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Check to make sure the fan underneath it is working, I had to replace a fan motor on a Whirlpool that was only three years old. Those fan motors are made in China and are cheap junk.
If the fan isn't running, you can temporarily put a small desk fan behind the fridge to move air through the coils.
In my experience this has frequently been a failure to defrost, what you can do on your own to test is move the food out of the fridge and turn it off, open both doors. Wait about 48 hours, depending on temperature. Once you see the water drip down and quit to the basin in back, generally it's near the compressor, the ice fouling the evaporator is melted. Plug it back in or turn it back on, should work. It will generally work several weeks before needing another manual defrost.
If you want to fix it, generally needs a timer, defrost relay, or the defrost heater itself.
Good luck.
This sounds like exactly what's going on, as I've done this twice before and it's always "revived." Thanks!
This sounds like exactly what's going on, as I've done this twice before and it's always "revived." Thanks!
Would help to have at least a general idea of what kind of climate you are in, and what the weather's like. If you are in a humid area, you may only get a few weeks between manual defrosts.
A note. Replacement appliance parts, while they may appear to be identical to the failed part, are frequently upgraded versions, if the original parts have a history of failing. Point being, the refrigerator, once repaired, may actually be better than a new one, in terms of reliability.
Replacing the relay is usually easy. The timers don't frequently fail. The heater is harder to do than the relay, but within the ability of a fairly advanced DIY person.
Obviously, be safe, unplug the fridge before working on electronics. Do you know what a large capacitor looks like? These can give a painful but usually not dangerous shock if not discharged before one touches the "hot" side of the circuit it's installed in.
Sometimes you can find a repair manual online, what's the brand and model of the fridge?
Amana, and I haven't checked on the model number yet. The first thing to go wrong was the automatic icemaker (which I don't even want or use); I ended up with a frozen waterfall in the back of the freezer.
I'm completely helpless - really - and am not prepared to pay $ to fix an old fridge, so I'll try plugging it in again (it's been about two days with doors open) and see if it revives again...
If so, I'll just have to continue doing this every few weeks (I'm in a hot, humid climate, and it's been unseasonably warm this week). If it dies for good, I'll just use my mini-appliances.
A note. Replacement appliance parts, while they may appear to be identical to the failed part, are frequently upgraded versions, if the original parts have a history of failing. Point being, the refrigerator, once repaired, may actually be better than a new one, in terms of reliability.
It works the other way, too.
I was only able to get an 'upgraded' evap fan motor for my fridge.. The guy at the appliance store said he'd see me again in 3-4 years.. Because they were having to build those motors as variable speed motors and they just weren't lasting.
There's so many things that this could be.. An evap fan, generally, the unit still cools, somewhat.. You put your hand near the coil location, you can feel it's cold, the cold just isn't circulating through the unit.
Same with the defroster.. But.. Funny thing.. I fixed a GE side-by-side a number of years ago that the defrost safety cutoff switch had apparently gotten water in it.. Then the water froze. Water expands when it freezes.. It basically blew the switch apart. As I recall.. that switch also cut off the compressor.. So, the whole thing didn't work, but I may be mistaken about that, and it was just freezing up.
If there's NO cooling whatsoever.. Normally the compressor or a compressor safety switch is out, or the coolant has leaked out. And that last one.. Could be a hole anywhere in the sealed system.
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