- “The refrigerator compartment beside it is the most useful measurement you have”
- “FF, FS and dS are published and each names a different part”
- “A drawer that will not close on a packet is a real and common cause”
Symptom
LG freezer not freezing
On this make the freezer is a compartment rather than a separate machine, which changes the diagnosis in a useful way: the compartment beside it is a live instrument. A freezer that is failing while the fresh food side holds is telling you something quite different from both of them drifting together, and LG's own codes carry that distinction in their prefix.
- From $95 diagnostic, credited to the repair
- 59 cities and neighborhoods covered
- OEM parts available on order
- In writing the price, before anything is opened
Four ordinary causes
What this usually turns out to be
Cheapest and commonest first, which is also the order we check them in. They sit hundreds of dollars apart, and only the unit settles which one is yours.
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The freezer fan
FF on the display. LG's own explanation is a blade the machine has detected as blocked, and in this climate the blockage is usually ice.
Evaporator fan repair from $165 -
The defrost circuit
A heater or sensor that has stopped clearing the coil. dS is the sensor half; the heater is measured.
Defrost system repair from $175 -
The freezer sensor
FS. The compartment is being cooled to a number the machine cannot read properly.
Temperature sensor replacement from $155 -
A drawer or door not sealing
Free to find, cheap to fix, and responsible for more warm freezers than any part on this list.
Door seal replacement from $145
In five minutes
Before you call anybody
None of it needs tools, and all of it makes the visit shorter.
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01
Put a thermometer in it for an hour
0°F is the target. Knowing whether it is at 10°F or at 25°F changes what this is.
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02
Check the drawer or door closes on nothing
Take everything out of the front rank and close it again. Watch the gap all the way round.
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03
Look through the vents for frost
A white wall behind the back panel is the finding that decides the visit.
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04
Compare with the fresh food side
Both drifting is different from one drifting. Write both numbers down.
How it shows up
What people describe when they call
A shortcut
Narrow it down before anybody arrives
A description of the behaviour leaves a few possible causes. A code names the subsystem before anybody opens anything, which is why it is worth photographing before it clears.
If there is no code at all
The data plate is inside the cabinet, upper left wall or behind the grille. All models
In more detail
About LG freezer not freezing
Two things to check before anyone is called
Close the drawer properly. A French door freezer drawer that is riding on a box, or a side-by-side door held by a bag of peas, is the single commonest cause of a warm freezer and it produces no code at all. Then look at the back wall for frost across the vents: heavy frost means the cold is being made and not moved, which is the defrost circuit, not the fan and not the gas.
What it usually means, by the kind of LG appliance
LG sells one appliance in several forms — five shapes of washer, three kinds of dryer, four fuels of range — and the same behavior points at different things on each of them. A built-in side-by-side and an integrated column are not the same service situation, and a dual-fuel range and an induction range fail in different halves.
- French door — The freezer is a drawer, and a drawer held a few millimeters open by a box will lose the compartment overnight without any code at all.
- Side-by-side — A tall narrow compartment with a long air path. Frost at the top of the freezer side and soft food at the bottom is normal for this layout when the fan has stopped.
- Top freezer — One evaporator serving both compartments through a single fan, so a freezer that is failing alone is unusual here and points at air rather than cooling.
A compartment, not a machine
LG does not sell a standalone upright freezer in this country. Its freezers are the bottom drawer of a French door, the lower half of a bottom freezer cabinet, the tall left side of a side-by-side or the top of a top freezer — and every one of them is controlled by the refrigerator's board, cooled by the refrigerator's system and reported by the refrigerator's codes. That is why this page and the refrigerator page share so much, and why the first diagnostic step is to read the other compartment.
Ice is the thing to look for
Nearly every freezer that has stopped freezing properly on this make has ice somewhere it should not be: on the evaporator, around the fan blade, or across the vents. That is a defrost problem, and the reason it takes weeks to notice is that a freezer is very good at hiding one. It holds, and holds, and then over a few days it does not.
This article is based on:
- Official manufacturer documentation
- Internal repair procedures
- Technician repair history
- Company quality standards
Before you book
Questions about LG freezer not freezing
The ice cream is soft but everything else is hard.
Ice cream is the most sensitive thing in a freezer and it softens several degrees before anything else does, so this is worth taking as an early warning rather than a curiosity. Put a thermometer in. A compartment sitting at 10°F will keep meat frozen indefinitely and will never keep ice cream properly.
How long can I leave it before it becomes a problem?
If it is holding below about 10°F, the food is safe and you have time to book sensibly. Above about 20°F you are on borrowed time and it is worth moving what matters into a cooler. Either way, opening it less is the most useful thing you can do.
Where we do it
Across Miami-Dade, Broward, and Palm Beach
Same terms everywhere we go: an on-site diagnostic first, the price agreed in writing, and the exact figure confirmed once we have seen the unit.
Neighborhoods people ask for by name