Your fridge stopped cooling. Don't panic about the compressor yet.

A fridge that's stopped cooling is scary because the worst-case fix (compressor) is also the most expensive. Good news: it's almost never the compressor. Work through these four checks first.

Step 1 — Clean the condenser coils

Dusty condenser coils are the #1 cause of a fridge that "just stopped working." The coils dump heat; if they're caked with dust and pet hair, the fridge can't shed heat fast enough and either stops cooling or runs constantly without keeping temp.

Pull the fridge out, find the kick plate or rear access panel, and vacuum the coils. A coil brush ($8) gets between them better than a vacuum nozzle. Plug it back in and give it 24 hours.

Step 2 — Check the evaporator fan

Inside the freezer, behind the back panel, there's a small fan that circulates cold air. If you open the freezer and don't hear or feel air moving, this fan may have failed (or iced over). Remove the back panel of the freezer and check.

Iced over? Defrost the freezer entirely for 24 hours, then run it again. If it ices over again quickly, the defrost heater or thermostat is the deeper issue.

Step 3 — Listen for the compressor

The compressor is the big black thing at the back bottom. With the fridge running, put your hand on it. It should be warm and slightly vibrating. If it's stone cold and silent, it isn't running. That's a relay or start capacitor issue most of the time, not the compressor itself.

The start relay clips onto the side of the compressor and costs $15–$25. Replacement is a 10-minute job once the fridge is unplugged.

Step 4 — Check the door seals

Take a dollar bill, close it in the door, and try to pull it out. If it slides out easily, the gasket isn't sealing and warm air is leaking in. Sometimes this masquerades as "not cooling" when really the fridge is just losing the fight against ambient air. Replacement gaskets are model-specific but typically $40–$80.

When it really is the compressor

If you've gone through all of the above and the compressor is running but the fridge isn't cooling, you may have a sealed-system issue (refrigerant leak) or compressor failure. This is the one case where the math often favors replacing the fridge instead of repairing it, especially if your fridge is older than ~10 years.