislodged with the vacuum? If you can help...please do! Thanks

[Wash. state Desk Jet]

1. Yes and you can unplug

yer refer and take the vac attachment and clean all the dust and dirt away from the fan motar and blade. Do you see build up on those blades ?

[likesmountains 52]

2. there was a lot..I probably had not vacuumed the fridge in a year..the fan's been running for about

3 hours now and things are definitely cooler inside the fridge. I guess I learned a lesson today! Is that dust build up what causes the fan to stop circulating? I canceled my delivery for tomorrow so hopefully it's going to keep working. Thanks for answering.

[Wash. state Desk Jet]

3. As you know

The fan kicks on and off. When there is a build up of of dust dirt and so fourth around the fan blade and shaft ,there is also added weight which off sets the fan. The fan blades must be balanced. And the shaft must be free of collective dirt and dust and such. That will also cause the fan to over heat. Basically the fan works or it don't. keep an eye on that for the next two days. Also make sure the blower outlet in yer freezer isn't blocked by products you keep in yer freezer !

As the saying goes, sometimes an accident isn't really an accident. As it so happened ,you got yer fan to work !Take a look behind yer fridge from time to time. It seems even though they put those refers on wheels these days, no one seems to think to look or sweep behind the refer ! Isn't that odd ! Don't get me wrong now , I too forget that !

[likesmountains 52]

4. I won't forget again. Last night I put a small glass of water in the freezer to see what

was going on...and it was frozen solid this morning. All is well with the fridge and I didn't have to spend $700 for a new one. thanks again.

[Wash. state Desk Jet]

5. Glad to be of help

And you are welcome !

[yy4me]

6. I had strange refrig problems myself. I do take the cardboard

lower back panel off from time to time to Vac. Never seems to be much there.
Saturday, when I opened the freezer, there were frozen droplets of water just hanging from the top, shelves and food.

Checked the back again, no dust.

Opened the base in the front and with a flashlight, I took a peak..tons of dust(and dog fur) all over the coils on the inside top, all over the coils. Could not be a more difficult area to try and clean. Unplugged the refrig and got out a long radiator brush and the Vac. Took ages to loosen the dust and Vac it out. The area is so tight that I really could not get the brush back far enough to thoroughly clean the tops of the coils. The bottom was not as hard. I think it needed a very long 1/4 inch brush to reach in and between the top coils and the base of the refrig box. Who has something like that around?

Hotpoint, in its wisdom, did not anticipate that we would have no way to reach some of these areas.

Although the frozen droplets are still in the freezer, it seems to be running well and no more has shown up. I cannot tell if it is defrosting properly as that seems to happen at night.

I'll keep and eye on it. I don't want to have to buy a new refrig right now, just did the water heater.

[marybourg]

7. Yes! My new fridge says no need to vacuum coils UNLESS

pets in house.