Repair guide · Concord NH
Why this happens
A fridge that runs but does not cool is one of the most stressful household faults, because the clock starts on food loss immediately. The most common causes are airflow and fan faults, a failed thermostat or sensor, a worn door seal letting warm air in, a blocked defrost system icing the evaporator, and, less often, a sealed-system or compressor fault. The order matters: airflow and seal faults are cheap and common, sealed-system faults are expensive and rarer, and a good diagnosis checks the cheap causes first.
Guides like this one are written to help you describe the fault accurately when you call, not to turn a household repair into a do-it-yourself project. The most useful thing you can tell a technician is the exact symptom, when it started, and what changed just before it — a new noise, a leak, a smell, or a cycle that stopped halfway. That history often narrows the fault to one circuit before the technician even opens a panel.
