Any refrigerator experts out there?

This is puzzling. My fridge/kegerator in the garage has developed a cooling problem. Back in August, she wouldn't cool at all (but the freezer worked fine), so I did a complete defrost- emptied, unplugged, opened doors, and left it that way for 24 hours or so. There was a decent amount of water in the catch pan, so I figured there was an ice dam between the freezer and fridge sections, not allowing the cool air to 'fall' into the fridge.
Plugged her in, and in about a few hours, she had no problem keeping a 38-40º range. Sweet, I thought, I just fixed the fridge!

Well, now she won't get below 45º, and my beer is foam city. My question- is it possible there is still an ice dam (because the freezer is still working fine), and that I need to do another complete thaw?

I've sealed up the places in the side where my shanks and Co2 line goes in, and there doesn't seem to be any leakage there. Nothing blocking the fan in the freezer, everything is clean, etc.

Thanks,
Jim

Did you check to be sure your condenser coils are clean?

I'm not an expert...
If your coils are icing up, its possible the coil defroster/heater went bad.

It's possible your unit doesn't operate this way, but this is what happened to a friend of mine.

Did you check to be sure your condenser coils are clean?

To confirm what you already know... Remove any Icemaker you might have...remove the shelfs in the freezer compartment...then remove the back panel. This will expose the coils, which as you've already guessed...are iced up.

There could be two problems

1) low freon charge...causes more rapid icing of the coil

2) defrost cycle not working

2)a. faulty heater ( there is a heater below your coil. It's on a timer. It either looks like a glass tube with a coil inside...or like a metal element on an electric stove...except it's just a straigh bar that extends the width of the freezer.

2)b. faulty timer ( inside the fridge...you've got a timer that just goes in a continuous cycle. From time to time it goes into defrost mode. Switches off the compressor...turns on the defrost heater and the munion heater (usually near the bottom of the freezer compartment, inside the panel, next to the door opening)

2)c. faulty thermostat. There's a thermostat located near the coils to signal that they've defrosted...so the heater will turn off.

Here...check out this website...

It will help you diagnose..and if you supply your make and model, you can even order parts.

http://www.repairclinic.com/Refrigerator-Repair-Help

I work on my own appliances and have ordered from them in the past.

Thanks for the help, guys. I'll check those out on Sunday. Hopefully I find the fix.