I have a Whirlpool sided-by-side refrigerator with ice & water in the freezer door. Recently the water dispenser has started leaking. The problem is definitely not that the dispenser switch is being pressed as I have physically disconnected the switch for testing.
With the switch connected I press a glass into the dispense. The water dispenses. I physically disconnect the electrical switch (that the glass ultimately presses) but several drops of water continue to drip. Sometimes it is just a few drops, other times it is enough to eventually overflow the collector tray at the bottom of the dispenser. Always though it is just a drip, a few drops at a time, not the full water volume as while filling a glass.
Is this a common problem? What is the usual cause (a solenoid)?
If it is a solenoid (or other part) where is the most common place to locate it (the door, freezer body, etc)?
A single grain of sand in the solenoid can cause the dripping you describe. Do you have a filter in the water line input to the refrigerator? If so, have you ever replaced the filter cartridge? Taking the solenoid apart is one way, or you could try to reverse flush it while the coil is energized, or buy a new one.
A single grain of sand in the solenoid can cause the dripping you describe. Do you have a filter in the water line input to the refrigerator? If so, have you ever replaced the filter cartridge? Taking the solenoid apart is one way, or you could try to reverse flush it while the coil is energized, or buy a new one.
That makes perfect sense as I live in an apartment building and the building turned off the water yesterday, When they turn it back on there is a lot of gunk in it.
I'm going to try to run a lot of water through it, maybe it will wash out.
If I have to replace it where is it most likely located?
Thanks this was really helpful in at least understanding what happened.
I did find it. The bigger problem now is getting to it. It requires moving out the refrig and I live in a small apartment where things are so tight they had to put the floor molding on after the refrig was installed. So pulling it out is going to be a real headache.
I'm really hoping that just letting it run with hose attached to it and draining into the sink will flush it out.
Any way you can set up an IV drip of vinegar into the input side? I gave up on my dispenser- my water is so mineral-laden it clogs up in a month, and those damn filters are expensive around here. (Not to mention, idiot furnace guy blocked the filter in basement ceiling with a new duct run...) Anyway, I turned off icemaker (almost never use ice anyway), and have just let the thing sit. I may get around to fussing with it someday. I suppose after I clean it out, I could feed it from other side of water softener to get around the mineral problem, but ice and water would taste nasty then.
If this fancy fridge (that came with the house) dies, it is getting replaced with a big-box entry level special. Not a fan of side-by-sides anyway. I'd rather have a freezer that a frozen pizza fits in without bending.
I hear you. We bought a minimum sized fridge because we're waiting to sell (arf, arf) and I have to use karate on the frozen pizza. Over the edge of the table and boom!
I also agree - spend the money on CU FT rather than doodads. I had to disconnect the ice-maker one on the old unit for two reasons. It was alway clogging and it would always wake up my wife in the middle of the night when it dropped a load of ice. I couldn't hear a thing but I got poked awake anyway. )-: The only thing I might spring for is a door open alarm.
With a small freezer full of folded pizzas, it's easy for the door to not close tightly enough to seal. That's a very hard condition to detect unless you have switch contacts of some sort right at the opening edge of the door. I've been able to monitor door openings and closings with an X-10 "EagleEye" RF PIR sensor. It sends a signal when it detects lights on or off but only transmits when the box is open (the refrigerator acts Faraday cage when closed so no RF escapes it).
Why am I doing this? It's going to enable me to calculate some basic cost figures about how much juice is used as related to # of door openings a day. My preliminary results show the opening/closing cycles *really* affect electrical usage. Unfortunately, the current system doesn't track the length of time the door is open for each day. I'll have to hardwire a sensor. Fortunately, those plugs for water lines to ice-makers make great access ports for sensors!
This way, I can figure out if I need to mount clear plastic "bellows" to the door (with a reach in-port) to save money on electricity if the market collapses again.
Dan Lanciani got me thinking in a recent thread about refrigerators "freezing up" if you're away for a few days. That seemed to imply that the thermostat never reached its base point when there are a substantial number of openings and closings per day. Another thing I've noticed is that door openings are especially "costly" (relatively speaking) in very humid weather. That makes sense because any air pulled into the unit when opening a door has to be both cooled and dehumidified.
What I would like to do is to figure out where I should move the thermostat to when we're away for a few days to keep the fridge from freezing up without being too high to keep food safe. Next time we go somewhere I will have a recording thermometer (actually RatShack RS232 capable meter with thermocouple probe attached to a PC) to watch what happens to the unit's temperature while we're away. Right now, all I have is an RF dual compartment sensor RF thermometer with settable (but very anemic sounding) alarms that doesn't record
All this pizza talk has made me hungry. Time to unfold a DiGornio Thin'n'Crappy (TM) Pepperoni Pizza (after seeing somewhere that the preservatives in pepperoni have been implicated in cancer).
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Is *nothing* safe to eat anymore?
If you take a single piece of pepperoni from a pizza, is it a pepperonectomy? Once a single piece is removed, does it become a pepperonus? If it hits the floor does it become a pepperonite? If it's on a Japanese pizza is it pepperonium? If these words upset you, are you a pepperonophobic?
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