Refrigerator Not Cooling? What to Check First and What It Costs in Arizona

A refrigerator that is not cooling is most often a dirty coil, a dead fan, a frosted evaporator or a $20 relay, and five of those six fixes cost under $350 in Arizona. Start with the free checks below, then match what you hear and feel to the cause.

Food is on the clock. A closed fridge holds about four hours without power. In Arizona, add the heat, because a garage fridge in July can run outside its rated range and look broken when it is only overworked.

• Move the thermostat one notch colder and wait 24 hours. A new unit or a unit after an outage needs that long to settle.
• Look at the back vents and the door. Packed food, a bent gasket or a door that will not swing shut warms the box.
• Pull the fridge out and look at the coils. Thick dust or pet hair is the cheapest fix on this page, $0 to $150.
• Listen. Clicking every few minutes points at the start relay. A fridge that runs all day and never gets cold points at airflow, frost or the sealed system.
• Check the room. In a hot Arizona garage the fridge may simply be outside its rated temperature range.
• Do not unplug it before the tech arrives. The symptoms need to be there for the diagnosis.

Start with the boring stuff. Most calls that end at "the fridge is fine" end here. Safety first, so unplug the fridge before you touch any panel, fan or coil.

Check the power. Look for a light inside or a lit display. Frigidaire says the outlet should be grounded, 115 to 120 volts, on a 15 or 20 amp circuit, and to try the GFCI reset if one feeds the plug (Frigidaire not cooling guide). After an outage or a new install, give it 24 hours.

Check the setting. Frigidaire lists factory defaults of 37°F for the fridge and 0°F for the freezer, with a working range of 33°F to 47°F and -6°F to 6°F. If someone bumped the dial to the warm end, that is your whole problem.

Check the door. The GE guide says the door should swing shut on its own from about halfway open, and that you can fix a front tilt with the leveling legs (GE not cooling checklist). Run the dollar bill test from Frigidaire. Close the door on a bill and tug. If it slides out with no pull, the gasket is leaking cold air.

Check the light. GE says the interior light should go out when the door is open about 1 inch. A light that stays on adds heat.

Check the airflow. Tall jars against the back wall can block the vents. Pull them forward and leave gaps between packages.

Put a thermometer in. The FDA says to keep the fridge at 40°F or below and the freezer at 0°F, and to use an appliance thermometer to check. A cheap dial one costs a few dollars and settles the argument in an hour.

The coils dump the heat the fridge pulled out of your food. When dust and pet hair coat them, the heat has nowhere to go. The compressor runs longer, the box warms slowly, and the back of the fridge feels hot. See our glossary entry on the condenser.

How to test. Unplug the fridge, pull it out, and look at the coils at the back or behind the bottom front grille. If you see a gray fuzz mat, clean them.

Cost and who does it. $0 to $150. DIY friendly. Use a coil brush and a vacuum. Our step by step guide, how to clean refrigerator condenser coils, takes 20 to 30 minutes.

One note. GE says many units made since 2001 have coils that do not need cleaning, but compact and smaller top freezer models still do (GE). Your manual tells you which kind you own.

The start relay gives the compressor its kick. When it fails, you hear a click every few minutes and the compressor never settles into a hum. The box slowly warms.

How to test. Unplug the fridge, pull the relay off the side of the compressor and shake it. A rattle means a bad relay. A pro can also confirm it with a test cord.

Cost. $100 to $200 total, the cheapest repair that involves a part. The part itself runs $20 to $40. If the compressor is seized, you get the same click, so be sure of the diagnosis before you buy the part. The compressor entry explains why.

The evaporator fan pushes cold air from the freezer coil into the fresh food side. When it dies, the freezer stays cold and the fridge warms up. You may hear nothing, or a loud buzzing or scraping from the back wall of the freezer.

How to test. Open the freezer door and press the door switch. The fan should spin. If it does not, or you hear ticking, the fan or its blade is bad.

Cost and who does it. $150 to $300. DIY friendly with basic tools. See how to replace a refrigerator evaporator fan and the evaporator fan glossary page.

Every few hours the fridge melts frost off the evaporator coil. If the heater, sensor or timer fails, frost builds into a block of ice and air cannot pass. Cooling fades over days. A manual defrost makes it work again for a few weeks, then it fails again.

How to test. Look at the back wall of the freezer. A thick, uneven frost layer on the panel is the sign. Read about the defrost cycle if the terms are new.

Cost. $150 to $350. It is DIY friendly for a handy person, but the parts list is long. Our page on a freezer cold but fridge warm covers the same failure in more detail.

The condenser fan pulls room air over the coils and the compressor. When it stops, the compressor runs hot and may shut itself off on its overload protector, then try again. The bottom back of the fridge feels hot.

How to test. Pull the lower rear panel with the fridge unplugged. Spin the blade by hand. It should move freely. When you plug it in, the fan should turn while the compressor runs.

Cost. $150 to $280. DIY friendly.

This is the bad one. The fridge runs without stopping and never gets cold, or the compressor is silent and hot. The sealed system holds refrigerant, and opening it takes EPA certification. That is a pro job.

How to test. You cannot test it at home. A tech checks pressures, current draw and the compressor windings.

Cost. $500 to $1,200. Rule out every cheaper cause first.

Five of the six causes cost under $350. Only the sealed system pushes past it. That is why a diagnosis comes before any talk of replacing the fridge.

Garage fridges and the room limit. Every refrigerator is rated for a range of room temperatures. GE says its units can struggle in rooms below 60°F or above 110°F (GE). A closed Arizona garage in July can get there. Phoenix Sky Harbor averages a July high of 106.5°F, and a garage in the afternoon sun runs hotter than the air outside. Our guide on keeping a refrigerator in a garage in Arizona has the full numbers.

Check the room range. The install guide for your model lists the room temperatures it is built for. GE says its refrigerators may not cool properly in a spot below 60°F or above 110°F (GE). A garage in a Phoenix July can pass that, and then no repair will keep the fridge cold.

What heat does. When the room is hot, the coils cannot shed heat. The fridge runs nearly nonstop and the overload protector may click the compressor off. That clicking is not always a bad part. It can mean the room is winning. Move the fridge inside, shade it, or buy a model built for the heat.

Dust. Valley dust, monsoon haboobs and pet hair all land on the coils. In a dusty home or garage, clean them twice a year. GE also asks for at least 1 inch of clearance on the sides, top and back.

Monsoon outages. On August 25, 2025, a haboob and thunderstorm knocked out power for as many as 54,000 SRP customers and up to 12,000 APS customers in the Phoenix area (azfamily). Ready.gov says a closed fridge keeps food cold for about four hours and a full freezer for about 48 hours. It also says to unplug sensitive appliances, since power can return with surges.

After the power returns. Frigidaire says to allow 24 hours for temperatures to settle. A fridge that warms up after a surge may just need that time. If the food was above 40°F for more than two hours or you do not know how long, the FDA says to discard it.

Looking for help near you? Browse Phoenix or Tucson appliance repair pros.

Call if the quick checks and the coil clean did not help, if you hear a click every few minutes, or if the compressor is silent. Call the same day if food is at risk. Browse our refrigerator repair directory for Arizona companies.

Leave the fridge plugged in, as GE advises, so the symptoms are still there when the tech arrives. Then say these things on the phone.

• The brand, model number and age. The model plate is inside the fridge or on the back.
• Which side is warm. Fridge only, freezer only, or both.
• What you hear. Clicking, buzzing, constant running, or silence.
• What you already tried. Coils cleaned, thermostat changed, door checked.
• Where it sits. A garage or patio matters in Arizona.

The service call fee is $75 to $150 and usually goes toward the repair.

If the fix is a relay, fan, coil cleaning or defrost part, repair it. Those are all under $350. ENERGY STAR bases its savings math on a 12-year product lifetime, so a fridge well inside that lifetime is usually worth fixing.

A sealed system repair at $500 to $1,200 is where the choice gets hard. ENERGY STAR says fridges over 15 years old can cost about $95 a year more to run, and that an old second fridge should be recycled. If your unit is that age and the compressor is gone, replace it. A new one in a garage should be a model rated for the heat.