LG Refrigerator Not Cooling? Check the Display for OFF First

If the display on your LG says OFF, the refrigerator is not broken. It is in demo mode — the setting LG uses for units sitting on a shop floor — and it disables cooling in both the refrigerator and freezer sections completely to save energy.

This catches people who bought a floor model, and people whose control panel got pressed while cleaning. Everything looks normal: the lights work, the panel responds, the dispenser works. Nothing gets cold, because the appliance has been told not to cool.

Check this before anything else. It costs nothing and it is the single most common reason an LG appears to have failed completely.

Turning demo mode off

LG’s procedure: open the right refrigerator door and hold the Refrigerator and Ice Plus buttons at the same time.

You will hear a beep when you first press them. Keep holding until you hear a second beep. That is the part people get wrong — they press, hear the first beep, let go, and conclude it did not work.

When it exits, the panel returns to its normal display and you will hear the dispenser initialise.

Two caveats from LG’s own guidance: button positions vary by model, and on some units the combination is Ice Plus and Freezer held for five seconds instead. If neither works on yours, the manual for your model number will have the right one.

Every major brand has this mode and shows it differently. On a Samsung it appears as OF OF, O FF or scrolling bars.

Then work out which compartment is actually failing

“Not cooling” covers two different faults, and LG’s own support content blurs them — the page that surfaces most often for this question is actually about the freezer not being cold enough, which is a different problem.

Put a thermometer in each compartment for a few hours.

Both warm. The cooling system is not running. Continue below.

Fridge warm, freezer cold. This is not a cooling failure at all. A cold freezer proves the compressor and sealed system are working, and the fault is in the airflow path that carries cold air between the compartments. That has its own diagnosis: a warm fridge with a cold freezer.

Getting this wrong sends you looking for an expensive fault when you have a cheap one.

The free checks

With demo mode ruled out and both compartments confirmed warm, two things cost nothing.

The temperature setting. Panels get pressed. Confirm the setting is where you expect before assuming hardware.

Blocked vents. Cold air enters through vents inside the cabinet. A full shopping load stacked against them stops circulation as effectively as a failed part, and the symptom looks identical.

Condenser coils and airflow at the back. Coils packed with dust make the system unable to shed heat, and a refrigerator that cannot shed heat cannot cool. Pull it out, vacuum them, and confirm the space behind it is not blocked.

Before you pay anyone: check your warranty

This is the part specific to LG, and it is worth more than anything else in this article if it applies to you.

A class-action settlement, finally approved in December 2020, covered LG refrigerators with linear compressors manufactured between 1 January 2014 and 31 December 2017 — around 31 models and roughly 1.5 million units. The allegation was that these refrigerators could stop cooling anywhere from a few months to a few years into ownership.

As part of that settlement LG extended warranty coverage substantially beyond the original terms, with reporting at the time describing parts coverage running to ten years and labour to five years from the original purchase date for French door and side-by-side models with the linear compressor.

What that means practically: if your LG is from that era and has stopped cooling, you may be entitled to a covered repair rather than a bill. The cash compensation claim window has long closed, but warranty coverage runs from the purchase date rather than from the settlement.

So before you book a diagnostic visit, find your model and serial number — the label is inside the fridge compartment — and contact LG to ask what coverage applies. It takes one phone call and it is the difference between a free repair and a four-figure one.

There has also been more recent litigation concerning later models. We are not going to characterise the outcome of anything still in progress, but it is a further reason to ask LG about coverage before assuming you are paying.

When it is the compressor

If demo mode is off, both compartments are warm, the coils are clean, and nothing is running — no hum from the compressor at the back, no warmth from it — the fault is in the cooling system itself.

The general diagnosis for that, including the click pattern that distinguishes a failed start component from a failed compressor, is in a compressor that will not run.

Two LG-specific notes on top of it. First, check the warranty question above before spending anything, because it changes what this repair costs you. Second, sealed system work is federally regulated and requires certification — this is not a homeowner repair regardless of how confident you are.

How most LG cases end

Most LG “not cooling” complaints that arrive with a working panel and lights end at demo mode or at a setting, and cost nothing.

The next tier — dirty coils, blocked vents, a door not sealing — costs an hour.

The compressor tier is the expensive one, and it is also the one where LG owners have an option other owners do not: check the coverage first. A refrigerator from that model range is one phone call away from being someone else’s bill.