The short answer
The short answer for a Black+Decker refrigerator: the cold is being made and is not reaching the fresh-food compartment, which is an airflow fault rather than a cooling fault. The checks are all inside the cabinet and cost nothing; a stalled fan or a frosted evaporator behind them is where an owner hands it over.
What you actually see
- The cabinet is cool but not cold — Drinks are drinkable, butter is soft, and the thermometer sits above 40 °F (4 °C) no matter where the dial is set.
- The compressor runs constantly — A hum that never stops means the machine is asking for cold it cannot make, not that it is working hard.
- The freezer section stays cold, the fresh-food section does not — A split like this points at air movement between the two compartments rather than at cooling capacity.
Causes, ranked for this refrigerator
- Evaporator fan not moving air — Most likely — on a two-compartment unit the fan is what carries cold from where it is made to where you keep food, so a stalled fan reads exactly like lost cooling. If this is the answer, the rest of the list stops mattering entirely.
- Defrost system not clearing the evaporator — Common — a unit that cools well for a week and then warms over a day or two is describing a defrost failure rather than a compressor failure. Where this checks out clean, treat the next entry as the working theory rather than a possibility.
- Door seal not closing the cabinet — Regular — a leaking seal loads the machine with room air continuously, and a compact cabinet has no reserve capacity to absorb that load. A clean result here does not just remove one part; it removes everything that depends on it.
What to check, in order
- First — the evaporator fan — Listen at the fresh-food vents. Silence with the compressor running is a fan problem, not a compressor problem.
- Second — the evaporator for frost — Look at the inner rear panel of the freezer section. A smooth white sheet rather than light frost means the defrost cycle is not clearing it.
Checks an owner can do safely
- Step 1. Clean the condenser coil — Unplug the unit. Brush and vacuum the coil at the back or under the base until you can see the fins. Do not bend them; a soft brush and a nozzle are enough.
Tools: vacuum with brush nozzle, soft brushAbout 25 min
- Step 2. Test the door seal with a sheet of paper — Shut the door on a sheet of paper and pull it out. Repeat every hand-width around the frame. Free-sliding paper marks the spot where room air is getting in.
Tools: sheet of paperAbout 10 min
- Step 3. Confirm the internal fan runs — Hold the door switch in with a finger and listen. The fan should be audible within a second or two. Silence with the compressor running points at the fan.
Tools: noneAbout 5 min
Before you open anything
Safety
Isolate the appliance before any panel moves, and remember a capacitor can hold a charge after the power is off. The refrigerant circuit is welded closed for a reason — no tubing is cut, bent or opened, and no refrigerant is added or removed by anyone without a licence.
When this becomes a service call
The line is not about confidence, it is about what the next step needs. Call once the fault is inside the sealed circuit, on the compressor terminals, or on a board that has to be measured live. None of those three can be judged by looking.
Sources
General guidance- The Control of Hazardous Energy (Lockout/Tagout) — OSHA 1910.147 and manufacturer service manuals, fetched
- Refrigeration and Food Safety — USDA Food Safety and Inspection Service, fetched
- Refrigeration and Food Safety — USDA Food Safety and Inspection Service, fetched
Nearest pages
What this page does not cover
What follows is family-agnostic. It names the fault, ranks the causes and gives the order to check them, and it deliberately does not name a board revision, a part number or a model-specific tolerance. Those belong on the family and model pages beneath this one, which are linked under Related pages.
Related pages
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