Why Is My Liebherr Fridge Not Cooling but the Freezer Is Still Cold?

You open your Liebherr fridge, reach for milk… and it’s warm.
You check the freezer, and everything is rock solid.

Annoying? 100%.
Total disaster? Usually not.

On most Liebherr models, the freezer does the heavy lifting and cold air is then pushed into the fridge section with fans and vents. So if the freezer is still cold but the fridge is warm, it almost always means a problem with airflow or temperature control, not that “the whole fridge is dead.”

This guide walks you through:

• What this problem usually means on a Liebherr
• The most common causes
• Safe DIY checks you can actually do yourself
• When it’s time to call a Liebherr technician
• How to prevent the same thing from happening again

What This Problem Usually Means on a Liebherr

In plain language, your Liebherr is doing this: the freezer is still making cold, so the compressor and sealed system are probably fine, but the fridge section isn’t getting enough of that cold air. Somewhere between the freezer and the fresh-food compartment, the cold air is getting blocked, lost, or badly managed.

On Liebherr (and most modern fridges), it usually comes down to a few familiar things: vents covered by food, heavy frost around the evaporator, a fan that isn’t moving air, a stuck damper, dirty condenser coils, or a sensor/control issue once all the basics are ruled out. The good news is that a lot of these can be checked and fixed without special tools.

Quick Checks Before You Grab Tools

Before you think “it’s dead,” walk through a few simple checks. Many “dead” Liebherr fridges turn out to be something small.

1. Check your temperature settings.
   Make sure nobody bumped the controls and that you’re not stuck in a strange mode like SuperCool or SuperFrost. For most Liebherr units, a good target is about 37–41°F (3–5°C) in the fridge and 0°F (–18°C) in the freezer.
2. Look at how the fridge is loaded.
   If big containers are pressed against the back wall or covering vents, cold air can’t move. Pull food away from the vents and avoid “wall-to-wall” packing, especially near the top and back.
3. Listen for the fan.
   Close the freezer door, then open it and hold the door switch with your finger to “fake” a closed door. You should usually hear a soft fan sound from the freezer area. If it’s always silent (and the unit isn’t defrosting), that’s a clue.

If something already looks obviously wrong at this stage, you may have found your starting point.

The Most Common Causes

1. Blocked Air Vents or an Overpacked Fridge

Liebherr moves cold air from the freezer into the fridge through vents and hidden channels. If those are buried behind food or ice, the freezer stays cold, but the fridge slowly warms up.

Typical signs: the back wall is covered in containers, vents are completely hidden, and the fridge is crammed “to the ceiling.” The fix is simple: move things away from the vents, leave space around the back wall, and don’t stack hot leftovers right in front of the air outlets. After you rearrange, give the fridge a few hours to catch up.

2. Frost or Ice Buildup in the Freezer

If ice is packed around the evaporator coil or air passages in the freezer, cold air can’t flow properly into the fridge. The freezer might still feel “okay,” but the fridge gets warmer and warmer.

This usually happens when the door doesn’t seal well, the door is left open a lot, or the automatic defrost system isn’t doing its job.

A safe DIY step is a full manual defrost:

• Move food into a cooler if you can.
• Unplug the fridge or switch off the breaker.
• Leave both doors open for 12–24 hours so all hidden ice can melt.
• Put towels down to catch water, then dry things out and plug the unit back in.

Give it 24 hours to stabilize. If the fridge works again but the same problem comes back after a few days or weeks, there’s probably a deeper defrost or door-seal issue that needs a technician.

3. Evaporator Fan Problems

The evaporator fan, usually located in the freezer section, is responsible for pushing cold air across the coils and into the fridge. If it isn’t running, the area around the coils can stay cold while the rest of the fridge warms up.

You might notice a cold freezer, a warm fridge, very weak airflow from the fridge vents, or clicking and scraping noises from the freezer. With the freezer door open, press and hold the door switch and listen—if the fan never comes on or sounds like it’s hitting ice, there’s a good chance the motor area is iced up or the fan is failing. That’s normally the point where it makes sense to bring in a pro instead of ripping panels off on your own.

4. Dirty Condenser Coils

Your Liebherr has to dump heat somewhere, and it does that through condenser coils, either on the back of the unit or down near the floor. If those coils are buried under dust and pet hair, the system runs hot and has a hard time keeping the fridge section at the right temperature. Often you’ll see exactly this pattern: freezer okay, fridge warm.

A quick, safe clean-up goes like this: unplug the fridge, find the coils, use a vacuum with a brush attachment (and a coil brush if you have one), gently remove the dust and lint around the coils, then plug the unit back in and give it several hours. Doing this once or twice a year can prevent a lot of borderline cooling issues.

5. Damper, Sensor, or Control Board Issues

If you’ve checked the loading, vents, frost, fan sound, and coils, but the fridge is still warm while the freezer runs normally, you might be dealing with something deeper:

• A damper that’s stuck closed and not letting cold air into the fridge
• A thermistor (temperature sensor) that’s feeding bad information to the control board
• A control board glitch or damage, sometimes after a power surge

These usually involve taking panels off, testing parts with a meter, and possibly replacing components. That’s technician territory—guessing with live electrical parts is not a good DIY project.

A Simple DIY Checklist You Can Follow

To keep things straightforward, here’s the order most homeowners can safely follow:

1. Set the fridge and freezer to proper temperatures.
2. Rearrange food so vents and the back wall are not blocked.
3. Inspect and clean the door gaskets; make sure doors close cleanly.
4. Listen for the evaporator fan using the door-switch trick.
5. Do a full manual defrost if you suspect heavy ice buildup.
6. Unplug and clean the condenser coils, then let the unit run and recheck.

If the fridge is still warm or warms back up quickly after all this, it’s time to stop fighting it alone.

ow to Prevent This From Happening Again

Once your Liebherr is cooling properly again, a few habits will help keep it that way:

• Don’t overpack shelves or block air vents.
• Avoid leaving doors open for long periods or half-closed.
• Wipe and inspect door gaskets if you see crumbs, spills, or gaps.
• Vacuum condenser coils once or twice a year (more often with pets).
• Glance at the temperatures now and then so you catch problems early.

If your Liebherr fridge still isn’t cooling while the freezer is fine — even after basic checks — it’s probably time for a professional to step in.