Fridge not working in old Whirlpool fridge-freezer..freezer fine?

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Old (1992) Whirlpool ARG 917 built-in. F/F has worked perfectly all those years.

However, today noticed fridge was warm i.e. not cooled. I altered thermostat setting to 5/max.cooling (only the one temperature adjuster inside fridge compartment)..left it a while..made no odds. Fridge light is on and with that single control knob in the fridge you can switch whole machine on/off if you down below "1".

Freezer is fine.

Think this is a cooling panel type fridge ( but panel not visible being behind back wall of fridge..i.e. no fans/ducts blowing cold air from freezer (not a frost-free freezer..too old.)

Any ideas? Thanks for reading
 
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Has it got one or two compressors, cheap ones have one compressor and the freezer feeds through to keep the fridge cold (could have a blockage ) if it has 2 compressors that means the fridge has its own and that may have failed, could also be a thermostat.
 
thanks delmel..will try and look see but not easy as it's built-in. Maybe I can find the spec. It would be good to know if it was single or twin compressor. I have the original user guide but nothing technical in it I'm afraid.
The freezer compartment, about same size as fridge part in volume, is sitting at minus 17.5C so that seems ok. How does the "coolness" feed back up to the fridge if it's a one compressor model?..pumped coolant to a "panel" which gets cold? As I said I know very little but I think mine has a cooling panel behind the back wall of the fridge that does the job but you cannot see it. I have another old "beer fridge/freezer" in the garage where I can actually see the cooling panel/pipes in the fridge
 
  • Energy consumption (kWh/24 hours): 1.7
  • Freestanding or Built in: Built In/Under
  • Freezer Position: At the Bottom
  • Freezer Stars: 4 stars
  • Frost Free System: no
  • Nofrost System: No
  • Number of Compressors: 1
  • Number of Doors: 2
  • Number of Temperature Areas: 2
  • Number of compressors (only freezers with compr.): 1
  • Number of doors: 2
  • Separate Temperature Control of Fridge and Freezer: Yes
  • Shelves Material: Glass
  • Size Ratio: Fridge Bigger
  • Cooling system: Compressor
  • Type: Fridge Freezer Combination
  • Width in cm: 56
  • Width (cms): 56
  • Year of Introduction: 1990
 
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There is usually a duct running from freezer compartment to fridge, there is likely to be a small fan unit that draws the air through to cool the fridge. Two of the poss problems are that the duct is blocked maybe by ice (only way is to defrost the freezer to see if it clears and then cools the fridge) you can usually hear and feel if a fan is running, if not it could also be a failed fan unit that is not drawing the cool air through. If you empty the fridge you should probably see a grill of some kind where the air should come through, the fan unit is possibly behind the grill. I do not know the model but the principals are generally the same.
 
thanks for your response delmel.
This is an 18 year old unit and there are no ducts or fans in it. The freezer is fed by the (single) compressor first apparently and then, I assume, the coolant travels upwards to the fridge part above in a tube/pipe(s) to a cooling panel behind the back wall. The cooling panel is not visible in this fridge..no way to get to it from the fridge as far as I can see.

The strange thing is that having bought a analogue thermometer it shows the freezer is about -30C. It's off the scale of the analogue one i.e. its below -20C which is the lowest temperature shown on the dial. I get the -30C reading from my digital thermometer though its not meant for freezers! (when I take it out of the freezer the LCD screen shows nothing..it comes back as it warms up. But as its a max/min I can check the historical minimum when all's visible again and that's -30.

So the freezer is way too cold and the fridge is too warm..presumably the coolant is not flowing properly..but what could be stopping it going up to the fridge's cooling panel? The freezer is working well (too well!!.. on the normal stat setting that the unit's been on for 18 years.) I'm a bit baffled..I think the single thermostat controls the temperature of both parts of the unit (fridge and freezer) simultaneously..i.e. you turn dial to maximum 5 and the fridge and the freezer both get colder together.

I suppose the lack of delivery of coolant to the (hidden) fridge cooling panel could be a blockage of sorts, an air-lock???, or a thermostat related issue. I am no expert (quite clearly) but it's odd. If it was a faulty thermostat wouldn't either both boxes (fridge and freezer cabinets) be either too cold or too hot..or not working at all.

I'm just wondering if the very low freezer reading is because the compressor is running for too long or even24/7..but then if so why wouldn't the fridge also be very cold??

Baffled like I said...value your input..cheers.
 

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