[Mike S]

Recently, I noticed that my fridge and freezer were getting warm. I turned up the dial and nothing happened. Then I got a brain storm and turned the freezer dial back to zero and then set it to 4(normal). The compressor immediately kicked on and problem fixed. Except that I knew something was the matter but I wasn't quite sure what. This has now happened a couple of times this weekend and I am thinking that when the fridge goes into defrost mode it isn't coming out. I have had to "reset" the system each time and the compressor kicks back on and I am getting cold air. My understanding is that the defrost timer runs every 6 hours or so. It is possible that I keep catching it in a defrost cycle, but I thought that the compressor kicked back on after about a half hour or so and I've definetly waited longer that that each time. My thinking is that it is either the defrost timer, defrost thermostat, or main control thermostat.
Does anyone have any suggestions on how to further test the system?
I'd like to try and tackle this myself.
Thanks.

[PS Volunteer - Appguy]

You may have a bad cold control. When it acts up again, tap the control. If it starts working, then that's your problem.

[Mike S]

That is exactly what has happened. The cold control is the same as the main thermostat and has nothing to do with the defrost cycle, correct? If I replace this, all will be COOL (pun intended)?