Frigidaire Refrigerator Repair in Toronto — Freezer cold but fridge warm

• SY EF (System / Evaporator Fault) is the signature Frigidaire freezer-works-fridge-warm verdict on electronic Gallery models: the freezer holds because the compressor and evaporator are cold, but the fridge box warms because the board lost the evaporator fan's RPM (Hall-sensor) feedback and stopped circulating that cold air forward. Once the fan stalls for roughly 60 seconds (zero pulses) the board locks the code on the display. The part is the evaporator fan motor 5303918549 (PartSelect PS3419839 / AppliancePartsPros AP4700070). Because a frosted blade or an iced Hall sensor mimics a dead motor, we clear any evaporator ice load and spin the blade by hand first; if it turns freely but the board still reads no feedback, the motor is the failed part rather than a defrost fault.
• The most common 'freezer cold, refrigerator warm' Frigidaire call with no code is a failed defrost thermostat: the defrost thermostat/heater kit 5303918202 (AP2150133 / PS469510) carries an L47-22F bi-metal that must sense the coil cold before the heater fires, and when its continuity drops the auto-defrost never melts the coil. Frost sheets the evaporator, airflow chokes, and the fresh-food side drifts warm while the still-frozen coil keeps the freezer cold a while longer. The distributor literature names this exact signature - 'refrigerator warm but freezer remains cold, with icy evaporator coils.' We continuity-test both the bi-metal and the heater element before condemning either, and splice the new thermostat with the kit's butt connectors and heat-shrink.
• When the defrost thermostat passes but the coil is still ice-packed, the open part is the defrost heater itself: the 242044020 element (Calrod, 115V/375W; PartSelect PS3408665 / AppliancePartsPros AP4567873; cross-refs 242044008) goes open and stops melting the evaporator, so frost blankets the coil, airflow to the fresh-food box dies, and the fridge warms while the freezer stays cold. An open Calrod passes no current, so a continuity read across the element is what condemns it - not a guess. We meter the heater and the thermostat together, because a coil that re-ices after a manual thaw is heat-not-reaching-the-fins, never a refrigerant problem.
• A slowly warming fridge over several days with a healthy heater and thermostat and no SY-code points at the adaptive defrost control board mistiming or skipping the defrost cycle: on the twist-on/ADC platform the board is 5303918476 (AP4909015), and on later units the 12-pin 242011001 (AP4560766). The coil ices over even though every meter-tested component reads good, so the freezer stays cold while the fridge drifts warm. Because there is no failed component on a meter, we confirm the heater (242044020), thermostat (5303918202) and thermistor all read good first, then condemn the board as the timing fault rather than blind-swapping parts.
• Thermistor drift forces the board into the wrong cooling strategy and is a quiet freezer-cold/fridge-warm cause on electronic models: a sensor reading open shows as OP and shorted shows as SH (per zone), and once the coil is already buried in ice the unit can surface an H1 high-temperature alert (fridge over ~55F / freezer over ~26F). The freezer thermistor 241608501 (PartSelect PS1146084) reads about 16.3K ohms in 32F ice water and roughly 6.2K at 68F, so the cross-check is resistance against that exact curve. A false-cold reading makes the board short-run the compressor and skip defrost, so the box never pulls down. We ohm the suspect thermistor against its own spec before touching the board.
• On side-by-side (FFSS) and bottom-mount units a stuck-closed air damper is the classic 'freezer perfect, fresh-food side warm' mechanical fault, distinct from any electronic code: the motorized air damper control assembly 241600902 (2-switch; PartSelect PS977157; replaces 240521107) meters cold air from the freezer into the fresh-food compartment, and when it jams shut the freezer holds setpoint while the fridge slowly warms with no airflow at the vent. We confirm the evaporator fan is actually running, then put a hand at the fresh-food diffuser vent - no airflow with a good fan points at the damper, not the cooling circuit - the cheap mechanism to rule out before any rear-panel teardown.
• Kenmore 253.-prefix fridges are Frigidaire-built on this exact platform, so the same 5303918549 evaporator fan, 5303918202 defrost-thermostat kit, 242044020 defrost heater, 241608501 thermistor and the OP/SH/H1 diagnosis path resolve their freezer-cold/fridge-warm calls out of the same parts book - no separate sourcing.

Frigidaire freezer cold but fridge warm in Toronto — the local specifics

• The recurring Frigidaire-in-Toronto pattern on freezer-works-fridge-warm is the electronic Gallery throwing SY EF (the lost-evaporator-fan-feedback verdict) on units a few years old, and the older mechanical FFTR/FFSS rental stock failing the other way - an open defrost thermostat or heater that ice-packs the coil so the fridge warms while the freezer keeps holding. We see the damper-stuck-closed variant cluster on side-by-sides where the freezer is flawless but the fresh-food vent has no airflow.
• We carry the two front-line parts to every freezer-cold/fridge-warm call: the 5303918549 evaporator fan motor (SY EF) and the 5303918202 defrost thermostat kit with its butt-connectors and heat-shrink. We also van-stock the 242044020 defrost heater and the 241608501 freezer thermistor so a confirmed open-heater or drifted-sensor fault is a same-visit fix; the 5303918476 / 242011001 defrost board and 241600902 air damper are ordered by model/serial once metered as the fault.

For the full Frigidaire refrigerator module — every fault, part number and code — see Frigidaire refrigerator repair in Toronto, and for the same fault across all brands the refrigerator freezer cold but fridge warm guide.