--- title: "Freezer not freezing" description: "Maytag freezer not freezing: this maker publishes no numbered condition for any freezer at all — not one across the whole support library." url: "https://maytagmiami.support/symptoms/freezer-not-freezing/" date_modified: "2026-09-07" Appliance type: "Freezers" --- # Maytag freezer not freezing ### Put a thermometer in it tonight Zero degrees is the target and a thermometer left in overnight is the only way to know where you actually are. Then look at the walls: heavy frost on the back wall of an upright means the defrost system has stopped clearing the coil, and a thick layer of ice everywhere in a chest freezer simply means it is due for a manual defrost and is not a repair at all. Check the seal with a slip of paper all the way round, and check the lid or door actually closes on its own rather than resting a fraction open on a package. In a garage — where a great many of these live here — also note the ambient temperature, because a freezer in an unconditioned garage in August is working against far more than it was designed for. ### What it usually means, by the kind of machine One complaint, several machines. This maker still sells a top-load washer with an agitator alongside one without, a front-loader, and a stacked pair, and it sells the same oven as a range and as a wall unit in gas and in electric. The behavior you can describe is identical on all of them; the first hour of the repair is not. A front-load washer has a drain filter the owner can open and a top-loader has nothing to reach from the front, and that single difference decides how the same afternoon goes. - **Upright freezer** — Air is circulated by a fan and blown over a coil, which means it can lose the fan, the defrost, or the seal. It also loses more cold every time the door opens because cold air falls straight out of an upright. - **Chest freezer** — Usually no fan and no automatic defrost, which removes two of the common causes outright. What is left is the seal, the ice built up on the walls, and the sealed system. - **Freezer half of a refrigerator** — Different page — if the fresh food side is also involved, start with the refrigerator rather than here. ### Why this page has no codes on it Every other appliance section of this site links to conditions the maker documents. There are none for freezers — we counted, across the whole published library, and the number is zero. Rather than borrow a code from a refrigerator and imply it applies here, this page says so. What replaces it is a thermometer, a flashlight and a slip of paper, and between them they settle most of these calls. ### Garage freezers An enormous share of the freezers in this region live in an unconditioned garage, and that is the hardest place to ask one to work. Ambient temperatures well over a hundred degrees, dust on the coils, and a door that gets opened with wet hands all add up. Cleaning the coils twice a year rather than once is the difference between a garage freezer that lasts and one that does not. A door or lid not sealing A hardened gasket or a package holding it a fraction open. Warm humid air comes in continuously and the cabinet never catches up. Frost on the coil Uprights with automatic defrost. Ice covers the coil, air stops moving over it, and the temperature climbs even though the compressor is running. Ice built up on the walls Chest freezers, and manual-defrost uprights. It is maintenance rather than damage, and it costs an afternoon rather than a part. Condenser coils and ambient heat A garage freezer in this climate needs its coils clean far more than a kitchen one does. Dirty coils plus a hot garage is a genuine cause. The sealed system The compressor runs and the cabinet does not get cold. The serious version, and it is what remains after everything above is cleared. Leave a thermometer overnight Zero degrees is the number. Anything else is an impression. Look at the back wall Frost across a coil on an upright is the defrost system, plainly visible without tools. Test the seal with paper All the way around the door or lid. Any section where it slides out freely is losing cold continuously. Note where the freezer lives A garage in August is a much harder job than a kitchen. It changes what is reasonable to expect from the cabinet. Ice cream soft, or a stand-alone freezer that has come up to temperature What it usually means Nothing on the display will name this — the cabinet does not report it Frost on the back wall points at defrost; frost on the food points at the door A chest freezer and an upright fail in different places Put a thermometer in it tonight Zero degrees is the target and a thermometer left in overnight is the only way to know where you actually are. Then look at the walls: heavy frost on the back wall of an upright means the defrost system has stopped clearing the coil, and a thick layer of ice everywhere in a chest freezer simply means it is due for a manual defrost and is not a repair at all. Check the seal with a slip of paper all the way round, and check the lid or door actually closes on its own rather than resting a fraction open on a package. In a garage — where a great many of these live here — also note the ambient temperature, because a freezer in an unconditioned garage in August is working against far more than it was designed for. What it usually means, by the kind of machine One complaint, several machines. This maker still sells a top-load washer with an agitator alongside one without, a front-loader, and a stacked pair, and it sells the same oven as a range and as a wall unit in gas and in electric. The behavior you can describe is identical on all of them; the first hour of the repair is not. A front-load washer has a drain filter the owner can open and a top-loader has nothing to reach from the front, and that single difference decides how the same afternoon goes. Upright freezer — Air is circulated by a fan and blown over a coil, which means it can lose the fan, the defrost, or the seal. It also loses more cold every time the door opens because cold air falls straight out of an upright. Chest freezer — Usually no fan and no automatic defrost, which removes two of the common causes outright. What is left is the seal, the ice built up on the walls, and the sealed system. Freezer half of a refrigerator — Different page — if the fresh food side is also involved, start with the refrigerator rather than here. Why this page has no codes on it Every other appliance section of this site links to conditions the maker documents. There are none for freezers — we counted, across the whole published library, and the number is zero. Rather than borrow a code from a refrigerator and imply it applies here, this page says so. What replaces it is a thermometer, a flashlight and a slip of paper, and between them they settle most of these calls. Garage freezers An enormous share of the freezers in this region live in an unconditioned garage, and that is the hardest place to ask one to work. Ambient temperatures well over a hundred degrees, dust on the coils, and a door that gets opened with wet hands all add up. Cleaning the coils twice a year rather than once is the difference between a garage freezer that lasts and one that does not. ### The food is still frozen but it is softer. Then you are a few degrees above where you should be rather than in trouble, and it is exactly the right time to look at it. A thermometer overnight will tell you how far off you are. ### Should I defrost it manually? On a chest freezer or a manual-defrost upright, yes, if there is more than a quarter inch of ice on the walls. On an automatic-defrost upright, frost building up is a symptom rather than a chore, and defrosting it by hand only hides it for a month. ### It runs constantly. In a hot garage that may be normal in August. In an air-conditioned space it is not, and it usually means the cabinet is fighting either a seal or a coil. --- **[Read full article: Freezer not freezing](https://maytagmiami.support/symptoms/freezer-not-freezing/)**