--- title: "Refrigerator not cooling" description: "LG refrigerator not cooling — the most common call on this badge, and the first check is free." url: "https://lgmiami.support/symptoms/refrigerator-not-cooling/" date_modified: "2026-09-05" Appliance type: "Freezers, Refrigerators" --- # LG refrigerator not cooling ### The two checks that cost nothing Look for a mode before you look for a part. Demo or display mode leaves the panel alive, the light on and the compressor deliberately switched off; LG's way out of it is to open the fresh food door, hold FRIDGE and press Express FRZ three times, or on some models hold both for three seconds until it chimes. Then look at the load. A freezer packed hard against the back wall blocks the vents the cold arrives through, and the fix is to move food rather than to buy anything. Between them those two account for a real share of the calls we take on this make. ### 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** — One system usually feeds both compartments through a damper, so a warm fridge with a hard freezer is an air question rather than a cooling one. Start at the vents in the back wall of the fresh food side. - **Side-by-side** — Two tall narrow compartments and a long air path between them. Frost on the evaporator shows up as a fresh food side that will not hold while the freezer stays perfect. - **Top and bottom freezer** — The simplest layout and the easiest to read: one evaporator, one fan, and a single defrost circuit. If both compartments are drifting together, look at the machine room rather than inside. ### Why a mode gets checked before a part Every make has a showroom mode and LG’s is unusually easy to trigger: the door gets held open while a child leans on the panel, or a machine arrives straight from a display floor with the setting still on. The result is completely convincing — lights, buttons, interior lamp, fans — and nothing cools, because the compressor is switched off by design. We have arrived at more than one house where the whole visit was ten seconds of button holding, and we would rather tell people how to check it on the phone. ### Air, then defrost, then gas After the mode, the order is always the same and it goes from free to expensive. Air first: vents blocked by food, a fan that has stopped, a condenser coil packed with dust. Defrost second: a coil sealed in ice cannot pass air however well the fan turns, and that is the slow failure that takes three weeks to show. The sealed system is last, it is uncommon, and it is the only one that needs gauges. Anybody who quotes a compressor before measuring has skipped two steps that are cheaper than the one they are selling. LG's showroom setting. Everything lights, nothing cools. Free to clear and the first thing we ask about. An iced evaporator or a stopped fan LG publishes CF, FF and rF for the three fans and its own explanation for each is a blade the machine has detected as blocked. In this climate the blockage is usually frost. The defrost circuit A heater or sensor that has stopped clearing the coil seals the airway in ice over weeks. dS is the sensor half of it. A condenser packed with dust The coil that sheds the heat cannot shed it. Common in a coastal kitchen and cheap to put right. A door that stopped sealing Nine wet months a year is hard on a gasket, and a cabinet fighting its own door runs constantly and still loses. The sealed system Real, uncommon, and last. It is measured with gauges rather than guessed at, and on this make the compressor warranty is checked before anything is quoted. Read the display for a mode, not just a code A panel that is lit and responsive with a cabinet that never cools is demo mode until proved otherwise. Force the machine to show its code Hold Freezer Temperature and Express Frz together for three seconds. LG documents this, and it matters after a power cut because the display clears and the condition does not. Measure both compartments A thermometer on a middle shelf in each, not a hand and not the panel. Which one is warm, and by how much, decides everything after this. Listen for the fans Hold the door switch in. A freezer fan you can hear is a different problem from one you cannot. Look at the back wall of the freezer Frost across the vents is the defrost circuit, and it is the finding that changes the visit. The lights are on and the food is warm What it usually means Demo mode looks exactly like a broken refrigerator and clears in ten seconds Three separate fan codes, and the usual cause of all three is ice rather than a dead motor The sealed system is last, and it is measured rather than assumed The two checks that cost nothing Look for a mode before you look for a part. Demo or display mode leaves the panel alive, the light on and the compressor deliberately switched off; LG's way out of it is to open the fresh food door, hold FRIDGE and press Express FRZ three times, or on some models hold both for three seconds until it chimes. Then look at the load. A freezer packed hard against the back wall blocks the vents the cold arrives through, and the fix is to move food rather than to buy anything. Between them those two account for a real share of the calls we take on this make. 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 — One system usually feeds both compartments through a damper, so a warm fridge with a hard freezer is an air question rather than a cooling one. Start at the vents in the back wall of the fresh food side. Side-by-side — Two tall narrow compartments and a long air path between them. Frost on the evaporator shows up as a fresh food side that will not hold while the freezer stays perfect. Top and bottom freezer — The simplest layout and the easiest to read: one evaporator, one fan, and a single defrost circuit. If both compartments are drifting together, look at the machine room rather than inside. Why a mode gets checked before a part Every make has a showroom mode and LG’s is unusually easy to trigger: the door gets held open while a child leans on the panel, or a machine arrives straight from a display floor with the setting still on. The result is completely convincing — lights, buttons, interior lamp, fans — and nothing cools, because the compressor is switched off by design. We have arrived at more than one house where the whole visit was ten seconds of button holding, and we would rather tell people how to check it on the phone. Air, then defrost, then gas After the mode, the order is always the same and it goes from free to expensive. Air first: vents blocked by food, a fan that has stopped, a condenser coil packed with dust. Defrost second: a coil sealed in ice cannot pass air however well the fan turns, and that is the slow failure that takes three weeks to show. The sealed system is last, it is uncommon, and it is the only one that needs gauges. Anybody who quotes a compressor before measuring has skipped two steps that are cheaper than the one they are selling. ### It runs constantly and it is still not cold. That usually means cold is being made and not delivered, or that the cabinet cannot shed the heat it is producing. Ice on the evaporator, a stopped fan or a packed condenser all give exactly this. It is also a good sign for the repair: a compressor that runs continuously is a compressor that is alive. ### Someone quoted me a compressor over the phone. Then they guessed, because a sealed-system diagnosis needs gauges on the machine. On this make there is a second reason to be careful: LG's linear compressors carry a long parts warranty that follows the machine rather than the owner, so a covered cabinet changes the number considerably. That is worth establishing before anybody agrees to anything. ### How long do I have before the food is a problem? About four hours in a refrigerator with the door kept shut, and about forty-eight in a full freezer. A half-empty freezer is closer to twenty-four. Keeping the doors closed is worth more than anything else you can do while waiting. --- **[Read full article: Refrigerator not cooling](https://lgmiami.support/symptoms/refrigerator-not-cooling/)**