The short answer
On the Amana AMA refrigerator family, a cabinet that runs but will not hold temperature points at the air path between the compartments, because the complaint that dominates here is an imbalance rather than a cabinet that is uniformly warm. The brand-generic article puts a stalled defrost cycle at the top of this symptom. It does not lead here, and on these models it is not what the first three checks are looking for.
What you observe on these models
- One compartment is right and the other is not — The freezer holds while the fresh-food side drifts, or the reverse, which narrows the fault sharply.
- The display shows the set temperature while the shelves do not — What the control believes and what the thermometer says have come apart.
- Food at the back freezes while the front spoils — A wide spread across one compartment points at airflow rather than at how cold the machine can get.
- NEAR MISS — the cabinet is silent and nothing is cold — That is a no-power or start-circuit fault and belongs on a different page.
Causes, most likely first on this family
- Air damper between the compartments stuck — Top of the list on these models. The damper meters cold from one compartment into the other. Stuck shut it starves the fresh-food side while the freezer stays hard; stuck open it over-cools one side and under-cools the other.
- Temperature sensor or control reading the cabinet wrong — Second. A sensor drifting warm tells the control the cabinet is colder than it is, so the compressor is commanded off early. Nothing sounds wrong, and nothing is cold enough.
- Evaporator fan motor failed or seized — Third on this platform. Cold air is made in one place and has to be blown to the other. When that fan stops, the freezer side can still make frost while the fresh-food side warms steadily, which reads as a partial failure rather than a total one.
- Door seal leaking, or a door that has been standing ajar — Fourth, and the one to rule in only when the others are clean. A gasket that has taken a set no longer pulls the door tight at the hinge corner. The unit then runs continuously against a slow air leak and frosts in places it should not.
Check in this order, and why
- Compare the two compartments with a thermometer — Start here. One correct and one warm points at the air path between them rather than at the cooling itself.
- Read what the control believes the cabinet is doing — Then this. If the display claims a temperature the cabinet plainly is not at, the sensing is the fault and nothing downstream is.
- Listen at the freezer with the door held open and the switch pressed — Third. The fan should run. Silence with the switch pressed separates the two commonest causes before a panel comes off.
Before you open anything
Safety
Unplug the appliance or switch off its breaker before removing any panel; a capacitor can hold a charge after the power is off.
Models covered by the AMA family
Reference| Model number | Family key |
|---|---|
| AMA27S1E | amana:refrigerator:ama |
| AMA31** | amana:refrigerator:ama |
| AMA31**A | amana:refrigerator:ama |
| AMA31**E | amana:refrigerator:ama |
| AMA31**Q | amana:refrigerator:ama |
| AMA31**QA | amana:refrigerator:ama |
| AMA31BKE | amana:refrigerator:ama |
| AMA31S1E | amana:refrigerator:ama |
| AMA31S3E | amana:refrigerator:ama |
| AMA31S5E | amana:refrigerator:ama |
| AMA35** | amana:refrigerator:ama |
| AMA35**A | amana:refrigerator:ama |
| AMA35**AQ | amana:refrigerator:ama |
| AMA35**Q | amana:refrigerator:ama |
| AMA35BE | amana:refrigerator:ama |
| AMA35BK | amana:refrigerator:ama |
| AMA35RD | amana:refrigerator:ama |
| AMA35S1 | amana:refrigerator:ama |
| AMA35S1Q | amana:refrigerator:ama |
| AMA35S2 | amana:refrigerator:ama |
| AMA35S3 | amana:refrigerator:ama |
| AMA35S4 | amana:refrigerator:ama |
| AMA35WE | amana:refrigerator:ama |
| AMA43BKE | amana:refrigerator:ama |
| AMA43R**E | amana:refrigerator:ama |
When to call a technician
Call once the owner-side checks above are clean, and call straight away if the fault is on the sealed system: refrigerant work is licensed work and the tools for it are not owner tools.
The other faults covered for this family
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