The usual call is a warm fridge with a working freezer. This is the mirror image — ice cream turning to milkshake, frost going slushy, while the fresh-food side holds temperature like nothing's wrong — and it's actually the more diagnostic complaint, because it narrows the suspect list fast.
Why this pattern is informative
On most household refrigerators, all the cold is manufactured at the freezer's evaporator coil, and the fridge borrows a share of it through a damper. If the fridge is still comfortable while the freezer drifts, cooling production hasn't collapsed — it's diminished or misdirected. Total cooling failures take both compartments down together; this split points somewhere subtler.
The suspect list, in order
Frost-choked evaporator: the leading cause. A failing defrost heater or thermostat lets ice slowly armor the coil; the little airflow that survives gets claimed by the fridge's damper, and the freezer — ironically — starves first. The tell: a freezer back panel that frosts, whistling airflow sounds, and the problem creeping over days. Evaporator fan: if it's weak, chirping, or iced, distribution collapses unevenly. Listen with the freezer door open (hold the door switch): silence or grinding where a steady whir belongs is your answer. Damper stuck open: the fridge hoards cold air, over-chilling its own back wall (lettuce freezing in the crisper is the co-symptom) while the freezer runs short. Sealed-system decline: the sobering one — a partial refrigerant loss shows up first as a freezer that can't reach depth, with the compressor running long. That earns gauges, not guesses.
What you can do before the visit
Check the freezer isn't packed against the vents (a Costco run can literally block the supply), verify the door seals with the dollar-bill test, and put a thermometer inside for a day — the reading and its trend are half our diagnosis. Skip the unplug-defrost-replug ritual as a "fix": it melts the evidence and buys a week before the same frost returns.
The visit
Back panel off, frost pattern read, heater and thermostat metered, fan verified, damper commanded — the pattern names the part in one pass, and defrost components, fans and dampers are stocked, same-visit repairs across Olympia, Lacey and Tumwater. Written fixed price first; ice cream physics restored after.
