Urgent, refrigerator problem !

Status
Not open for further replies.
H

HTSS_TR

Joined
Apr 17, 2006
Messages
19,528
Location
Lake Forest, CA
My 5-6 years old bottom freezer Maytag model# MBF2556KEW suddently stopped blowing cold air in both sections, freezer and refrigerator since last night.

The compressor (black round thing at the bottom on the rear) is very warm, the condenser coil near the bottom front was covered with dirt, I vacuumed it.

What can be bad ? The relay or the compressor start device ? and where can I locate it and how to test if it is working or not ?

Anyway, it is 99% chance that I am wrong in describing the problem(s)

Any suggestion how to diagnostic the problem and how to test the potential defective part(s) ?
 
I have no idea where the temp control switch wire of this frig is, the temp control switch is at the top of the frig, but I have no idea how to gain access to the wires.
 
Is there a cover that is held in place by screws at the temp switch? You may be able to hear the switch open and close if you turn it through it's range. Unless it's a solid state control.
 
Open up the freezer and remove the panel where that hides the evaporator. Sometimes it will ice up or not get cold at all. See which one it is and report back.
 
Not an Expert.....but my advice is.... give it a condensor and coil cleaning. Followed by a Defrosting by unplugging it and allowing the ice built up to melt away. Then go from there.
 
Originally Posted By: Leo99
Open up the freezer and remove the panel where that hides the evaporator. Sometimes it will ice up or not get cold at all. See which one it is and report back.



my bet is on this. bad defrost timer will cause it. I see it a couple times a month with the 5-25 year old fridges.

If the evap fan and compressor come on then only can be two things. refrigerant leak or iced up.
 
The defrost cycle timer can fail and when it does part of the lower unit frosts up. Cold air is fed from the lower (freezer) unit to the
upper unit and when the passage frosts no cold air can flow to the upper portion letting it gradually warm to room temp. You have to remove the back panel of the freezer and replace the defrost timer unit as well as defrosting the air distribution duct. To have a pro do it is a couple of hundred bucks, including the part.
 
First, thank you all for your advice.

I checked the evaporator at the bottom of the frig, no ice at all just a little dust covered it, I vacuumed it carefully and it is very clean now but the frig is still not working after disconnected and reconnected the power.

I called a local "Appliance repair service", a person took my message and will have someone call later today.
 
Originally Posted By: HTSS_TR
First, thank you all for your advice.

I checked the evaporator at the bottom of the frig, no ice at all just a little dust covered it, I vacuumed it carefully and it is very clean now but the frig is still not working after disconnected and reconnected the power.

I called a local "Appliance repair service", a person took my message and will have someone call later today.



That's not the evaporator. The evaporator is what gets cold inside the freezer. The freezer gets cold and there is a little fan that blows the cold air from the freezer into the fridge side to cool the fridge down. There are some screws inside the freezer that you need to remove to see if the evaporator is warm or iced up.

This video will explain what to do to inspect it. It's the same basic principle for most all units.

fridge inspection
 
Last edited:
On our POS LG bottom freezer, it kept freezing the evaporator coil up into a solid block of ice and that would stop the fan from blowing. I would have to take the back panel where the evap is, and use a hair dryer to melt all the ice and put it all back together again. What I found was the circuit for the defrost heater had a thermal fuse that had blown, so I removed it and just soldered the wires together with some heatshrink.
 
Last edited:
Learning diagnostic procedure is 75% of the repair. Google diy refrigerator repair and learn to identify and diagnose the various systems in the correct order. Otherwise, you are just taking pot shots from us based on our anecdotal stories. You have good internet search skills. You can have the procedures learned in an hour.

Here's just one site: http://www.appliancerepair.net/refrigerator-contents.html

https://www.google.com/search?q=diy+refrigerator+repair&ie=utf-8&oe=utf-8

If you want to fix it yourself, don't look at the sites that recommend calling a repair service. It helps to have a multimeter and proper respect for electricity. Often times it is just defrosting the evaporator or swapping a sub $100 dollar part. A service repair person will charge over the MSRP parts price and add a hefty labor charge.

Eventually, something will go wrong that makes it a bad value to repair it. Best of luck to you.
 
I ordered a French door bottom freezer Samsung 25 cf from Home Depot, it will be delivered Thursday August 04.

I will have the old one move into the garage, I then will spend sometime to play with it. If I can fix it I will use it as spare, if not then call Southern California Edison to have it haul away and get $50.

I think some circuits and/or switches went south overnight, but I have no idea what it is.
 
is the compressor running or just giving an occasional hum/click?
if its running and the condenser(coil on back of unit) is warm its just iced up.it may take a while to defrost and the condensate tray may overflow when it does.
i see lots of them ice up when some part of the defrost system fails.be that a heater,thermal fuse,timer or thermal switch.
if a hum/click it could be a ptc starter or a seized compressor.
a system that lost its refrigerant often has an evaporator hiss while running.this is due to gas being present at the capillary tube rather than liquid.
 
Last edited:
Originally Posted By: HTSS_TR
My 5-6 years old bottom freezer Maytag model# MBF2556KEW suddently stopped blowing cold air in both sections, freezer and refrigerator since last night.

The compressor (black round thing at the bottom on the rear) is very warm, the condenser near the bottom front was covered with dirt, I vacuumed it.

What can be bad ? The relay or the compressor start device ? and where can I locate it and how to test if it is working or not ?

Anyway, it is 99% chance that I am wrong in describing the problem(s)

Any suggestion how to diagnostic the problem and how to test the potential defective part(s) ?

All I did last night were these things:

.Vacuumed the condenser at the bottom of the frig.
.Pounded the compressor(bottom rear of the frig) lightly with a hammer.
.Unplug the power cord while shopping for replacement at Home Depot, had a tabletop fan running with air flow to the compressor to cool it.
.Clean up the mess at the bottom of the freezer.
.Plugin the power cord.

Amazingly, this morning the frig is working again. I have no idea which one I did made it working again, may be my luck ?

The one I ordered from Home Depot is 26 cu ft French Door bottom freezer Samsung RF26HRENDSR, list price is $17xx and on sale for $995. It is supposed to be delivered on Thursday August 4, I am monitoring the old one until Wednesday night, if it is working until Wed night I will cancel the order, otherwise I will keep the order.
 
Originally Posted By: HTSS_TR
Originally Posted By: HTSS_TR
My 5-6 years old bottom freezer Maytag model# MBF2556KEW suddently stopped blowing cold air in both sections, freezer and refrigerator since last night.

The compressor (black round thing at the bottom on the rear) is very warm, the condenser near the bottom front was covered with dirt, I vacuumed it.

What can be bad ? The relay or the compressor start device ? and where can I locate it and how to test if it is working or not ?

Anyway, it is 99% chance that I am wrong in describing the problem(s)

Any suggestion how to diagnostic the problem and how to test the potential defective part(s) ?

All I did last night were these things:

.Vacuumed the condenser at the bottom of the frig.
.Pounded the compressor(bottom rear of the frig) lightly with a hammer.
.Unplug the power cord while shopping for replacement at Home Depot, had a tabletop fan running with air flow to the compressor to cool it.
.Clean up the mess at the bottom of the freezer.
.Plugin the power cord.

Amazingly, this morning the frig is working again. I have no idea which one I did made it working again, may be my luck ?

The one I ordered from Home Depot is 26 cu ft French Door bottom freezer Samsung RF26HRENDSR, list price is $17xx and on sale for $995. It is supposed to be delivered on Thursday August 4, I am monitoring the old one until Wednesday night, if it is working until Wed night I will cancel the order, otherwise I will keep the order.
You defrosted it by unplugging it. The problem is likely to return. It's a common problem with these units. The guy who fixed mine had the part on his truck.
 
Last edited:
I was on the fence of replacing my 14 year old Kenmore after having cooling issues which turned out to be a bad thermostat switch for the auto-defrost system. It's usually a $20 part.

The issue will pop back up within a week or so. Without an automatic defrosting system the evap core will turn into a block of ice again.
 
Originally Posted By: HTSS_TR

All I did last night were these things:

.Vacuumed the condenser at the bottom of the frig.
.Pounded the compressor(bottom rear of the frig) lightly with a hammer.
.Unplug the power cord while shopping for replacement at Home Depot, had a tabletop fan running with air flow to the compressor to cool it.
.Clean up the mess at the bottom of the freezer.
.Plugin the power cord.

Amazingly, this morning the frig is working again. I have no idea which one I did made it working again, may be my luck ?

The one I ordered from Home Depot is 26 cu ft French Door bottom freezer Samsung RF26HRENDSR, list price is $17xx and on sale for $995. It is supposed to be delivered on Thursday August 4, I am monitoring the old one until Wednesday night, if it is working until Wed night I will cancel the order, otherwise I will keep the order.

Originally Posted By: HerrStig
You defrosted it by unplugging it. The problem is likely to return. It's a common problem with these units. The guy who fixed mine had the part on his truck.

Originally Posted By: Kibitoshin
I was on the fence of replacing my 14 year old Kenmore after having cooling issues which turned out to be a bad thermostat switch for the auto-defrost system. It's usually a $20 part.

The issue will pop back up within a week or so. Without an automatic defrosting system the evap core will turn into a block of ice again.

Well, The frig(and its freezer) is working as well as new for a month now.

I was lucky that I unplug the power cord to defrost it while shopping at Home Depot for a replacement. Random action saved me about 1 thousand buck.
 
Status
Not open for further replies.

Similar threads

V
Why i will never recommend Hyundai
2 3 4
Replies
77
Views
12K
cptbarkey
alcyon
  • Locked
Car wont start cold and stalling at hot idle intermittent problem
Replies
9
Views
2K
alcyon
T
  • Locked
Any Refrigerator Experts out there?
Replies
11
Views
3K
threeputtpar
W
  • Locked
Saginaw PS pump vacuum bleeding
Replies
3
Views
5K
wrcsixeight
R
  • Locked
2009 Honda CR-V Air Conditioning
2 3
Replies
41
Views
10K
Recalculating
Back
Top Bottom