Refrigerator not Cooling Intermittently

[SMS]

I have a Maytag MTF2455DRW refrigerator that's a bit over 10 years old. Twice in the past six months it suddenly decided that it wasn't going to cool very much, even though the compressor and compressor fan were operating, and the fan in the freezer was operating. In both cases, a day later it started working again just fine. It never totally stopped working, it just wasn't very cold so all the ice cream melted and the ice maker stopped making ice (it has it's own temp sensor and if it's not cold enough then it stops).

I opened the back of the freezer. there was a little ice build up on the temp sensor and wires which I removed, but it didn't start it working again after I did that, it was at least 12 more hours before it suddenly started cooling again. I cleaned the area around the compressor of all the dust, but that had no effect either.

It seems that the fan in the freezer is always on. It used to cycle on and off.

Prior to the failure I had been getting a lot of water on the floor, which I think was caused by ice blockage of the drain tube (there was no ice blocking the metal tray in the freezer that connects to the tube). I poured some hot water down the tube and it did reach the bottom).

This is the information on it: "

" and the wiring diagram is at "" If the freezer fan is running then the compressor should be running. I guess it's possible that it stops running whenever I slide the refrigerator back against the wall, but whenever I check it it's running.

Any advice is appreciated.

[ransley]

Maybe the defrost timer is going bad, mine broke in the On position so it didnt cool, I wonder how many friges are junked from a cheap 10$ clock.

[SMS]

That may be it. I did notice that the left side of the freezer, outside, was very warm when the cooling was not working well, and it's not warm now.

OTOH, it seems like if the defrost timer is on then the fans and compressor should be off (the SPDT relay in the defrost timer is either connected to the defrost heating element or the fans and compressor), see "

". BTW, the defrost timer is $62 + tax + shipping, not $10.

[ransley]

My timer ran independant of compressor circuit and cycle, its was a clock in the frige area. A watt-amp meter can tell when its on as mine takes twice the power and costed me about 50 a month in my electric bill.