[DeadlyPersona]

My mother purchased her home in 1997-98 and a side-by-side refrigerator came with the home. The label in the inside of the refrigerator states it was manufactured in 4/91. The refrigerator stopped getting cold. It powers up but it doesn't get cold no matter what we set the temperature to. Is this an easy fix? Will we have to purchase another refrigerator?

[woodchuck]

For starters Check to see if the condenser fan at the back bottom of unit is running.
Is the compressor motor near that fan running.
Are the coils warm ,cold or hot.

[DeadlyPersona]

Thanks so much for responding Woodchuck. To answer your questions. Yes the fan is on but no the compressor next to the fan does not seem to be running and the coils feel warm.

[woodchuck]

If compressor doesn't come on the starter relay may be bad. check it here. Refrigerator Repair Guide: How To Test the Compressor Relay - ACME HOW TO.com

[DeadlyPersona]

Thanks again WoodChuck for the response. We followed the link and did the steps that were provided. However, when we got to a certain step we noticed that our compressor relay did not have the coil wire as in the picture. I assume we have the solid state relay. We carried out the initial test anyway and it seems as though we will need to replace the compressor. Did we do correctly? Even though our relay did not look like the one shown in the link.

[woodchuck]

If the relay is of solid state design it requires specialized equipment for testing. If you have a technician out to work on the compressor make sure he checks the starter relay first which I'm sure he would do anyway.