Whirlpool Refrig Help Needed!!!

[J Combine]

I have an older Whirlpool refrigerator that intermittently goes warm on me. Like up to 50 degrees!

It's a 1991 model and the number is:

ET18NKXYW00 if that helps any.

It's a standard model with freezer on top, one temp control for refrigerator portion and another for the freezer. I think it's really just an air diverter.

I have no other symptoms except that it is blowing air when it fails, only the air is hot :(.

It will happen maybe once a month and I have yet to pin it down. Coils are clean, drain etc looks good.

I have no idea where the timer on this thing is located or if it is a solid state model or electro-mechanical.

Any ideas on how to troubleshoot it?

Tia

[ms]

Sounds like a similar problem I had with a Kenmore side by side. Every other month the freezer would start to warm up, so I would adjust the freezer temp. controller another notch cooler. After about 3 adjustments the freezer crapped out and I called in a repair tech.

He had to defrost the coils behind the back panel of the freezer with boiling water, and also replaced a temperature sensor. He pointed out to me the cooling coils behind the front kickplate of the refrigerator(under the doors), and showed me they were totally filled with pet hair from our golden retriever. The service tech recommended cleaning these coils once every 6 months at least.

Anyway, the repair bill from the service tech came in at $128.00. He needed approximately 45 minutes to complete the service call.. I feel this was a fair price since it was a Saturday, and the food I had in the freezer was considerably more than the $128.00 paid for the service call.

Mike S Niagara Falls, Ca.

[J Combine]

Hi Mike!!

Similar to my problem only you can crank the temp controls and, when it's failing, it does nothing except blow hot air until it decides to kick in.

Funny you should mention the ice because I *have* had that happen a couple of times and went the boiling water routine as well. In fact the entire freezer part was like an igloo with everything frozen and ice stalagmites hanging around etc!

However, the last 2 times it has failed, including the other day, the coils were not frozen and the coils behind and under the unit are clean and free from debris (I have cats and dogs, so I double checked).

That is a very fair price and don't forget how sick you could have gotten had you eaten spoiled food.

Do you happen to know which temperature sensor he replaced?

I'm wondering if my unit is getting stuck in defrost mode?

Or maybe my temperature unit is intermittently flaky?

Thanks for the response!

[J Combine]

Anybody?