The short answer
A CR refrigerator that runs but will not cool is almost always an airflow story rather than a refrigerant one. The evaporator ices over, the fan can no longer push cold air into the fresh-food side, and the compressor runs on without ever reaching the set point. That is the first thing to rule out on this family.
The observable tells
- Food in the fresh-food side spoils early while ice cream stays firm — The same split as the first item, described from the kitchen rather than from the machine.
- A thick sheet of frost on the back wall of the freezer — Not the light dusting a working cabinet carries: a continuous sheet means the defrost cycle has stopped clearing it.
- The cabinet is warm and completely silent — No compressor, no fans. That is power, a start component or a control, and it moves this from a cooling diagnosis to an electrical one.
- Condensation on the outside of the doors — Seals and humidity, and it usually arrives alongside a cabinet that is running much longer than it used to.
- The compressor runs and never stops — The thermostat is never satisfied, so the machine is working flat out and still losing. That is the picture a frost blockage produces.
Ranked causes for these models
- Start relay or overload protector failed — This is the silent-cabinet branch: the compressor cannot start, so nothing runs, and the cabinet warms evenly from wherever it was.
- Sealed-system fault or low charge — Last on purpose. It is the least common cause, it cannot be confirmed without gauges, and every cheaper cause above it produces the same complaint.
- Defrost cycle stalled, evaporator iced over — First on this family: the ice blocks airflow before it ever stops the cooling itself, so the cabinet keeps running and keeps failing to deliver.
- Evaporator fan stopped or obstructed — Second and closely related: no fan means no delivery, and the symptom is identical to the ice sheet from the kitchen side.
Working the fault in order
- Feel whether the machine compartment is hot and whether the condenser fan is turning — Hot with no fan is a specific and actionable finding rather than a general impression.
- Check every door seal with a sheet of paper — Fast, free, and it finds the fault that makes a healthy machine behave like a sick one.
- Force a manual defrost by emptying the cabinet and leaving it off for a day — Both a test and a temporary repair: if cooling returns afterwards, the defrost circuit is implicated and the diagnosis narrows sharply.
- Put a thermometer in each compartment and read them after a few hours — This costs nothing and it turns an anxious guess into a measurement, which is also what a technician will ask for first.
Safety first
Safety
Cut the power first. Once the panel is off you are working beside the evaporator, where a sharp fin and a thin aluminium tube are inches apart and neither forgives a slipped tool.
Models in the CR family
Reference| Model number | Family key |
|---|---|
| CR01801 | bougerv:refrigerator:cr |
| CR03021 | bougerv:refrigerator:cr |
| CR03512 | bougerv:refrigerator:cr |
| CR03513 | bougerv:refrigerator:cr |
| CR04001 | bougerv:refrigerator:cr |
| CR04512 | bougerv:refrigerator:cr |
| CR04513 | bougerv:refrigerator:cr |
| CR05201 | bougerv:refrigerator:cr |
| CR05512 | bougerv:refrigerator:cr |
| CR05513 | bougerv:refrigerator:cr |
| CR06501 | bougerv:refrigerator:cr |
| CR07801 | bougerv:refrigerator:cr |
| CR12 | bougerv:refrigerator:cr |
| CR22 | bougerv:refrigerator:cr |
| CR28 | bougerv:refrigerator:cr |
| CR35 | bougerv:refrigerator:cr |
When to stop and book a visit
The service call starts where the wiring does. Checking a fan by ear or a door seal by hand is fine; tracing a circuit behind the liner on a cabinet full of food is not, and a technician does it in one visit.
Nearest pages of this class
Lead Appliance Repair Technician · 12 years experience
Experienced technician with 12 years specializing in washing machine and dryer repairs across all major brands.
