Freezer Not Freezing? Troubleshooting & How to Fix

Your Freezer Not Freezing Is Probably Not the Disaster You Think It Is

Most of the time when someone tells me their freezer not freezing is an emergency, it turns out to be something they could have fixed in twenty minutes if they’d checked the basics first. I get it. You open the door, everything’s soft, the ice cream is soup, and you start doing math on how much food you’re about to lose. The panic makes sense.

But before you call someone and spend $150 on a diagnostic fee, lets go through this together because nine times out of ten it’s one of a handful of things.

Check the Obvious Stuff First

I’m not trying to insult your intelligence but I have to say this because I’ve driven to peoples houses and found the freezer unplugged. Someone bumped the cord vacuuming behind the fridge. It happens.

So. Is it plugged in. Is the outlet working. Plug something else into that outlet if you’re not sure.

Also check your breaker box. Fridges pull decent amperage and if something tripped, your freezer just sitting there doing nothing.

Done? Good. Moving on.

The Thermostat Setting

This is the second dumbest reason your freezer stops freezing and it happens constantly in houses with kids. Someone reaches in for something, bumps the dial, now your freezer is set to 50 degrees.

My daughter Janelle did this to our main fridge once. Not the freezer but same concept. Bumped the temperature dial reaching for something in the back and didnt notice. A week of groceries went bad before we figured it out.

Your freezer should be at 0 degrees Fahrenheit. Not 10. Not 15. Zero. Some people think 10 is close enough and its not. Check the dial or the digital display. If someone moved it, move it back.

Thats it for that section. Whatever. Just check.

The Door Seal

Run your hand along the edge of the door while its closed. Feel cold air escaping? Thats your problem.

The gasket, that rubber seal around the door, wears out. It gets brittle. It tears. It stops sealing. And when it stops sealing, warm air gets in constantly and your compressor runs nonstop trying to keep up and eventually it just cant.

Heres how to test it. Take a dollar bill, close the door on it, try to pull it out. If it slides out easy, your seal is shot. Do this around the whole door because sometimes its fine on top but the bottom is completely gone.

Replacing a gasket is actually pretty easy. You can order one for your model, usually $30-60, and it just presses into a channel around the door frame. Fifteen minute job.

Condenser Coils — This Is the Big One

Okay. This is where I’m going to spend some time because when someone asks me why is my freezer not freezing, this is the answer probably 60% of the time and almost nobody thinks about it.

Your freezer works by moving heat. That’s it. That’s the whole technology. The refrigerant absorbs heat from inside the freezer, carries it to the condenser coils, and the coils dump that heat outside the unit. If the coils can’t release heat, the whole system backs up and your freezer can’t freeze.

My dad worked in a factory for years and he used to say you cant cool something if you cant move air. He was talking about industrial ventilation but its the same principle and it applies to every refrigeration system ever made.

The condenser coils are either on the back of your fridge-freezer or underneath it, depends on the model. And they get filthy. Dust, pet hair, grease from cooking, whatever’s floating around your kitchen, it all accumulates on those coils and creates a blanket of insulation that prevents them from doing their job. I’ve pulled dust bunnies off coils that were basically solid felt. People go years without cleaning them and then wonder why their ten year old freezer dies when it should have lasted twenty.

I clean mine every three months. Most people should do it at least twice a year. Get a coil brush, they’re like $8 at any hardware store, or use the brush attachment on your vacuum. Pull the fridge out from the wall, unplug it, and clean those coils until you can see metal again.

I remember being in Chicago for a job in February, one of those winters where your eyelashes freeze walking to your car, and the hotel I was staying at had a mini fridge in the room that wasnt keeping anything cold. Ironic. Ten degrees outside and I cant keep my stuff cold inside. I pulled it away from the wall and the coils were so caked with dust it looked intentional, like someone had packed dryer lint onto them. Wiped them down with a damp cloth and twenty minutes later it was actually working. Same unit. Same compressor. Just needed to breathe.

If your freezer not freezing is a mystery to you and youve never cleaned the coils, start there. Seriously. Start there. And if your fridge section is also having issues, check out our guide on refrigerator not cooling.

The Evaporator Fan

Theres a fan inside the freezer compartment that circulates cold air. If it dies, cold air stops moving and you get warm spots or the whole thing stops freezing even though the compressor is running.

Open the freezer door and listen. You should hear a fan. If you dont hear anything and the compressor is definitely running, the evaporator fan motor might be dead.

This is a replacement job. Not hard if youre comfortable with basic repair but I’m not getting deep into it here because it requires pulling panels inside the freezer and dealing with wiring. If you’re handy, look up your model number and there are videos for everything. If you’re not handy, call someone.

Frost Buildup and the Defrost System

Modern freezers have an auto-defrost system. Heating element kicks on periodically, melts any frost buildup, water drains out.

If this system fails, frost builds up on the evaporator coils inside, restricts airflow, and your freezer stops freezing properly.

Signs: excessive frost on the back wall inside the freezer. Ice building up where it shouldnt. Or a puddle of water under the fridge because the defrost drain is clogged and water has nowhere to go.

You can manually defrost by unplugging and leaving the door open for 24 hours. For a complete walkthrough of the defrosting process without damaging your freezer, see our guide on how to defrost a freezer. If the freezer works fine after that and then starts having problems again in a few weeks, your defrost system has a component that’s failed. Timer, thermostat, heating element, one of those.

Again, this is repair territory. I’m not telling you to mess with heating elements if you dont know what youre doing.

Airflow Inside the Freezer

My son Richard, he’s 22 now but when he was in high school he’d come home from basketball practice and just stand there with the freezer door open digging around for ice cream. Not looking with his eyes. Looking with his hands. Moving stuff around. Leaving the door open for two minutes.

Drove me crazy.

But also, he’d shove stuff back in there however it fit. No organization. Bags of frozen vegetables jammed against the back wall. Ice cream container blocking the vent.

Your freezer has vents that circulate air. If you pack it so tight that air cant move, or if something is literally pressed against the vent and blocking it, you get uneven cooling or no cooling.

Dont pack your freezer like youre playing Tetris. Leave some space. Make sure nothing is blocking the vents between the freezer and fridge compartment if its a combo unit.

When to Actually Call Someone

Look, I fix houses for a living and I still call a professional for certain things. Your freezer has a compressor. If the compressor is failing, thats a sealed system repair that requires specific equipment and refrigerant handling. I’m not getting into that and neither should you.

Signs the compressor is going:

• Clicking sounds but freezer doesnt start
• Compressor running constantly but still not cold
• Compressor not running at all and you’ve ruled out electrical issues

Compressor replacement on a freezer usually costs more than the freezer is worth unless its a high-end unit. Most of the time you’re looking at buying new.

But before you get there, check everything else first.

The Order of Operations

If you want to know why is my freezer not freezing, check in this order:

1. Power. Plugged in, outlet working, breaker not tripped.
2. Thermostat setting. Should be 0°F.
3. Door seal. Dollar bill test.
4. Condenser coils. Clean them.
5. Listen for the evaporator fan.
6. Check for frost buildup.
7. Make sure you havent overpacked the thing.

Thats it. Thats the list. You can get through that in an hour and you’ll either fix it yourself or at least know what to tell the repair person when they show up.

Mr. Davis, my woodshop teacher back in Atlanta, used to talk about understanding how things work mechanically before you try to fix them. You cant troubleshoot something you dont understand. He wasn’t talking about freezers but the principle is the same. Once you understand that a freezer is just a heat pump that needs to move air and release heat, most of the troubleshooting makes sense. Anyway.

Use Homevisory to Stay Ahead of This Stuff

This is exactly why we built Homevisory. Cleaning condenser coils twice a year takes ten minutes and prevents a $500 appliance from dying early. But nobody remembers to do it until something breaks.

The Homevisory home task manager reminds you before problems happen. Coil cleaning, seal inspection, all the maintenance stuff that’s easy to forget. You can sign up free and build a maintenance schedule for your whole house, not just your freezer but everything.

Thats what we do here at Homevisory. Help you take care of your home before small things become expensive things.