My refrigerator is running..........however, everything in the freezer has defrosted, and the refrigerator part stuff is just semi-cold.......I turned the controls all the way to the coldest. I do not understand what could have caused this, and what should I do? Is it on its way out? It's a Whirlpool, and it does appear to be quite old. It was here when I bought the house 3 yrs ago, I have no idea how old it is. thanks in advance for any advice! Melissa
If you are capable of doing the work, it may tell you what you need. If you are not comfortable taking apart some of the unit, just call a service tech. Plan on spending a minimum of $100 for the call, plus some parts. If it is old and a low end model, it may be more cost effective to buy new.
Hi, First thing I'd check, defrost timer and it's contacts, fan which push cold air around. Defrost heater can be on or off all the time depending on how it fails, then compressor could overwork leading to burn out, if fan is stuck(seized), cold air won't circulate evenly. Beyond that, I'd call service tech. Good luck,
I would suggest removing all food and leaving the door propped open overnight. (Remember to make it safe from children and animals while the door is open - SAFETY first.) If it starts working then it was likely a frosted up evaporator coil. Next problem is to find out why. (this is a variation of what Tony was suggesting.)
Most likely the defrost heater died. They often do. If you take everything out and remove the back of the freezer compartment you will see if this is true. A fan blowing on the coils will defrost it faster. Then you can reassemble and it will work fine for a week or two. Try to not open the freezer door often. This will give you time to either get it fixed, or to order replacement heating coil(s) to change them yourself.
It is possible that the timer went bad, but these fail less often. If you look at the heater(s) you can tell if they are burned out.
I just had the same thing happen to my 12 year old refrigerator about 8 months ago. I took it out doors and using a air compressor, I blow all the dust/dirt off the coils under the refrigerator. Working excellent ever sence. Have a look at the coils first to check an see if they are dirty, If they are make sure you take it out doors or enclose the fridge with plastic before you clean it, I was completely cover in dust after I blow mine out.
If the problem is the thermostat, this might work. But if it is not the thermostat, it's already not cold enough to satisfy the thermostat so this probably won't have any effect.
Everyone on earth is dying, but some of us have 99 years left in us.
My Kenmore, probably by Whirlpool, is 27 years old and working fine**.
A few years ago I had just the symptoms you had, plus no air blowing out the front (it was a model where the air was supposed to blow out the front. I don't think all models are like that.) So I rolled it away from the wall, took off the rear cover, and with a flashlight saw that the little fan wasn't spinning. Looking more closely, I saw that there was a mouse stuck in the fan. Didn't want to touch the thing, so I poked at the fan with a stick a few times. The mouse fell out and the fan began to spin (and we all joined hands and threw the fellow in. Oops). Then everything was fine.
A couple months later, same symptoms. Some people when they have the same problem more than once seem to think it will happen again and again forever, but not so. This time a piece of foam rubber had fallen into the fan. Picked it out and everything was fine.
I let 2 or 3 months go by the first time, and 2 weeks go by the second time, knowing or believing I might permanently ruin the fridge, when the most it needed was a new fan, because I was lethargic and had other things to do. But it's been three years or more and so far, it doesn't seem to have hurt it, but I would recommend fixing it as soon as possible. In my case, it actually only took 10 minutes and no parts.
**It doesn't have any broken plastic or other broken parts. Of course I'm careful not to break anything, especially since I know plastic gets somewhat more brittle with age, as the solvents inside evaporate.
The door gasket didn't have any cracks until 5 or 10 years ago, but it has quite a few now. None go all the way through, certainly not through both sides of a box shaped gasket, and I don't think they have effect on keeping the cold in, especially since it is all compressed when the door is shut. If it gets bad, I'll replace the gasket, even though they are expensive for just one part. 50 dollars? plus I have to cut the pieces to the right length? 10 minutes?
First, turning up the controls is worse than useless. The thermostat already knows it's warm. And turning up the freezer control keeps whatever cold in the machine into the freezer. Just closes a little door between the freezer and refrig.
From what you're describing, the unit has a slow leak, and is low on freon. You should call an appliance repair guy. Or a refrigeration guy. Look in the phone book yellow pages.
She said everthing in the freezer defrosted. If it was a defrost problem, the back of the freezer would be cold. You have a good solution, but you are applying it to the wrong problem.
Not necessarily. I've seen this problem quite a few times.
The most common cause is that the refrigerator simply isn't defrosting, the evaporator coils are iced over and the fan is often jammed with ice.
The back of the refrigerator won't be cold - nothing will be since there is no air moving thru the iced up evaporator.
Most common reasons:
Defrost timer has died or is simply stuck. The older clockwork ones, such as this refriegerator undoubtedly has, can be rotated thru their cycle by turning the knob on them, either by hand or with a screwdriver. By cycling the timer by hand two or three times, you can force a manual defrost much faster than simply leaving the door open.
The fan motor has simply died due to stuck bearings or other common failure.
In my experience, the actual defrost heater element rarely fails but sometimes the upper temp limit snap-disk thermostat in series with the heater element does fail.
The drainage tube typical at the bottom of a drip pan below the evaporator has clogged with ice or some foreign substance. Some mid
70's refrigerators, Amana among others, had a chronic problem with ice accumulating in this drip tube. Retrofits modifications were needed, such as a metal tube bringing more defrost heat down into that drainage tube.
A badly torn or leaking door gasket allowing so much warm air to enter the unit that the defrost sequences don't keep up with ice formation.
A refrigerator simply low on refrigerant due to a leak in the sealed system. If that's the case, scrap the old unit.
It may be working fine, but rest assured it's costing you a bundle to operate. Depending on how much you spend, a new refrigerator would probably pay for itself in under two years. Unless you live somewhere that energy is free or extraordinarily cheap. I suggest you take a look here:
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I witnessed this first hand when we replaced our refrigerator in 2005. It was original to the home which was built in 1964. It ran fine; no problems what so ever - but it was ancient. Anyway, after it was gone, our electric bill dropped roughly $55 per month. The new refrigerator paid for itself in nine months.
In the last 5 months, my total bills have been $47.50, $52.44, $45.00, $49.19 and $39.20. Not every month is the same length. Average 46 dollars.
The much ballyhood 72% increase in Maryland effective July 1, after 6 years of no increases, is only on no more than half** of the bill, so the increase will average 16.50 dollars for me, for an average monthly bill of 62.56 dollars, so I don't think I can save 55 dollars like you did.
**This was made clear at the beginning in a long article in the paper, but neither the broadcast news nor the commercials by the electric company itself have mentioned this for months. I think they said it once. The radio and tv here is not too good, I guess.
I'm paying 4.82 cents a KwHr and it should increase to 6.56 cents
Maybe if I wait longer the new ones will be even more efficient. This would also cut down on the amount of shopping I have to do.
And I would also have to replace my stove, which also works fine, since they are matching colors and I don't think I can get harvest gold anymore, except used.
Also, just because the url says I can find one with standard features for under 450, that doesn't mean that's the one I want. There are posts here all the time that tell us to avoid the less reliable brands and get better ones. Sometimes that means spending more money. Plus as the url points out, I will lose the interest on 450 dollars or more, plus tax and delivery charge. Maybe that will only be 4 percent, but that's more than 20 dollars a year, which I think is between 2 and 4 months worth of electricity savings.
Much of what I would pay for the new fridge and stove is expended by the manufacturer and vendor for fuel, including making and shipping packaging and the appliances themselves. Plus there is some cost to the county of disposing of my appliances.
Rememnber that I wasn't complaining about the cost of electricity. Maybe your post will have some effect on the OP.
When I have time, I'll get the model number of my fridge, but I don't like shopping or throwing things away, so it won't make me buy something.
Maybe I'll measure the door gasket and keep my eyes open for a used but in good condition door gasket.
It seems like the major variable is the length of the 4 pieces.
Oh yeah, if I wait long enough, someone will give me one for free, plus shipping. I read some mailing lists where free stuff is offered, including a couple refrigerators in the last 2 months, but they may be older than that efficiency change, and I don't want one yet.
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