I came home from a Thanksgiving trip and my 3-year old side-by-side Whirlpool refrigerator was not cooling any longer. All the food had spoiled and the ice in the icemaker was melted.
The fan motor is still running. I checked the condensor coils and they were not very dusty.
Is there a quick check I can do to see if there is something simple that I could fix before I call the repair man?
Hi,
That's not much to go on but it might be a stuck thermostat. try turning the t stat back and forth a bunch of times real fast with the fridge unplugged. Set it to where you want it and turn the unit on. Now put your hand on the compressor and see if it is running. You can see if it is running before you do the trick too. if it is running and not cooling then it could be one of several problems. Oh, besides dusty the condensor coils could still be dirty. You might try buying some coil cleaner and cleaning them for grins.
candice
Hi,
Here is some additional information.
Power is on lights and condensor fans are working fine. The thermostat will shut the condensor fan off when turned to the off position. When turned on it start the condensor fan but the compressor is not working.
This morning I took of the front and back covers and clean the condensor coil.
Hi,
Some -simple- things to check for....
Appliance Repair Aid
The compressor should be turning on and off by the thermostat. Since the condenser fan motor is, that would usually mean the control is good in which case you likely have a problem at the compressor.
The compressor not running could be caused by a defective starting relay, overload protector or defective compressor itself. Since the compressor should be covered by the manufacturer's 5 (or more) year sealed system warranty, I wouldn't advise you to tamper with it in any way but instead call a Whirlpool factory authorized service depot to look into it for you. Any tampering with it could void any warranty remaining on it.
JMO
Dan O.
- Appliance411.com
And I damn sure would not take ANY advice from Candyass...errr....Candice, since she, he, its proven time and time again to be a danger to anyone that takes the advice given seriously.
Is it frost free, or manual defrost?
Which fan? The one under, or the one inside?
Is the compressor warm? Is the fan under it blowing? Does it have a fan under the back?
Does the compressor make any noise? Does it hum? Does it click? Does it do either of these continuously or intermittently?
Are the coils on the back, or the bottom?
The refrigerator is auto-defrost. The fan for the cooling coil in the freezer section is working as is the fan for the condensor coil mounted underneath the refrigerator.
The compressor is not warm, does not make any noise at all and there is no vibration.
Alan
Sounds like you have either a bad compressor or bad compressor starting components. If the defrost timer was jammed, or the thermostat was bad, then the fan under the fridge would not be running. Might also be bad starting components on the compressor, and then a "hard start" kit would do it. I get $130 installed for a hard start kit, and Sears gets about $170 from the one fellow I talked to (I was replacing the hard start kit Sears put in a couple months before me).
Hi,
With the fans running but the compressor not running....possible bad start relay for the compressor, bad overload for the compressor, bad compressor, no power to the compressor....these are probbaly most to least common.
Start relay and over load should be similier to these....
jeff.
Appliance Repair Aid
Got one installed for $85 this morning and it is working again.
Thanks for all the good advice.
Alan
Great! Now if we just knew which message(s) this was in regard to it might put it into some context.
JMO
Dan O.
- Appliance411.com
It is a pleasure to serve. Please ask any other questions here.
Well, I th ink he was talking about a Whirlpool washing machine. You know how they always like Supco 1/3 to 1/4 HP hard start kits.....
Actually, I was thinking the same thing. But I figure if he is not going to give us a clue, I won't worry about it.
No, wait it was the microwave? The toaster? The waring blendor? The range top?
Will you shut the f*ck up??
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