The Conservative Cave

Interests => Around the House & In the Garage => Topic started by: dandi on July 19, 2010, 07:52:44 PM

Title: Any refrigeration people here?
Post by: dandi on July 19, 2010, 07:52:44 PM

I have a Fridgidaire side-by-side refrigerator/freezer. About six weeks ago it just stopped cooling on both sides, freezer and refrigerator. Ice melted and ran out on the floor, frozen stuff thawed, the works. After a few hours it came back on and operated normally, working fine until the next episode. Since then this has happened two more times. It's about 5-6 years old but we've only had it about a year and this is the first time it's started doing this. Any ideas before I call the repairman?

Title: Re: Any refrigeration people here?
Post by: thundley4 on July 19, 2010, 08:17:03 PM

Check the cooling coils to see if they are dirty.  Since it works , stops and then works again, it sounds like maybe the compressor is over heating or maybe the motor that drives it. But I wouldn't think they'd take that long to cool down to function again.

I'm not into refrigeration, I work on electric motors.

Title: Re: Any refrigeration people here?
Post by: dandi on July 21, 2010, 12:31:10 AM

Thanks T, I'll check that out.

Title: Re: Any refrigeration people here?
Post by: Thor on July 21, 2010, 10:37:11 PM

Sounds to me like a defective cooling fan, maybe it's obstructed??  A thorough cleaning of the complete operational components should fix it up properly.

Title: Re: Any refrigeration people here?
Post by: Randy on July 24, 2010, 02:10:45 PM

I'm a complete novice at appliances but the timing between failures gets me. Is there something in the self defrost that ends the cycle that could be dead?

Title: Re: Any refrigeration people here?
Post by: ironhorsedriver on July 24, 2010, 03:34:32 PM

Sounds like the coils, could be very dirty or fan failed. Do you fry alot? That's notorious for putting out sticky, dirty particles that will stop up anything.