The short answer
On a cabinet of this generation defrost is run by a timer and a heater rather than by an algorithm, and when that circuit stops the cabinet ices up and warms up together. Ranked first on this platform: A stalled defrost cycle icing the evaporator. The checks below follow that ranking, and the first of them need no tools and no panel removed.
What you observe
- The freezer still feels cold but the fresh-food compartment is warm — Cold made and not distributed is the signature of blocked airflow rather than of lost refrigeration.
- The unit runs almost continuously and the room around it feels warm — A long-running compressor that never satisfies is the classic signature of a coil that cannot shed heat.
- Frost or condensation appears near one edge of the door — Air leaking past a gasket condenses at the point where it enters, which marks the failure for you.
- NEAR MISS — the cabinet is silent and nothing at all is running — That is a supply, control or start-circuit fault rather than a cooling one, and it is a different page. Check that the outlet is live before anything else.
Causes, most likely first on this platform
- A stalled defrost cycle icing the evaporator — On a cabinet with an automatic defrost, the evaporator is cleared of frost at intervals. It ranks first on this platform because a mechanical defrost circuit fails as a hard stop rather than as a drift, so the cabinet works normally until the day the coil finally blocks — which is why owners describe this fault as sudden when it has actually been building for a fortnight.
- A dust-blanketed condenser coil — The condenser is the coil that sheds the heat pulled out of the cabinet. It ranks second here because a cabinet of this vintage has wear on everything at once, which changes the ranking: the parts that wear are far more likely than the parts that break.
- A door gasket that no longer seals — A gasket that has hardened, torn or taken a permanent set lets a thin stream of room air into the cabinet continuously. Ranked third: worth checking once the causes above have come back clean.
Check in this order, and why
- Look behind the freezer rear panel for a sheet of frost — A solid sheet rather than a light dusting is the confirmation, and it needs no meter. It leads because it tests the top-ranked cause.
- Look at the coil at the back or behind the lower grille — A grey felt across the fins is visible without tools and explains the symptom completely. Tests the second-ranked cause.
- Close the door on a slip of paper and pull it out, at several points around the frame — Where it slides out freely, the gasket is not sealing there — and it takes a minute. Tests the third-ranked cause.
What an owner can safely check
- Empty the cabinet, switch it off and leave both doors open overnight — If it cools properly afterwards and then fails again in a week or two, the defrost system is the cause and it is a service call.
About 30 min
- Vacuum the condenser coil and the compressor compartment — A soft brush and a vacuum crevice tool; work along the fins rather than across them so you do not bend them flat.
Tools: vacuum, soft brushAbout 20 min
- STOP at the first panel that needs a tool, and write up what you found — A technician who arrives knowing which checks came back clean spends the visit fixing rather than repeating them.
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.
When to call a technician
A technician is the answer once the airflow, the door and the condenser are all clean and the cabinet still will not hold temperature, because everything left on the list is measured rather than looked at.
Nearest pages of this class
What this page does not cover
This page is written for the Moffat refrigerator as a class, not for one family or one model line. Where a family- or model-specific page exists for your unit, that page is the more specific answer and the one to read first. Deliberately not here: part numbers, wiring colours and disassembly order, which differ by family.
Lead Appliance Repair Technician · 12 years experience
Experienced technician with 12 years specializing in washing machine and dryer repairs across all major brands.
