Tenants' refrigerator problem

Get a couple of thermometers into the fridge first, to be sure everyone agrees on what "too hot" or "too cold" means. The tenants may be right, but they may also be wrong.

Having been there, done that (with the wife versus a tenant) I would say this is indeed very sound advice ;-)

Someone has already mentioned cleaning the condenser coils. That's the hot part with a fan and more than likely, it's underneath the fridge behind a grill. A long cleaning brush is made for reaching under there and shop-vac helps too.

TDD

"Marilyn & Bob" wrote in news:i2lgiv$br$ snipped-for-privacy@news.eternal-september.org:

Tell them to close the fridge door.

Seems pretty clear they turned the dials the wrong direction...

Check the coils as already mentioned. Be sure the evaporator fan inside is working too. That is what circulates the air between the two compartments. If it is stopped the coils can freeze and give the result you are seeing.

Next is the defrost timer and heating element. If they are not working, coils can freeze. Quick temporary fix is to open the doors and let it thaw for 12 hours or so and it wil be OK for a few days until the coil freezes again.

Be sure to check the timer. All the timers I've ever seen have a slot so you can manually turn them to check the run/defrost cycle while it's still in place. I'd check the timer for sure because if the frig is iced up solid the circulating fan will be unable to circulate air {thus the fridge will get warm) and it will need to be thawed out so the fan can circulate the air after a new timer is installed. Here ya go,

There should be air blowing out from the bottom of the fridge. If there is, that's fine, but when there wasn't for me, I move the fridge out and found a dead mouse stuck in the fan. It had been like this a couple weeks, but when I knocked the mouse out with a stick, the fan started fine. Problem solved?

I thought so but a few days later I noticed it was still warm inside. Again no air at the bottom. Again take the fridge out, and I guess I knocked a block of insulation out of place because now it was in the way of the fan.

I thought I might have damaged the fridge by running without a fan for

Others have offered good advice but he are a couple of points to keep in mind.

Many modern units do not have a defrost timer like mentioned. They rely on a different system. I don't recall what it is called.

Sometimes due to operator error even a frost free unit can form an ice blockage and restrict the airflow. This can happen when the unit is set too cold or some food restricts the airflow from the freezer to fridge. Remove food, turn off unit, open the door and allow plenty of time for it all to melt. Faster results can be obtained by removing covers and using a hair dryer or heat gun on the lowest setting.

Turn unit back on a check to make sure that all the little fans are moving air.

I've seen this before. Is your tenant a black woman on the west side of Rochester? No, she was on the first floor. But, it's a common thing with renters. What happened with the Rochester folks, the freezer got too cold, and the fridge warmed up.

It sounds as if something broke, and the knobs were secondary. Much like when the car runs out of gas, and so you tromp the gas pedal to the floor.

As others have suggested. Check for fans working, dusty coils, frost on the back or floor of the freezer. Please let us know what you find.

Thanks all. I'll follow your suggestions. Just one more question. Assuming these things don't fix the problem and I need to purchase a new refrigerator, I assume that there is no problem in having the new refrigerator in a horizontal position for the 30 seconds to one minute it takes to lift it over the banister. I assume we will plug it in about 5-10 minutes after that maneuver.

In article , "Stormin Mormon" wrote: [snipped]

Chris, you've been asked politely a number of times to fix your broken posting format. Your persistent refusal to do so demonstrates that you are either too stupid to understand the problem, or too rude to care. This has led a number of people to killfile you, myself included.

Now I see you've changed your ID, in an apparent effort to evade the killfiles. This leads me to conclude that you are also a nymshifting troll who is either too stupid to understand or too rude to care.

(again)

oil takes a while to settle back down, and it gets into places that it shouldn't if you tilt it on it's side. i'd wait a bit after setting it vertical before plugging it in. 10 minutes would be a minimum time. the instructions usually state 24 hours if it's stored in a horizontal position.

He just *HAS* to be different. Not surprising when you consider what Mormons call "lingerie".

Just my opinion, when the best shot you can take is to insult another person's religion, it might be the time to keep your mouth shut.

But it was so easy to fulfill his unspoken request for such treatment.

I'll bet a large sum that it is either the defrost timer or maybe the defrost heating element itself. With all the warm weather, the unit was proooobably running more, and any defrost heater problem would be magnified.

But it's not being stored in a horizontal position, only placed that way for