[woodcycl]

Hello!

I have a year 2000 Kenmore 50582001 side-by-side fridge that has worked great until the past few months. I've noticed that the fridge was slowly becoming less and less cool, even when I turned the knob to cooler. In the end, the knob was turned to the coldest setting and between night and the next morning, the fridge was not cool at all.

I confirmed the following:

1. The condesor motor and fan seem to work fine and the fan is free flowing.
2. I vaccuumed the coils beneath the fridge and checked the drain pan
3. The freezer works fine in regard to temperature
4. The feezer coils were iced over pretty bad and I took an air dryer to them and totally thawed them out.
5. The interior freezer coils and fan work fine and as expected from what I can tell. I don't "think" the coils are icing up again, at least not yet. And, the defrost thermostat looks fine from a visual standpoint ... but I am NO expert (not even a beginner!)

Here is what I believe to be the culprit ...

The vent/port between the freezer and fridge was totally closed. In other words, when you looked inside the vent, the 4 or 5 rectangular leuvers (sp?) where totally blocked/shut off where you cold not see any light. Thus, my common sense tells me that if those are shut, NO cold air will make it from the freezer to the fridge. I removed the baffle and the overall vent part. In doing so, some how some way, the interior leuvers opened about 50%. Strange thing is, when I tried putting a finger in and moving the leuver shutters, they wouldn't move ... I couldn't move them more open or more closed. I'm not sure what controls how open or closed those are?? But, regardless, something caused them to open 50%. So, I installed everything back. And, overnight the fridge seems to be cooling a bit better.

I'm not sure, though, what the problem is. Do those leuvers open based on the cooling knob and how far turned it is to wamer or cooler? If so, it is not working now. I can turn the knob any direction and nothing changes in the fridge.

Any help is greatly appreciated.