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Troubleshooting

It Looks Like One Appliance. It Is Two

An Electrolux column refrigerator and freezer are two separate 33-inch appliances, each 19 cubic feet, sold as a pair and finished with flat or louvered trim kits so they read as one run of cabinetry. They share the trim and nothing behind it: two sealed systems, two compressors, two controls and two defrost circuits. The model numbers differ by a single letter — EI33AR80W for the refrigerator and EI33AF80W for the freezer — which is why people describing a problem on the phone name the wrong one often enough that we always ask. One failing tells you nothing about the other; what they genuinely share is the installation, so when both go strange at once we look at the circuit and the air path rather than at the appliances.

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The full guide

Troubleshooting By Appliance Content Team Last checked 2 minute read

An Electrolux column refrigerator and freezer standing side by side behind a matched trim kit is the most convincing optical illusion in a kitchen.

One grille kit, two appliances The signature Viking refrigeration installation is a full-height All Refrigerator standing beside a full-height All Freezer, joined across the top by a shared grille kit so the pair looks like a single wide appliance. They are two separate machines: each has its own compressor and sealed system, its own control board, its own door and gasket, and its own model and serial number. A problem in one says nothing about the other. IT LOOKS LIKE ONE APPLIANCE. IT IS TWO. ONE SHARED GRILLE KIT ACROSS THE TOP ALL REFRIGERATOR no freezer in it at all Its own compressor and sealed system Its own control and its own alarms Its own door, gasket and hinges Its own model and serial number ALL FREEZER a complete second machine Its own compressor and sealed system Its own control and its own alarms Its own door, gasket and hinges Its own model and serial number A warm freezer here is not half of a refrigerator going wrong. It is a whole appliance, and it is diagnosed, priced and repaired as one — on the same visit, which is why the pair is worth mentioning.
Read the model plate before deciding what has stopped. The grille kit is trim; everything behind it is two of.

Two appliances wearing one face

The pair is 33 inches each, 19 cubic feet each, and sold with flat or louvered trim kits precisely so that the join disappears and the two read as a single run of joinery. That is the point of them, and it works.

Behind the trim there is nothing shared. Two sealed systems. Two compressors. Two controls. Two defrost circuits. Two model plates.

Which means a great deal for a repair, and almost all of it is good news.

One failing says nothing about the other

If the refrigerator column is drifting and the freezer column is perfect, the freezer has just proved something useful: the power is fine, the circuit is fine, the room is fine, and the installation is breathing well enough for one of them. The problem is inside one cabinet.

The reverse is equally true. A warm freezer beside a healthy refrigerator is one appliance's problem, not a wall of them.

What is worth paying attention to is both going strange at once. That is the pattern that points at what they actually share — the circuit they sit on, the air path through the trim above them, or the room itself.

The letter that gets misread

EI33AR80W is the refrigerator. EI33AF80W is the freezer. R and F, one character apart, in the middle of a string of nine.

People describing a problem on the phone name the wrong one regularly, and it is entirely understandable. It also sends the wrong part on the van, which is why we ask rather than assume — and why photographing the plate once, inside the door on the upper left wall, saves that conversation forever.

What the shared grille does change

The trim kit sits across the top of both and carries the air path. On a freestanding refrigerator the coil breathes through a grille at floor level that anybody can reach; on a pair like this the route is decided by the trim and by whatever the joiner did above it.

Nothing on either appliance reports that route silting up, and in coastal air it does. A column that has been running longer every month for three years is describing a blocked air path, and it will keep working right up until the day it does not.

That is the single most valuable thing to know about owning this pair, and it is also the cheapest thing anybody can do about them.

Getting one out

Neither of these comes forward easily, and both are a two-person job. The floor in front of them is usually the expensive part of the room, the water line to the refrigerator was often run before the flooring went down, and the trim above may have been fitted by a joiner rather than a delivery crew.

None of that is a problem when it is planned. All of it is a problem when it is discovered at the door, which is why we ask how the units are fitted when the appointment is made.

If it turns out to be a repair

Every job on this site is priced the same way: an on-site diagnostic first, the figure agreed in writing before anybody starts.

  • Two tall stainless columns of identical width standing side by side in a run of pale cabinetry, a single trim panel across the tops of both, doors closed, seen square on.
    33-inch all-freezer column

    Freezers

    Two freezers in the line, and both of them are the same thing: a 33-inch, 19 cubic foot all-freezer column, built to stand beside the refrigerator column of the same size and be trimmed to match. There is no chest freezer here, no upright for a garage and no convertible box. A freezer on this badge is half of a wall of cabinetry, usually in a kitchen or a butler's pantry, and it is treated as joinery by everybody except the person who has to open it up. Practically, that means everything the refrigerator column needs — clearance, a clean air path, access — matters here twice over.

    • Two models, and they are one design: a 19 cu. ft. 33-inch all-freezer column
    • No chest freezer and no garage upright — this line does not build them
    • Sold as a pair with the refrigerator column, behind matching trim
    Freezer repair
  • Two pairs of gloved hands easing a built-under cabinet forward out of its opening under a stone counter
    from $185

    Built-in and column access

    Not a repair in itself — the work that has to happen before one. Columns sit behind trim kits, counter-depth cabinets are scribed into openings, and under-counter units are captured by the countertop above them. Getting any of those out far enough to reach the back is genuine work, sometimes two people, and occasionally it means removing trim that was fitted by a joiner. We price it separately so you can see it rather than finding it inside a repair bill.

    • Trim kits, scribed openings and captured under-counter units
    • Priced separately so the access is visible rather than buried in a part
    • Sometimes a two-person job, and we say so when we book it
    What this involves

Questions people ask about this

Where is the model plate?

Inside the door, on the upper left side wall. Photograph it once with the whole number in focus and every question anybody asks about the appliance afterwards starts from a settled fact.

Can I run the freezer column in a garage?

It was not built for that. There is no garage-rated freezer in this line, and in a South Florida garage a 19 cubic foot column runs continuously — which is the environment rather than a failure.

Do both have to come out to work on one?

Usually not, but the trim above them is shared, so reaching either can mean disturbing it. That is worth allowing for when the appointment is made rather than discovering it on the day.

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Tell us the model number and what it is doing.

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This article is based on:

  • Official manufacturer documentation
  • Internal repair procedures
  • Technician repair history
  • Company quality standards
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