--- title: "Refrigerators" description: "JennAir refrigerators — the largest row in this line and the one this phone rings about most." url: "https://jennairmiami.support/appliances/refrigerator/" date_modified: "2026-08-24" Appliance type: "Refrigerators" --- # JennAir refrigerators ### Six shapes, one row Built-in cabinets, panel-ready columns from 18 to 36 inches, French-door and freestanding units, undercounter refrigerators, refrigerated drawers and beverage centers. Fifty-five of the sixty-five refrigeration models in the current line carry the maker’s dark Obsidian interior. Thirty-six of them are panel-ready, which means the front you are looking at is your cabinetmaker’s and the appliance is behind it. ### What we are called out for - **Defrost.** The commonest real repair in this category and the one that hides as everything else — a heater, a sensor or a timer that has stopped clearing the evaporator, showing up as a cabinet that slowly drifts warm. - **The evaporator fan**, which moves the cold air where it is meant to go and is audible when it is going. - **Thermistors**, which are what a cabinet uses to know its own temperature and are cheap to replace and easy to misread. - **The condenser**, and specifically a condenser nobody has cleaned since the kitchen was built. In this climate that is maintenance with a service call attached. - **The water path** — inlet valve, filter housing, the line to an ice maker or a dispenser — which is where most of the water on a floor comes from. - **The control board**, and particularly a board after an outage or a brownout, which South Florida supplies plenty of. ### Panel-ready, and what it means for a visit A panel-ready cabinet has your kitchen’s own door on it, hung on the appliance’s hinges and carrying its own weight. That affects two things: the door has to come off before some repairs and go back on aligned, and a door that is not closing squarely may be the panel and its hardware rather than the appliance. It is worth mentioning when you book, because it is time we would rather plan than find. ### The climate argument, in the maker’s own words The current warranty document excludes, verbatim, “discoloration, rust or oxidation of surfaces resulting from caustic or corrosive environments (e.g., high salt concentrations, high moisture or humidity or exposure to chemicals)”. That is not a threat and it does not void anything. It is the manufacturer saying, on its own paper, that a coastal kitchen is a harder place to keep stainless steel than an inland one — which is worth knowing before you buy a cleaner off a shelf. ### What to have ready when you call The model number from the upper left wall inside the fresh-food side, whether the cabinet is built in or freestanding, and what the display or the app is reporting if either of them is saying anything. Built-in · Column · French door · Undercounter · Drawers · Beverage centers · 18"–48" Refrigerator repair The refrigerator drifting warm while the freezer holds Water on the floor, or ice building where it should not A cabinet running constantly and never quite getting there Six shapes, one row Built-in cabinets, panel-ready columns from 18 to 36 inches, French-door and freestanding units, undercounter refrigerators, refrigerated drawers and beverage centers. Fifty-five of the sixty-five refrigeration models in the current line carry the maker’s dark Obsidian interior. Thirty-six of them are panel-ready, which means the front you are looking at is your cabinetmaker’s and the appliance is behind it. What we are called out for Defrost. The commonest real repair in this category and the one that hides as everything else — a heater, a sensor or a timer that has stopped clearing the evaporator, showing up as a cabinet that slowly drifts warm. The evaporator fan, which moves the cold air where it is meant to go and is audible when it is going. Thermistors, which are what a cabinet uses to know its own temperature and are cheap to replace and easy to misread. The condenser, and specifically a condenser nobody has cleaned since the kitchen was built. In this climate that is maintenance with a service call attached. The water path — inlet valve, filter housing, the line to an ice maker or a dispenser — which is where most of the water on a floor comes from. The control board, and particularly a board after an outage or a brownout, which South Florida supplies plenty of. Panel-ready, and what it means for a visit A panel-ready cabinet has your kitchen’s own door on it, hung on the appliance’s hinges and carrying its own weight. That affects two things: the door has to come off before some repairs and go back on aligned, and a door that is not closing squarely may be the panel and its hardware rather than the appliance. It is worth mentioning when you book, because it is time we would rather plan than find. The climate argument, in the maker’s own words The current warranty document excludes, verbatim, “discoloration, rust or oxidation of surfaces resulting from caustic or corrosive environments (e.g., high salt concentrations, high moisture or humidity or exposure to chemicals)”. That is not a threat and it does not void anything. It is the manufacturer saying, on its own paper, that a coastal kitchen is a harder place to keep stainless steel than an inland one — which is worth knowing before you buy a cleaner off a shelf. What to have ready when you call The model number from the upper left wall inside the fresh-food side, whether the cabinet is built in or freestanding, and what the display or the app is reporting if either of them is saying anything. ### What is a column, and does it change the repair? A column is a single-temperature cabinet — all refrigerator, or all freezer, or all wine — built into the cabinetry, usually paneled to match it, and usually installed next to another column. It changes the repair in two ways. There is one sealed system in it rather than two, so a warm column is a simpler diagnosis than a warm side of a combination cabinet. And it comes out forwards through your millwork, so the access is planned before the visit rather than found on the day. ### The fridge is warm and the freezer is cold. What does that mean? On a combination cabinet it is one of the most useful sentences you can give us. The freezer does the cooling and air is moved into the fresh-food side, so a cold freezer with a warm refrigerator usually means the air is not arriving — a damper, an evaporator fan, or a defrost problem that has iced the coil solid. It is very rarely the refrigerant, which is the expensive answer people brace for. On two separate columns the same symptom means the opposite: two cabinets, two systems, and the warm one is the one with the problem. ### How long should one of these last in Miami? Longer than the kitchen usually lasts, if the condenser is kept clean. The thing that shortens it here is not age but load: a condenser packed with dust and pet hair in a climate where the machine never gets an easy month. The maker's own refrigeration warranty runs to ten years on the sealed system for a reason — these are cabinets built to be repaired rather than replaced. ### There is condensation inside, or around the door. Is that a leak? Usually not, and this is a South Florida question more than anywhere else. Warm humid air that gets into a cold cabinet leaves its water behind, and in August a door opened often enough will do that on its own. What is worth looking at is whether the gasket is sitting flat all the way round, whether the door is closing square, and whether anything on a shelf is holding it a fraction open. Persistent water in the bottom of the fresh-food side is a different thing and is usually a blocked defrost drain, which is a real repair and a small one. ### What does the maker's warranty actually cover on refrigeration? Three steps, and it is worth knowing which one you are in. Two years, parts and labor. Then the third through fifth year on the cavity liner and the sealed system — compressor, evaporator, condenser, dryer and connecting tubing — with labor still included. Then the sixth through tenth year on that same sealed system, parts only, labor not included. Those are the maker's own words from its own warranty document, not our summary of them. --- **[Read full article: Refrigerators](https://jennairmiami.support/appliances/refrigerator/)**