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TOSK  
#1071 Posted : Thursday, November 25, 2010 7:36:48 AM(UTC)
TOSK

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Originally Posted by: Gene Go to Quoted Post
What was the temperature in the freezer at that time? The defrost thermostat must be really frozen in order to close the circuit to the heater.

Gene.



Hope everyone had a great Thanksgiving.

Thanks for the reply, been really busy the last 2 weeks
My old multimeter was fried picked up a HD cheapie.
Haven't had a chance to open the panel again so I decided to test the old parts.

Froze the old therm, got approx 1 ohm, couple of seconds later it popped to infinity.

The old defrost timer gives me about 1 ohm on the ground and BK (black?) nothing on anything else.

Rotate the defrost timer and I get about 1 ohm on the ground and BL (blue?) nothing on anything else.

The new heater bar (which I haven’t installed yet) gives the same reading as the old bar. The old fuses look/test OK.


Thanks Again
Gene  
#1072 Posted : Friday, November 26, 2010 3:41:41 PM(UTC)
Gene

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You did check the old parts. The question is: how the refrigerator is working after you replaced the defrost thermostat and timer?

Gene.
kylieonwheels  
#1073 Posted : Sunday, November 28, 2010 9:33:49 PM(UTC)
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Hello from Australia. Hopefully my fridge isn't completely foreign to you. I have an Electrolux Kelvinator N390SEJ-R (sometimes written without the R), that is giving me a bit of a headache.

About a month ago we found the fridge section was warmish, and we had a man out to have a look. He discovered the evaporator to be frosted up, and when we began to manually defrost it (pouring water over the ice) there was a slight hiss/sizzle, which he said indicated that the defrost element was still operative, and was in fact heating at the time. So perhaps this was just a one-off, caused by unusual environmental or usage reasons. Fair enough, made sense to me.

A week ago, we noticed that it was warm in the fridge again. This time, with my newfound frost knowledge, we defrosted it ourselves, and decided that we needed to keep an eye on it, because perhaps there was something actually wrong.

Today, one week since the last issue, we noticed the warmth in the fridge compartment again. I called the service man, and he said he'd be out in a few hours. He mentioned the defrost system as a possible issue, and I reminded him that he'd thought the element (heater) was ok last time. After I got off the phone, I went to the fridge and discovered that it seemed cold again. I rang him and he said maybe we should watch it for a few days, and get him out later in the week. I suggested defrosting it anyway, and he said I may as well. He asked me to notice where the bulk of the frost was, and I noticed that it was all over the entire evaporator, perhaps slightly more at the bottom. The defrost element runs along the bottom, and the fins on the evaporator are further apart on the bottom than at the top.

Since I put the panel back in, refilled the freezer, and turned it back on again, I have noticed that the compressor seems to be running without a break. The fridge is cold again, and the evaporator fan is definitely working (I can feel the air forced from the upper vents in the freezer). I was happy with the idea that the heater or timer was broken and was a simple replacement, but having the compressor running constantly worries me.

We tried a new ice cream about a month or two ago, and noticed that it was incredibly hard. We put it down to the different brand, but now, in light of all that has happened, it might also be that the freezer is working too hard as well. Inside temperature is very hard to judge with the proper equipment!

Hopefully someone can give me some ideas for the next steps in troubleshooting? Thanks in advance. Even if the fridge is no good, I'm glad to have found this forum!
Zman8  
#1074 Posted : Tuesday, November 30, 2010 9:32:53 AM(UTC)
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Gene,

First off, thank you for being such a great resource for all of us with appliance problems. I have an Amana fridge (freezer on bottom) with the same problem. Model # BRF20TW
Manufacturer#: P1199201WW

Here are the symptoms/chronology:

  • Over the course of 3 weeks--freezer cold, fridge warm. But then fridge would cool normally and a few days later be warm again
  • I found this thread and checked the freezer--took out an old bag of ice and cleaned up the shelf a bit--fridge worked fine (for a week), then it warmed up again
  • [FONT=&quot]Removed back panel and inspected coils--no frost or ice or moisture of any kind. Throughout this 3 week period, hear a faint metallic sound every 4 secs (like the noise you hear when you move a compressor). FYI, over this time frame fan seemed to work fine--would feel cool air blowing out of it on occasion.


    I would be grateful for any advice that would help resolve. Thanks in advance for your assistance.

    Zman8[/FONT]
dennis728  
#1075 Posted : Tuesday, November 30, 2010 5:09:17 PM(UTC)
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Could the problem be that the fan that blows the cold air into the fridge area be broken? The coils in the freezer seem to be fine as they are keeping everything frozen but the fridge area is not cold. I don't hear any fan working at all and usually you can hear and feel the moving air coming out of the vents.
Could it be the fan or is focus on the defroster?

Thanks
Dennis
Zman8  
#1076 Posted : Tuesday, November 30, 2010 6:59:13 PM(UTC)
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Originally Posted by: dennis728 Go to Quoted Post
Could the problem be that the fan that blows the cold air into the fridge area be broken? The coils in the freezer seem to be fine as they are keeping everything frozen but the fridge area is not cold. I don't hear any fan working at all and usually you can hear and feel the moving air coming out of the vents.
Could it be the fan or is focus on the defroster?

Thanks
Dennis


Dennis,
Thanks for replying. The fan did work over this 3 week period--though intermittently. Some times the fridge would be warming up and I'd open the door and feel the cold air coming in via the fan. Other times, the fan would not kick in at all. Not sure if it could be the fan or the thermostat-type dial in the fridge (that is turned to coldest setting) that could be the problem. The other odd thing is that faint pinging noise coming from the compressor area (makes the noise every 4 secs).

As the fridge is 15 yrs old, I'm debating on spending $$ on parts to try to DIY vs having a service come and review (at least $90 for the call before parts) vs buying a new fridge. Obviously DIY would be cheapest if its just a couple of parts, the repair service could get ugly if its a compressor (would have been better to put that $$ towards a new unit--that has to run $400-500, right?).

Zman8
Gene  
#1077 Posted : Tuesday, November 30, 2010 8:20:51 PM(UTC)
Gene

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Zman8,

Thank you for your good words.

I would check the fan next to the compressor and make sure the condenser is clean.

Gene.
Zman8  
#1078 Posted : Wednesday, December 1, 2010 5:17:55 AM(UTC)
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Gene,

The fan next to the compressor is working--it seemed to run fairly continuously as I had the back off to check the condenser (and cleaned out the dust bunnies). So the fan that circulates cold air to the fridge from the freezer hasn't kicked on in days (inside of fridge is completely warm--had to pitch all of our dairy foods). This morning there was still no change. I turned the freezer setting down from the highest (7) to a 3 setting (have been moving this around over the past 3 weeks and it didn't seem to have any effect). I checked back about 30 min later and now the fan is circulating air into the fridge again (and it is starting, only just, to cool down again).

As I mentioned in my reply to Dennis, I'm trying to make the classic decision: DIY (for $100 or less), professional repair (prefer $200 or less), or replace ($1,200). I'm trying to avoid having a pro come out for a $90 service call and then charge $400 for a repair on a 15 yr old fridge. Would love it if it turned out to only be a $30 part or 2 (thermostat, switch, or fan) that I could replace myself.

I'm looking forward to your continued advice/suggestions to help me make it through this.

Zman8
Gene  
#1079 Posted : Wednesday, December 1, 2010 12:28:39 PM(UTC)
Gene

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Originally Posted by: Zman8 Go to Quoted Post
Gene,

The fan next to the compressor is working--it seemed to run fairly continuously as I had the back off to check the condenser (and cleaned out the dust bunnies). So the fan that circulates cold air to the fridge from the freezer hasn't kicked on in days (inside of fridge is completely warm--had to pitch all of our dairy foods). This morning there was still no change. I turned the freezer setting down from the highest (7) to a 3 setting (have been moving this around over the past 3 weeks and it didn't seem to have any effect). I checked back about 30 min later and now the fan is circulating air into the fridge again (and it is starting, only just, to cool down again).

As I mentioned in my reply to Dennis, I'm trying to make the classic decision: DIY (for $100 or less), professional repair (prefer $200 or less), or replace ($1,200). I'm trying to avoid having a pro come out for a $90 service call and then charge $400 for a repair on a 15 yr old fridge. Would love it if it turned out to only be a $30 part or 2 (thermostat, switch, or fan) that I could replace myself.

I'm looking forward to your continued advice/suggestions to help me make it through this.

Zman8


As soon as this fan will stop again (the compressor and the fan next to it should be on) check for 120 VAC to this fan motor.

If the reading is correct, replace the evaporator fan.

If the reading is incorrect, post the results and we will go further.

- The evaporator fan motor assembly Part number: AP4246892
Part number: AP4246892



Gene.
dbarry  
#1080 Posted : Friday, December 3, 2010 1:21:08 PM(UTC)
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Hello Gene,
I've never repaired a refridge before, but I've worked on lots of other stuff so I'll give it a shot, anyway I had the same problem, cold freezer, warm fridge. Defrost evaporator and 4 days later block of ice again. Local repair guy told me I've already diagnosed the problem and in 10 years he never had to replace a heater. So I ordered the main board and thermodisc from your site, (My repair guy said you had a great price!) Took about 1/2 hour to install, but confused but I still followed directions. Cutting wires for thermistor and another for capacitor? So hopefully that took care of it. Operating good for now, will update this in a week.

Thanks, these posts where very helpful.
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