Fisher & Paykel not cold enough.

[Didvid.s]

One day I went to get to get the milk out of the fridge and our fresh food section was at room temperature, The freezer still seemed okay. I tried adjusting the temperature controls, but to no avail.

I opened up the back panel on the freezer and there was a significant amount of frost build up to the left of the refrigeration coils. I blasted that away with a hairdryer, cleaned the fridge, left it off for a while, to ensure any remaining frost melted, then switched it back on.

Since I did this, the fresh food section has cooled, but only to 10°c. Should be between 1-4°c. Adjusting the temperature controls does nothing.

Any help?

Model E521T

Thanks

[JWWebster]

Maybe this will help I don't know:

Active smart diagnostics

[Didvid.s]

Maybe this will help I don't know:

Active smart diagnostics

Thanks for that. I'll have a look.

The manual repeatedly refers to PC and FC. I assume these refer to the freezer and fresh food compartments. Do you happen to know which one refers to which?

[krazytech]

produce compartment

freezer compartment

[Didvid.s]

So the fridge is frosting up around the coils in the Freezer compartment, I guess this is a fault somewhere in the defrost cycle, which I will look into.

Meanwhile, even when I do defrost the fridge, I still get no cold airflow into the produce compartment. I can't seem to work out why this is the case. Any tips on how I can get the air flowing into the produce compartment again?

From what I can tell, the freezer fan is still active.

The in-built self-diagnosis system doesn't produce any error codes.

Also, each time I pull the fridge out its cavity, I find that the catchment around the compressor is filled up with water, is this normal?

[Didvid.s]

It turns out I may not have been defrosting the fridge thoroughly enough.

Having disassembled the fridge even further, I have discovered the fan between the fridge and the freezer was entirely frozen over.

stupid me.

[Didvid.s]

Hmmm...

have completely defrosted the fridge and am still getting no cold airflow into the produce compartment.

[JWWebster]

That must be a faulty thermistor

[Didvid.s]

A couple of days after defrosting the fridge properly the produce compartment seems to have returned to normal. How about that.

[andersenappliance]

I know this is almost the anniversary for this post, but I'm adding a quick note anyway.

Frost is fluffy and contains a LOT of air.  Wool is fluffy and contains a lot of air.  Fiberglass insulation is fluffy and contains a lot of air.

Air is insulation.  Anything that is fluffy and contains air will insulate.  Just like your wife's last perm.

A good block of frost up in the compartment venting will cut off all or almost all air circulation.  This frost is not always obvious.

If you have a bad problem, unload the unit, unplug it, and leave it w/ open doors for 24 hrs.

Warm air, humid air, and little kids will make your frost problem worse.

I've collected a lot of service calls by explaining this.  And lost more than a few by explaining this over the phone.