This is a very common question we receive, (usually multiple times a day) and of course the worst part about it is while you’re trying to decide all your food is slowly going bad. While most of the time the only real way to know if it’s worth repairing is having a technician diagnose the issue, it doesn’t hurt to know a little more of what may be going on.
We see fridges 25 years old that are running perfect and give no indication that they will stop cooling properly for the foreseeable future. We also run into refrigerators that are under a year old and are not worth repairing because the seal system or compressor is bad. This is not always the case but it also is not that uncommon. If and when a fridge compressor fails the pricing can be between $500 to even $1000 to fix, the same goes for if the refrigerator’s seal system fails (the coolant circulation). All that being said, if your refrigerator is running warm it does not always mean that you’ll have to spend this much to repair. Here are some other possible symptoms that often need less costly repairs,
- Defective compressor relay
- Cold control failure
- Evaporator fan not running
- Poor door seal
- Frost build up in freezer blocking airflow
- Condenser fan not running
- Excessive dust build up on coils
Again, the best way to know for sure what the issue is, is to have a technician diagnose the refrigerator. That being said, if you can pinpoint the symptoms, some online research will often give you a more concrete answer as to whether it would be cost effective to repair or if it will be better to replace.

A failed evaporator fan can make you think the fridge is dying but it is often a repair worth having done on your fridge