Kenmore Freezer Fan Will Not Come On

Power Issues

• If your freezer isn’t working and there is no light on when you open the door, you have a power issue. See if the freezer is plugged in. Check the circuit breaker. Inspect the outlet. Sometimes an outlet is bad. Plug a lamp or other small device into the outlet to see if it works. If it doesn’t, then you know your problems are not with the freezer but with the actual outlet. This may require an electrician to resolve.

Thermostat and Settings

• If your freezer has a light on, indicating it has power, but does not begin cooling or start up the fans, check the unit’s settings. See if the temperature control on the thermostat is dialed down to the recommended setting. If it is set too high, the compressor and fan won’t function. Adjust it to a low setting and see if the unit turns on and begins cooling. You should hear the circulation fans turn on within a short time.

Defrost System

• If your Kenmore freezer is a self-defrosting freezer, it runs a defrost cycle from time to time to keep frost from building up on the evaporator coil. It accomplishes this by using a timer that tells the compressor to stop cooling, fans to stop running and tells a heater near the coil to come on and melt the accumulated frost. If the timer is stuck in the defrost mode, the compressor and fans remain off and the freezer eventually gets hot inside. If the timer were stuck in cooling mode, it never defrosts. Replacing a defrost timer is a minor repair that a service technician.

Compressor Problems

• The worst-case scenario for your Kenmore freezer is a faulty compressor. The compressor is the most important part of the cooling system. The compressor squeezes the refrigerant, turning it into liquid and heating it up. The gas passes through a condenser coil and eventually expands near the evaporator coil where it vaporizes and chills quickly. If the compressor goes out, the unit does not run and or cool. The circulating fans near the evaporator coil typically only run during a cooling cycle.