Are the vents between the fridge and the freezer by any chance blocked?

There should be two settings, one for the refrigerator section and one for the freezer. The Freezer setting controls the compressor cycling. The Refrigerator setting controls the air transfer from the freezer to the refrigerator side.

Once you get the freezer to stabilize between 0*F and +5*F, you then adjust the Refrigerator setting to get you to, say, 37* and 42*F. The temperature you measure at any one time will depend on where the fridge is in its run cycle.

Thanks for the input and link to the manual - after seeing the User Manual saying that it should be around 37* at the factory setting of 5, I am concerned that I have a lemon since it won't even get that low at the highest setting of 9!

I checked the vents and the air seems to be flowing properly. The freezer has been at 0 degrees for the past couple days. Today when I checked the fridge again, it was in the mid-40s in the middle section and 40 at the top. Is that normal for the temp to be inconsistent throughout the fridge?

Also, did I make a mistake by having the temperature at the factory setting of 5 and then increasing it directly to 9 without going up 1 number every 12 hours?

I will continue to monitor the temps at different parts of the day. Is there anything else I can check? :)

Make sure you're measuring the temperature properly. You can search on the web, but I think the best way is to put the thermometer in a glass of water in the fridge. Also I think it makes a difference if the fridge is completely empty vs. having food in it.

It's not unusual for the temperature to vary by a few degrees inside the refgrigerator. The coldest temperature in the refrigerator is usually next to the vents- that's where I keep my milk because we like it really cold.

Just as a comparison point, my fridge (Frigidaire Gallery) is kept at 0F to slightly below in the freezer and 32F to 34F in the cooler. It does fluctuate +/- 2 degrees. My probes are at the top of each compartment, just hanging in the air. Temp appears to be lower at the bottom of the cooler (meat in bottom compartment will occasionally be frosty). I usually have the cooler control set about 2/3 to 3/4 of the way up.

The "danger zone" for bacteria growth is supposed to be 40F to 140F, so I'd want my fridge to keep the cooler appreciably below 40F.

I would measure using the "glass of water" approach, at top and bottom of the cooler, with freezer set to hold 0F or even -5F. If there is an adjustable vent between freezer and cooler, try having it fully open. If, after all that, cooler won't hold appropriate temp, I'd have it looked at.

If a new fridge won't cool properly call for warranty service right away. This happened with the last fridge I bought (10 years ago). The tech came out and I can't recall what the problem was, but it was a known issue which he fixed.