Refrigerator Issue.

Hi,

I'm not sure if this is the place for this question, but I'm eager to try.

About two months ago, I came home to my apartment to find a VERY loud refrigerator and a totally defrosted freezer. I unplugged the unit, cleaned up the mess, called my landlord, and told him the issue. He's a nice guy, and ordered a new fridge that very hour. In the meantime (about thirty minutes later), I plugged the unit back in, and it started working again. I called my landlord back, and told him, but he decided to not cancel the order, since my fridge was old anyway, and clearly unreliable.

So a new one comes, two days later. It's an Avanti FF106W, Refrigerator/Freezer. I'm delighted, of course, and I buy all new food, etc. But when I come home the next day, the freezer has defrosted, just like the old one did, and everything is melting.

I call the landlord, he calls the dealer, they send a repairman (three days later), and he says the door doesn't fit well, so they have to order a new one. That comes a week later, the guy who installs it says he doesn't see why a leaking door would be the problem, but he installs the new one anyway. The problem continues; the freezer freezes and then defrosts.

I call my landlord, and say that the fridge still doesn't work. He calls the place he bought it, insists on a new one.

Here's the thing: the new one came last week, and it does the SAME THING. It freezes, and then defrosts. It doesn't run loud, the light always works, but stuff doesn't stay frozen.

My landlord called an electrician. He came and checked everything, but didn't find any problems. We tried running the fridge, via an extension cord, off another plug; nothing changed.

Any solutions?

Tad

Reply to
Tad
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Might be a bad thermostat, which opens its contacts to stop the compressor when the fridge gets down to setpoint temperature, but doesn't reclose its contacts as soon as it should when the fridge starts warming up.

It could also be a "funny" defrost timer.

I'd ask that another fridge be delivered to you. You could go on like that forever unless they send over a COMPETANT repair person who can stick a temperature sensor inside the unit and be able to stay around for however many hours it takes for the problem to show up.

HTH,

Jwff

Reply to
Jeff Wisnia

Jeff Wisnia wrote in news:xMOdnfmHGpk1mgrYnZ2dnUVZ snipped-for-privacy@comcast.com:

In all three - old one plus two new ones?!!!!

Reply to
Al Bundy

3 units failing sounds like it has to be an electrical problem.

Does the defrosting happen when you are home?

Losing power would be the only thing I can think of that would make this happen.

Reply to
Terry

You're right of course, I misread the OP and didn't note that he'd gotten a second new unit already, my bad.

If he takes a motor driven analog electric clock and plugs it into the same circuit he'd see pretty easily if the power drops out while he's not around. (Unless it goes off for eggzackly 12 hours. )

Jeff

Reply to
Jeff Wisnia

Jeff Wisnia wrote in news:Ubedna482-

2uvQrYnZ2dnUVZ snipped-for-privacy@comcast.com:

That'll tell some good info for sure. Especially if he comes home, numbers are blown off and hands are embedded in the stove frame.

Reply to
Al Bundy

Set the defrost timer to activate @ 3:30am when no one is around to notice.

Rob

Reply to
trainfan1

i have found modern refrigerators often want 24 hours to come to temperature. and then their control instructions may caution you to only adjust 1/2 a number at a time per day on the settings dial. meanwhile store food locked in a safe fridge or outdoor cooler at safe

40 degrees F or less. buy and use a $10 pyrex brand kitchen digital food thermometer which has memory for hi/low and present temp on the display. place it in a glass of water in the refrigerator. check it hourly and see if you can get it to 35 to 40 in the fridge. freezer should be zero F. once refrig temp of the product water is stable, turn thermometer off then on to reset hi/low to the present temp. continue to monitor the water undisturbed for 24 hours. read the min/max to determine the product's temperature range.

Tad wrote:

Reply to
buffalobill

Reply to
buffalobill

Okay. So that's all been helpful, but I guess I should be more succinct.

The problem is that I have a freezer that freezes everything, and then defrosts. It gets cold enough to do the job, but then it warms up and everything thaws. It does this several times a day. Even when it's not freezing, though, it still has electricity, because the light in the fridge always goes on.

This is the third freezer that's done this, so we think it must be something electrical, separate from the fridge. But what could it be? The electrician had no idea. He tested the circuit, and it seemed to be okay. What should he test for? Any electricians in the bunch?

We've tried plugging the thing into a plug, via an extension cord, to another plug, far away. But it did the same thing.

Ideas?

buffalobill wrote:

Reply to
Tad

An electrician isn't the person to call. An appliance repair guy is. They will stick a temperature probe in the freezer, connected to some kind of paper chart recorder/printer that shows the temperature inside over a period of many hours, sometimes days. It is very important that you NEVER open the freezer door during this test.

It sounds like there's something wrong with your temperature sensor and/or timer. No electrician will find that.

Or - does the compressor motor not have enough air circulation to stay cool? Pull the fridge out from the wall a few inches and see what that does.

Reply to
Bob M.

From your description, I'm thinking a defective defrost termination thermostat. An appliance guy can replace that. The other "maybe" is a bad condensor fan. But the termination thermostat is most likely.

Reply to
Stormin Mormon

You two do know that this is the 3 fridge has the same problem. It sounds like the only thing it can be is the electric.

Take a meter and measure the voltage at the outlet,

Reply to
Terry

Yep, sounds like an electrical issue. Highly unlikely you'd have 3 units in a row with the exact same problem. I suspect the power is intermittently going out in that outlet. What you might do is plug an electric clock into that outlet - the EXACT same outlet the fridge/freezer is plugged into. A few hours later, look and see what time is on the clock. If it's 2 hours behind, that means the electricity went off for 2 hours. You get the picture...

Reply to
bstevens

I don't see how it can be an electrical issue, give this:

Any freezer with a reasonable amount of food in it that gets cold enough to freeze everything, isn't going to suddenly have it all thaw out if it just loses power for a couple hours. If you leave a freezer full of frozen food turned off for 12, or even 24 hrs, it will just begin to thaw. The power would have to go out for a long time to account for this. The idea of pluggin a clock into the same outlet should quickly eliminate that. I'd vote for a defective defrost system, however then the old refrig having similar symptom would have to be a coincidence.

Reply to
trader4

Wow, you're showing your age. Now days if the power goes out, clocks blink 12:00.

And just to share MY age, I do have a plug in Westclox for just that reason.

Reply to
Stormin Mormon

Okay. I'll have the electrician check for cycling. For what it's worth, though, even when the ice is melting/melted, the light in the fridge always goes on. So there's always electricity. Nothing else in the house is affected.

I don't know anything at all about electricity, but it almost seems like the freezer motor overheats, shuts down, and then starts up again. Who knows?

Thanks for all the ideas, guys.

Storm> Wow, you're showing your age. Now days if the power goes out, > clocks blink 12:00.

Reply to
Tad

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