You are THE MAN. Wish i could throw you a few bucks to thank you. I have a Crosley Conservator which is a rebadged Frigidaire side by side like yours. I heard that weird noise and thought a dog was barking next door but realized finally it was the fridge. Then the beeping and the flashing HI. Took it apart, shaved the foam, reassembeled, and we appear to be golden. Amazing and THANKS!!!
I have watched several videos about my side by side fridigare, which looks like yours. And, most of the videos helped me to start the diagnosis by testing all the possible causes. Honestly, it was kind of fun until I thought it was fixed. Once I pulled the damper and realized it was actually the cause of the fridge getting warm, I took it apart but found nothing obviously cause the damper to stay closed. I searched the web and the title of your video caught my eye. You explained stuff so even I could follow. I tested just like you showed except without the alligator clips. After I trimmed the foam, I was so excited to see if mine would also work. OMG IT WORKS. I got so excited I forgot that I had live wires in my fingers. The crack scared my wife and dogs but I didn't care. You saved me enough money that I can put extra gas in my bike lol. Sorry its such a long story. From Columbus Ohio I thank you very very whole bunches!
Absolutely worked! Amazing. Please note, YOU DO NOT NEED TO TAKE EVERYTHING APART! Now that we know it is the foam, take the control unit off and simply remove the damper door. There are 2 small hinges - use a flat screwdriver to punch one out and slide the door out. Cut 2mm of foam to be flush with the plastic edge. Score foam where the damper meets the other side plastic (use the cut foam as a template). Put back in by sliding along the path already cut into the plastic housing. Worked like a charm! Thank you again for figuring it out!
I ordered the damper assembly then saw your video. I tested with my home-made AC cable as you suggested and found that it stuck shut. My wife used a blade, surgical tweezers, and a Dremel tool to trim the edges of the Styrofoam to allow for a more complete closure. Now it tested OK. We replaced it and it is working perfectly with no parts required! I can cancel the order.
I'll join the legion of others. This totally worked, and you also saced me money. I'm actually a gas service tech and have always been a strong believer in fixing the part, instead of replacing it.
Just encountered this problem after the 5yo refrigerator was off during a power failure. The foam must be a little 'crisper' when cold/frozen. The actual problem is that the door can't close tight enough for the mechanism to transition to open. The hesitation is the door trying to close and bouncing back.
This is what you tube was meant for! You just saved me over a 100 bucks. Thank you for pointing out such an easy and simple solution. My gears are also in perfect condition and the motor works just fine. Funny how just a mm of a difference can throw a mechanical piece off course. Makes you wonder how many perfectly working dampers have been replaced over the years just because of the foam. What a racket!
I had this very same problem and did your fix. Big thanks to you for saving me 150 dollars. My frigidaire refrigerator have 7 years and already replaced the Ice maker. I bet there was an economical solution to that but at that time I didn't find a great video like yours
My 5 year old Whirlpool with freezer on the bottom makes a loud noise when that damper opens and closes, do you think this could be the problem or could it be the motor?
My fridge damper has the same motor but a pushrod that opens the damper. A spring retracts the door. Spring broke so damper was stuck open and fridge compartment froze. I found a similar spring in a can of old parts. Fridge works better than ever. ❤❤❤
Wow, nice video. We have a year old Whirlpool side by side with water and ice on freezer door. Freezer is down to - 9 and refrigerator won't go any lower than 44 degrees. Open fridge door push on door switch and you can feel cold air coming out of the damper. Air is not blowing out hard, just a soft air coming out.
I love this. Thanks for posting. Mine is a little older and could not figure out why it wouldn’t open back up. Can’t wait to try this. Thanks for posting
Nice video. On mine, I found the metal contacts had become to malleable to hold their shape. So a lot of people are replacing these for a lot of money thinking the motor is bad when it is not. And if manufacturer was nice, for the sake of unscrewing 4 screws as shown in your video, the contacts could be shipped for less than $1, and for a whole lot of profit say $10. I do not know why they did not just use a Microswitch, well I guess to save money.
At least you could take it apart and understand what went wrong. The newer models will have all the hatches and access points sealed with epoxy to keep you from finding anything out. :)
My Next Door neighbor must have the same problem with her Frigidaire side by side refrigerator. Freezer is nice and cold, but frig is warm. While it was running I reached in and did not feel any air coming across through the vent from the freezer compartment. Just for grins, I slapped the vent area with my hand and bingo, the door opened and nice cold air started flowing through. I suspect the problem you identified in this video is the problem I'm seeing in her refrigerator. I'll have to take it apart and see if your fix also works for her unit. I'm guessing it will. Thanks for posting this great video! You May have saved her lots of money on a replacement part!
Well I replaced the damper door and motor assembly with a new one, and it worked for about an hour, then it failed the same way as the original. When I slap the assembly, the motor opens the door and everything works great again for a little while until it closes again. As it turns out, my fresh food refrigerator thermostat was bad. I ordered a generic one off of Amazon for about $16 and installed it, and it's been working great for over a week now. Turns out the original damper motor was just fine so we're keeping it as a backup just in case, LOL.
Do you have a reference on how to get into or use the service test mode? I have two of these fridges and have been chasing down problems including poor defrost drain design damaging my floor/trim, fridge not cooling, weird grunting noises, etc.
Note to self: Recall how he used an exacto knife to shave off a little of the foam insulation/styrofoam that was causing the damper to not be able to close properly. He assumed it had absorbed a little moisture from years of use and shaving it down a little seemed to fix his problem.
Thanks heaps. I'm investigating why my fridge compartment is below freezing all the time. Have only just learned about dampers today, but this video is the icing on the cake. May not be the problem but it great to know the workings in advance. Great video.
I would hazard a GUESS that most fridge compartments have the damper in the top section. I guess that because the freezing air coming in from the freezer compartment is much colder than what's in the fridge compartment, and will thus fall and create the required circulation. I would imagine if the freezing air come in at the bottom it would just sit there unless their was a circulation fan. My damper was right at the top.@@gregn2909
Awesome thank you, noticed large cracks in plastic sides inside freezer today, and after getting groceries noticed fridge was staying warm, freezer too cold, I assume causing the large cracks. Did service mode 5 just like you said, flashing 4 and was making that same repetitive squeaking noise, going to try and fix now EDIT: I scraped away some of the foam like you said, but also used a utility knife to just shave a tiny bit of the tip of the middle tooth of the triple set of "up position" gears, that got rid of the turning gear hitting it (just misses it now) causing the issue.
I'm getting ready to do the same to mine. Please let us know if your damper is still working and thank you for posting the video. It is very helpful. BTW, I did something similar to my Bradley Smokers feed assembly for its pucks. I never thought about looking into the motor unit on the fridge.
The damper on my old Amana fridge is not electric, it has no wires and the thermostat is integrated into it. There is a push rod coming out of the thermostat that pushes the spring loaded door open when it becomes warm. The fridge got too warm and I saw the damper was closed with the knob at max cool. There was an adjustment screw on the bottom and I turned it until the door opened slightly. Now the fridge is a little too cold. I'm curious if anyone knows about adjusting these and if it's just trial and error. The replacement is no longer available, part # R0161050 made by Whirlpool if anyone is curious and want to see what it looks like.
Note to self: If you hook up the damper motor all by itself to a 120 volt power source without any kind of control mechanism also put in the circuit with it, then the behavior of the part will be for the damper motor to constantly open and close the plastic vent door of the damper again and again. It's a good way to test it with a pair of alligator clips and power source.
So I've got a Frigidaire side by side fridge freezer. The unit was freezing the refrigerator size but reading like 86 or something. I replaced the temperature sensor on the fridge side. The old one was burnt and now the unit isn't getting cold at all after plugging back in. Any suggestions?
I tried this, and now my problem is that when I try to reinstall the control panel, I can't get it flush in the back, so the damper isn't seated right. I've tried everything I can think of and can't figure out what is getting in the way. Any tips?
Great video thanks for sharing. I could not figure out why mine was staying shut so I wedged a plastic tuning I cut to keep the door from shutting closed. It now gets cold but may have to tape half the damper shut to avoid freezing the food in the fridge. 😂
I will take it apart again when I get home and try shaving the damper shutter like you did. Before that I found the problem I had already replaced the fan motor behind the fridge and start relay and capacitor to no luck. Thank you again for sharing I got it now.
The problem is that the door can't close tight enough for the mechanism to transition to open. The hesitation is the door trying to close and bouncing back.
