I've been noticing for over a year that the sides around both doors of the refrigerator (top freezer, kitchen-aid, circa 1994) have at times been hot to the touch. I also notice that both doors don't close well on their own. They need some help to make sure they are sealed closed and even then sometimes I can feel some cool air escaping.
So I decided to get someone to look at it and called out a repair service. The guy immediately took off the bottom panel on the back and showed me that the fan wasn't turning. Now looking up what it is I see that it is called the condensor fan. He said that needed to be replaced and quoted me $100+ in labor and $100+ for parts.
So I got down and took a look and saw that there is a piece of thick flexible cardboard that was buckled up and interfering with the fan. So I pushed the cardboard back to where it should be and now the fan is working. He says that isn't going to fix the problem. But his english was pretty bad and he wasn't able to explain why that wouldn't fix it. I think he was trying to say that the compressor was damaged too, pointing out that it was extremely hot to the touch, although that would have meant that I would have been paying more than the $200 he had just mentioned. As I can't speak Azerbijianie and couldn't follow his logic I gave up on him and paid the minimum for the service call and will try to figure this out on my own.
So if the condensor fan was not working because it was stuck and now it is unstuck, is it possible that I will have fixed my overheating problem? It's only been less than an hour since I got the fan turning but the compressor still feels quite hot, but the refrigerator is working and the sides feel okay, but that might be just because I made sure they were closed well. Should I feel the compressor get cooler and if not do I need a new compressor that might have been damaged from having a condensor fan?
\\Samson