Frigidaire Refrigerator side by side (cooling poorly)

[morbus]

Hello, i have a Frigidaire Refrigerator model FRS23R4AW5  manufactured in 2001 , The refrigerator (fresh food side) is cooling very poorly the food is barley cold and freezer side seems to be working fine. the icemaker keeps pumping out ice frozen food is hard. Both temp settings have been on the default i tried turning the refrig side down (colder) but it makes no difference, i dont notice any ice buildup on the freezer back wall.

any advice on whats wrong with this thing?

Thanks
Mike

[Repair-man]

You have defrost issues, Mike. In the freezer, there is a heater which must come on automatically every 10 hours of run time to thaw the frost. If the heater doesnot come on, frost will block the  airflow from the freezer to the FF section, hence the rise in temps on the right side. You'll have to determine if this is a heater, defrost terminator or control issue.

There is a Service Guide for this series of refrigerators that I will post a link to below. It shows both kinds of defrost systems, electronic and timer-controlled. You can figure out which you have after reading thru it. Good luck!

Service Guide for 1999-2001 Side by Sides

[morbus]

Thanks for the fast reply Repair-man.

I read your post and was preparing to empty the freezer to remove the back panel and look for frost when my wife tells me, "oh i fixed the fridge this morning" .

She says she slapped the area where there is a little hole you can see the mercury thingy next to the vent in the fresh food section  and cold air started pouring into the fridge? and sure enough its cooling now.

I believe there is a PC Board there, could that be intermittent and cause this problem?
It seems very odd to me but im glad its working for now.

[Repair-man]

Ha-ha...she gave it the old "left fist" test!

Works 50% of he time. Yes, there's an adaptive defrost board back there you should change out soon. There's also an Auto Damper assembly in a little motorized module that separates the freezer air from the fresh food section. It's up at the top left corner in back and opens up to allow cold air into the FF section. If this damper is sticking, no real airflow will enter the FF section.

In the pic below of your refrigerator section, the  auto-damper (115) is shown along with the defrost control (23))