Common fault
Why is my Sub-Zero refrigerator not cooling?
Short answer
Open the freezer first, because what you find in there decides everything that follows.
The reasoning behind that
These built-ins cool the two compartments with two independent sealed systems, and a freezer still holding hard ice takes the costly repair off the table before anyone opens a toolbox. The fault is on the refrigerator circuit: usually its evaporator fan has stopped, the defrost has failed and iced the coil, or the thermistor that reports compartment temperature has drifted. In a Mission Hills kitchen there is a fourth candidate worth checking yourself, and that is the door. Heavy custom panels pull these doors out of alignment over the years, and a gasket that no longer meets the frame will hold a compartment several degrees warm all on its own.
How the diagnosis goes
There is a test you can run before you call. Put a glass of water with a thermometer in it on a middle shelf overnight, then read it first thing in the morning and again around five in the afternoon. If the morning number is acceptable and the afternoon number is not, the unit is losing to heat load rather than failing outright, and the first place we look is the condenser and the air path to it. Kitchens in these houses face west more often than the climate deserves, and many of them have no air conditioning to take the edge off.
If both readings are bad, the failure is inside. We take the interior panel off, look at whether the evaporator is clear or under ice, and check whether the fan turns when it should. A coil under ice is a defrost fault, and the parts involved are the heater and the thermistor. A clear coil with a fan that is not turning is the fan or its control. A clear coil, a turning fan and a compartment that is still warm sends us to the control board and then to the refrigerator's own sealed system, which on this equipment is separate from the freezer's.
If that matches what yours is doing, say so when you call — it decides which parts come on the van.
Reviews
What Mission Hills customers say
Water coming out under the front of the refrigerator and all I could think about was the original oak floor running through the whole house. Next morning appointment. It was cloudy water, so the drain had iced closed rather than the supply line letting go. Sorted in one visit.
We inherited an old 500 series with the house off Fort Stockton and had already been quoted for a replacement. He said no, it needs a fan and a sensor. Two parts. A new one would have meant rebuilding the opening the cabinetmaker scribed around it.
Our 1920s Craftsman has a modern Sub-Zero that stopped cooling on a Saturday night. They arrived within two hours and fixed the compressor issue. Professional service that respected our historic home.
Rated 4.9 from 617 customer reviews.
Appliance down in Mission Hills?
Tell us the brand and what it is doing — we can usually name the likely repair before we arrive.
Questions
Frequently asked questions
What actually happens once the technician is in the kitchen?
Panels come off before any number is quoted. On refrigeration that means the lower grille and the interior panel, checking whether the evaporator is clear or furred with ice, and coil readings by probe rather than off the display. Seals get checked along the hinge side, the drain path traced. Then you hear what is wrong, what it costs, and what leaving it will do.