Refrigerator is Warm but Freezer Cold?

If your refrigerator is warm but the freezer portion is cold, likely the refrigerator is working properly—but someone has improperly adjusted it. If your refrigerator has a temperature control that turns manually, it is likely operating a diverter valve. That means that turning it to "colder" in your freezer is likely diverting the cold air away from going into the refrigerator portion. Even if you "turn up" the colder knob in the refrigerator, the cold airflow from the freezer has been closed. The problem can be compounded when the freezer becomes too cold and ice develops inside of the airflow conduit. Simply by turning the "cold" back to the mid-range in the freezer, your refrigerator may recover in a day or two. This, in most cases, is preferable to buying a new refrigerator.