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If your freezer isn’t doing its job properly, then you’re going to want to diagnose and solve the problem as soon as possible. However, you might find it tricky to determine what exactly is affecting your freezer, especially if you don’t have a lot of prior experience with fridge repair.
There are several issues you might run into that can prevent your Bosch freezer from working properly. The most common issue is dirty condenser coils, but it could also be a bad start relay, an issue with the evaporator coils, or one of several other issues.
In this article, we’ll be going over everything that can potentially prevent your Bosch freezer from working properly, and explain what you can do to solve these issues.
Condenser Coils Are Dirty
If your condenser coils are dirty, this can affect the functionality of both your fridge and your freezer. The condenser coils in a fridge are often located either on the back or the underside of the fridge and are usually exposed to the open air. The purpose of the condenser is to change the refrigerant from gas to liquid; when this happens, it removes some heat from the fridge.
Because the condenser coils are often exposed to the air, this means that all sorts of dirt and dust inevitably gets trapped on them. When this happens, the coils can’t do their job properly, and the fridge isn’t able to cool itself nearly as well.
To solve this problem, you just need to locate your condenser coils and give them a good cleaning. In general, it’s a good idea to clean your coils at least once or twice a year (although you should consider doing it more often if you have a lot of shedding pets in your home).
Bad Start Relay
The start relay is a component of your fridge that provides a boost of power to the compressor when it’s time for it to run. If the start relay fails, the compressor may only run for part of the time it needs to, or it may not be able to run at all.
To test the start relay, remove it from the compressor after unplugging the fridge, and test it with a multimeter. If it doesn’t display any continuity, have it replaced. Another sign that your start relay has failed is if it has a burnt smell.
Failed Evaporator Fan Motor
This motor powers the evaporator fan, which takes the cold air that comes off of the evaporator coils and circulates it throughout the fridge/freezer. If this fan fails, it’s likely that the freezer will be unable to keep itself cool.
Thanks to the door switch, the fan won’t turn on if the freezer door is open, but you can use this to test the evaporator fan. Open the freezer door and access the freezer door switch, then manually activate it. If the fan doesn’t turn on even after flipping the switch, it means the fan motor is probably bad and should be replaced.
Read: Why Is Ice Or Frost Build Up In The Freezer?
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Failed Temperature Control Thermostat
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To test the thermostat, find it within your fridge and rotate the dial on it. If it’s working, it should make a “click” at some point. If you don’t hear a click, check with your multimeter to see if it still has continuity, and if not, have it replaced.
Read: Why Refrigerator Is Freezing Food? Troubleshooting Guide
Bad Compressor
The compressor is just the pump that circulates the refrigerant throughout your fridge’s cooling system. Compressors are usually pretty reliable and don’t fail often, but if yours does, your fridge will pretty much stop working entirely.
Since the compressor is one of the least likely components of your fridge to fail, you should only test your compressor after you’ve checked out your fridge’s other parts. You can once again use a multimeter to test the compressor for continuity.
If the compressor does need to be replaced, however, you’ll have to get a licensed technician to do it, as replacing a fridge compressor requires draining the refrigerant from the fridge which is illegal if you don’t have a license to handle refrigerant.
Read: Top 5 Reasons Why Refrigerator Compressor Is Hot
Control Board Is Malfunctioned
It’s rare for any of the control boards in a fridge to fail, but the possibility is always there. Like the compressor, you should test the other components of your fridge first before testing any of the control boards. If one of the control boards is at fault, you should be able to solve the problem by just replacing it.
Read: Why My Refrigerator Keeps Running And It Does Not Turn Off?
FAQs
Now, let’s take a moment to answer some of the questions you might have about using and maintaining your freezer.
What If My Freezer Is Cold, But My Fridge Is Not?
If you encounter this problem, you might be confused as to why one part of your fridge is working while another one isn’t. Fortunately, there are a few explanations for why this might be happening.
The first possible explanation could be that the evaporator coils have frosted over, which can happen if the defrost heater fails. If the coils freeze over, then the airflow over the coils will be restricted, and the coils won’t be able to draw as much heat from the surrounding air.
Check if the evaporator coils are frozen over; if they are, it likely means that there’s an issue with your fridge’s automatic defrost system.
This issue could also be caused by a failed evaporator fan. If the fan breaks, it won’t be able to pass as much air over the evaporator coils, so they won’t be able to extract as much heat from the air. This can affect the freezer, the fridge, or both.
If your fridge has an air damper control, this might also be the cause of the problem. The air damper control is a small door that connects the fridge to the freezer and can be opened to let more cold air into the fridge when necessary. If the air damper control breaks, the fridge might warm up while the freezer remains cold.
Read: Refrigerator Auto Defrost Problems
What Happens If You Overfill a Freezer?
Overfilling your freezer has pretty much the same result as letting your freezer go too long without defrosting it; namely, the flow of cold air into the freezer will be restricted, and the freezer will have to work a lot harder to keep the temperature low.
At best, this will cause your energy bills to skyrocket, and at worst, it can put a lot of extra stress on some of your fridge’s components and cause them to wear out prematurely.
What’s the Right Temperature for a Freezer?
Ideally, you should keep your freezer as close to 0 degrees Fahrenheit as possible. You can let it get a little warmer than this, but any temperatures above 10 degrees Fahrenheit or so should be avoided.
Read: How Long Should A Refrigerator Last?
Is It More Energy Efficient to Have a Mostly Full or Mostly Empty Freezer?
We mentioned just a couple of questions ago that overfilling your freezer is something you should always avoid since it really hurts your freezer’s efficiency and can put a lot of strain on your fridge’s cooling system. But does that mean you should always try and keep your freezer as close to empty as possible?
As it turns out, a freezer that is mostly empty is also not very efficient. When you open the door to a sparsely-packed freezer, a lot of the cold inside escapes because there’s obviously nothing there to retain it. When you open the door to a mostly full freezer, however, all of the frozen food in there helps keep some of the cold.
In addition, when the door is closed and the fridge is mostly full, the freezer doesn’t have to work as hard to keep everything cold because there’s less empty space to regulate. As for how much you should fill up your freezer for optimal efficiency, filling it up to about 75-80% capacity is usually the way to go.
