My LG French door fridge from 2024 has been running way too cold lately - everything in the main compartment is freezing solid, even stuff on the middle shelves. The freezer section is fine at normal temps. I checked the vents aren't blocked and the thermostat is set to 37°F like it should be. Is this a thermostat issue or something with the airflow damper?
Don't assume the thermostat sensor is reading correctly just because the dial shows 37°F - LG models sometimes have a sensor that drifts or gets stuck, which tells the control board to keep cooling even when temps are already below target, so you might be chasing the damper when the real culprit is a faulty sensor sending wrong signals. Have you checked whether the fridge cycles on and off normally, or does it run continuously?
The damper that controls airflow between freezer and fridge is almost certainly stuck open - when it won't close properly, too much cold air floods the main compartment and freezes everything. You'll need to locate it (usually behind the back wall or under the crisper drawers depending on your LG model), clear any ice buildup around it, and make sure it moves freely; if it's mechanically broken you'd need to replace it, but nine times out of ten it's just frozen shut and a little thawing fixes it.
When the thermostat dial reads the right number but the fridge still freezes everything, you're usually looking at either a stuck damper or the thermostat sensor itself giving bad readings to the control board. I had this exact thing happen with an older Samsung a couple years back - turned out the sensor was shot, so the fridge thought it was way warmer than it actually was and kept the compressor running constantly. Since you've already ruled out blocked vents, I'd start by checking if the damper physically moves when you listen near the vent between the fridge and freezer sections - if it's completely stuck or won't budge smoothly, that's your problem. If the damper moves fine, the thermostat sensor or the main control board is likely the culprit, and that's when you'd need a tech to replace it.
Before you blame the damper, pull out the fridge's user manual and actually test the thermostat sensor itself - it's usually a small probe tucked behind the back panel or inside a vent, and if it's reading cold when it isn't, the control board will keep flooding the compartment with freezer air even though the damper is working fine. The damper gets blamed a lot, but a faulty sensor is just as common and people skip it because it requires opening up the back, which voids some warranties if you're not careful about how you document the process.
I had something similar happen with my own fridge a few months back, and it turned out the damper was partially stuck, but what actually sealed it for me was checking whether the sensor was giving accurate readings - the two can look the same from the outside. If you've already verified the vents are clear and the dial setting is right, I'd actually start by testing that small temperature probe (usually behind the back panel or tucked near a vent) with a basic thermometer to see if it's even registering correctly. Sometimes the sensor gets a film of ice on it or just stops responding properly, and the control board thinks the fridge is warmer than it really is, so it keeps cooling harder. If the probe reads way off from what you're measuring manually, that's your culprit and it's a pretty straightforward swap on most LG models.
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