This guy does an excellent job of educating you. He gives proper explanations, with proper English, using proper descriptions of the components, of the evaporation refrigeration process, and also gives very helpful details about how the machine works overall and how you can correct various problems. Kudos!!
Great video, you explained it in detail so I could follow your advice step by step, I disconnected fridge for 12 hours to melt the ice buildup I also vacuumed the rear of fridge AND I keep the “vents” in the freezer clear of food and Not over fill the freezer, the fridge runs like new, thanks to your DIY advice, you saved me many hundreds of dollars by not buying a new fridge in these financially hard times we live in. Thank you so much 👍
The most important part of the video was seeing what a blocked condenser coil looked like and where to find it. The manual that came with my refrigerator didn't say how to open access panels or even say where they were. After watching your video I finally got the lower access toe grille below the front fridge door pried off and found not only dirt and lint that needed to be removed but I also found a service data sheet hidden in a plastic pocket. This paper explained how to press the door light switch the right number of time to get acknowledgement beeps and then to test components one at a time. In my case the evaporator fan didn't run so no cold air was circulated from the freezer to the fresh food section. This was a great how to video. Thank you!
Thanks lad, saved me a ton. Easy to understand instructions performed every check as stated in the video. Vent from the freezer to the refrigerator was frozen over, and also the main culprit. Great video and easy to understand.
I'm a single mother of two and overnight my fridge stopped keeping things cool. It was running, but not doing its job. I called multiple repairmen after realizing I didn't have the testing tools for the capacitor and they all said they no longer work on fridges because of the companies that make them. This was the most helpful video so thank you so much!
As other commenters have said, you are an excellent educator. I cleanout out the bottom coils, and yes they were filthy and fortunately we have a cattail that we use to dust off the ceiling fans, using a vacuum cleaner hose kept all the dust and dirt from flying everywhere. The compressor was running fine, the bottom fan motor was also running fine. The entire frig was running fin until a few weeks ago when it started to have symptoms where the freezer wasn't keeping ice and everything started to defrost on one side of the freezer. After cleaning the coils I took out the back panel of the freezer compartment and found a large block of ice that completely surrounded the thermostat. After five minutes with the hair dryer I cleaned everything up and plugged it back in. The back panel is now freezing cold. We're in a wait and see hold for a few more weeks. The only thing it could be in the freezer thermostat.
Most higher end fridges have a defrost cycle that can go bad, too. Older units had a mechanical timer that could get stuck, and new units have the defrost cycle built into the board. When defrost fails, ice builds up and can plug the drain, which causes a cascade of secondary problems. The defrost element is usually a resistance heater, often with its own fuse, and that also can fail. If the thermostat is surrounded by ice, it won't feedback an accurate temp so the system could underperform even when not in the defrost cycle. You're doing the right thing by cleaning it up, getting rid of ice, and making sure the drain is clear. Then plug it back in and hope for the best.
Thanks a lot for your response and information 👍🏼 I really appreciate it. I'm still waiting for mataniance and landlord to replace this refrigerator. The mataniance worker practically yelled at me and told me that he didn't see anything!! of course I unplugged it. This is how I get treated in a nyc rent stabilized apartment!!!
Thank you so much for sharing your knowledge, I fixed the problem with your help. Moms can fix some of the minor malfunctions without having to call out an engineer. The guy at home Depot told me I should just call someone out but he wouldn’t know how to fix it either. I said well I’m going to go home and troubleshoot it in RU-vid my problem myself before I call anybody . You’re getting alike and a follow for this one.
thanks, you just saved me over $1000, if the fridge stopped working we needed a new stove! ice buildup in the freezer was the issue. Freezer working fridge not cold was the issue.
Excellent professional video thank you proper explanations supported by videos of the different components and also diagrams very helpful much appreciated
Took my fridge apart per your instructions and found the condenser frosted over in a big way. I think it resulted in the fan seizing although when I took off the plastic cover (breaking one of those damn plastic tabs!) it was turning although I'm 100% certain it wasn't before because with the flap wide open at the top no air was coming out at all. I thought there might be something wrong with the defroster but after your diagnosis at the end of the video it makes perfect sense that the coils were too dusty because they were EXTREMELY dirty. Life was so much easier when the coils were on the back. Thanks for the great video! (BTW my wife is halfway miffed about not getting a new fridge too)
If your evaporator coils were loaded with frost/ice, you have a defrost issue, either defrost thermostat/heater/defrost timer (mechanical or computer controlled)
Great video on fridge maintenance! All fixed up and working fine but the wife kind of wanted a new one!. Hard to win in that situation. Take Care, Bill
I do the condenser cleaning every year. Having a dirty condenser elevates the high pressure and makes the compressor to run harder. As you mentioned also runs more time wasting more electricity. Thanks for the v2
@@roycehunt854 I’m trying to figure out what is going on with my Frigidaire side by side. I’ve watched numerous videos. It’s flashing H1 on freezer side. Slowly stopped making ice. Water works fine. Freezer will not freeze food or ice cream. Refrigerator seems to be ok. I’ve cleaned all coils and underneath. Back wall in freezer was frozen when I took panel off and bottom of freezer tray had ice. I unplugged, and defrosted freezer with blow dry. Damper seems fine. Cold hair blowing to both sides. I’m lost! I don’t really want to have to call a service man, I can’t afford to! Was hoping someone reads this and is able to help
Thank you very much for your video.it helped me tremendously. I removed the vent in the fridge and no air was coming out, so I checked the freezer and the radiator was covered with a thick crust of ice. I used a hair dryer for about 15 minutes to melt the ice, turned the fridge on and cool air started to flow, within an hour the temperature in the fridge was in the forties. Thanks again.
Those electric defrost heaters can burn out, so don't be surprised if you end up replacing the heater because it recurs. Board problems and wiring issues can do the same thing, so I would check your manual for a resistance spec on the heater to try and verify it is bad. The other thing to check is that drain shown in the video, to be sure it is not blocked. Melted water needs a way out before the defrost cycle ends. Good luck!
It's funny how when I saw a fellow automotive enthusiast, I knew I was in the right place. Mine ended up being the evaporator fan but your vid was an incredible help. I found the automotive backprobes came in handy too.
Great video. Forget a vacuum exclusively- I used my compressor blowing the dusk off which works great and also have the vacuum handy while the dust balls come off. Thanks
@@merlicacelestine7821 no the fan moves air across that tray which is expected to have some water in it and the fan air movement causes it to evaporate into the room. Just clean it out of any crap dust and hair
Well done, a good clean up and its happy again :-D Fridge/freezers are something that everyone forgets about, the saying "Out of sight, out of mind." fits perfectly. My crude understanding: i roughly remember that the refridgerent gas gets compressed and heats up with reduced volume, then it's sent through an external radiator to dump the heat component into the air. Then it's sent into the larger diameter/length condenser coils inside to expand and absorb heat. I had a lady knock on my door as her fridge/freezer didn't seem to be working, i walked into her kitchen and was met with a heatwave. i told her to open the windows and doors to get the kitchen back down to normal. i explained that the fridge needs to dump heat into the cooler air, if the air is hot the fridge cant operate. No supprise that the fridge/freezer returned back to normal, she won't do that again lol.
Appareciate the video. I had known some of this stuff, but needed reminders. Other things were new to me and helped me understand WHY I was doing what I was doing.
Thank you so much for making this video to explain how this type of refrigerator works. My 10 year old Kenmore (probably made by Whirlpool) is basically identical to yours. I was getting a louder than normal buzz but it did not appear to be coming from the compressor, or condenser fan behind the rear panel beacsue teh sound would continue even when those components shut off. I was stumped trying to figure out where the other motor could be, and how to access it since the upper back is completely sealed. I've had to manually defrost the evap coils before, but It did not occur to me to look there for the 'shaded pole motor' which is likely the culprit. Much appreciated and PS I hate plastic clips too!
I did another video of a bad shaded pole motor in an oven, where I swap it out and explain how it works. Genius design, easy to work with. If you get frozen ice around the fan blades the fan could seize, then work OK after defrost. If automatic defrost isn't working you might check out the electric defrost element. Defrost timers can fail, the element itself can go bad, and that branch of the system often has a fuse.
Thought my compressor was bad, until I watch your post, it was the bottom freezer coil frozen over, she is 10 years old but still running great.... Tks.. Nice post
Question, after removing the ice off the coils put all back together,,, the fridge has been running all night and is still hot in both the fridge and freezer, the fan is running non stop, last year the control board was replaced, any in-Site what my problem may be? COMPRESSOR Bad? Tks..
I am not 100% sure this is it, but my fridge - while cheap, is only a couple years old so before I called my landlord, I decided to check online. I was led here. I pulled everything out, snapped off the fan top and not really frosty. I didn't want to pull the back off so I just hit it with a blower and then I checked the hole. OMG - the hole still was mostly covered with the original styrofoam. And the other half was frosty. I cleaned it out and low and behold the fan is fanning! So take it from this foolish girl - make sure nothing blocking that hole. Yay!!! Thank you. I know you mentioned the hole almost as an afterthought but I think that solved my problem I hope so =)
Great job and video, I had same problem with my cats hair blocking cooling air flow over condenser coils, still thank you for the walk through and proper maintenance procedures
Great video. Unfortunately everything is clean and working fine in my fridge but still not keeping cold. My freezer isn't freezing but fridge seems ok. I have taken it all apart. Coils are good. Compressor seems ok but I don't know. The whole fridge was vibrating and shaking last night and then it stopped cooling. What would make the fridge shake? Thanks.
Gee, that's ominous, I would check the mounts for the compressor. If you're not finding ice where it shouldn't be, and if leaving it off for several hours and restarting doesn't help, you'll have to make a decision whether it is worthwhile asking for advice from a pro. On the surface it does sound like a compressor problem, or maybe an undercharge of of refrigerant. Often the cost of fixing an old fridge is not worth it, compared to replacing it with a new one.
One thing I forgot to mention was the glimpse you get at 5:54-5:58 of the defrost heater, the length of dark element positioned underneath the evaporator. Those sometimes go bad, causing icing of the evaporator and ineffective cooling. Mine was obviously fine.
I'm a home appliance tech, and refrigeration is my strong point. Just to give you a little more info... The gas refrigerant coming back to the compressor from the evaporator is actually not room temp, but still cold and helps cool the compressor. If the condenser is clogged, instead of sending condensed refrigerant to the evaporator, (necessary for the capillary tube to force the pressure to drop and change state to a gas), you are sending partial gas along with the condensed liquid. This flashes at the entry to the evaporator and gets "too cold" plus doesn't have enough btu's left to cool the rest of the evaporator. You are now creating an ice ball at the top of the evaporator, and also not sending cool refrigerant gas back to help cool the compressor. All this heats up the compressor. Add to that, the compressor runs and runs trying to reach the set point temperature and overheats. Often, this causes the compressor to shut off on it's thermal protection. You will get large swings in temperature as the compressor spends too much time in protection mode. Hint: You can check how the compressor is working by running an amp draw check at the compressor power wire. On most residential refrigerators and freezers, it's a 1/4 horsepower compressor. Fully charged, they draw between 0.9 and 1.4 amps. If amps are too low, you have a refrigerant leak or on an older compressor, it could also be weak valves. If the amps are too high, you have a restriction somewhere between the compressor and the evaporator. Usually moisture turned into ice at the cap tube, or possible particulate matter that was not vacuumed out at the factory. I could go on, but that's a good start to give you and your subscribers a good basic understanding.
I have a whirlpool with the freezer on bottom. The vent behind the bottom drawer frosts over from the left and moves all the way across the vent. Once it is completely frozen the refrigerator stops cooling. The freezer is fine. We have to unplug and defrost it but after a couple of weeks it’s starts freezing over again. Any ideas?
My fridge is making a loud humming noise, and freezer isn't freezing.. Any idea what it may be? It's like what you stated, compressor just running and running trying to keep it cool.
Our fridge is working but not getting to the temp set point. Freezer side is the same, not quite getting to temp setting...ice maker works- is making ice... coils are clean...condenser fan is working....I can hear the compressor running. It's an LG french door LFXS30766D
Great video! Thx I'll try n fix my Kenmore as well. My freezer is working well but the Fridge is hot. Water leaking from inside Fridge from the duct where cold air comes through.
After defrosting freezer coils, verifying fan, heating element and timer working. Timer was stuck i unstucked it. I also cleaned all the dust from the bottom coils, fan and vacuumed that area. Washed with water and wd 40 those parts. I noticed a great deal of lint covering the outside, cover near the compressor. That led me to think about how important airflow is on the back of the refrigerator. It’s not just lint as a problem. It’s also the confined space cabinets walls. There was only about 2 to 3 inches of air room. As a test, I use the fan to help circulate air from behind the refrigerator. What a difference that made in performance in the amount of electricity, being used by the refrigerator constantly running. Moral to the story just like your car needs air so does your refrigerator. This will greatly reduce my electrical bill and prolong the life of the unit. I am now getting -10° in the freezer refrigerator is now at 40°.
The fact that the freezer was at normal operating temperature indicates that your problem was not related to the dirty condenser coil. It indicates an airflow problem between the fridge and freezer. All of the parts tested good which indicates an intermittent problem. The defrost termination thermostat is a very common intermittent failure item on these models. You might be wondering why a defrost termination thermostat would cause an intermittent airflow problem. Amana has a unique fan motor circuit. The neutral side of the fan motor goes through the defrost termination thermostat, then through the defrost heater which has a hard connection to neutral. The impedance of the heater is low enough compared to the fan motor that it doesn't cause much of a voltage drop. There also isn't enough current flow to get any measurable heat out of the heater. This genius design prevents the fan motor from turning on until the evaporator coil is frozen which prevents moisture from being blown into the ducting and freezing. The fan motor is another common failure item due to the vertical shaft. Moisture drains into the bearing and causes corrosion. The motor sounded smooth in the video, so I don't think it's bad. Another common problem is a bad neutral connection at the defrost heater. This problem usually presents with incomplete defrost and low fan speed. Not likely a problem here but worth checking if you have to open up the evaporator again.
Hey, man, thanks for stopping by! Sounds like wise advice, I'll bear that in mind. No issues so far, but I'll look more closely at the defrost hardware and thermostat if I have more issues.
Dennis Rindlisbach I bought a new fridge which gets hot a lot,I called the one who sold it to me and what he said was some fridges don't have condenser so that's what will happen but it doesn't mean anything. Now my question is, is this heating not going to affect the efficiency, effectiveness and the power consumption? If it will, what do I do? Cos it's New and I'm worried Thank you
I shared that concern about other causes. Now we're over a year since the fridge failed, and it has worked fine since then. So, I'm gonna call this one a verified fix.
Excellent explanation! Our fridge/freezer is very similar to your model, and I've had it opened up before to clear that defrost drain tube. Today we have a different problem; everything appears to be functioning properly, except that nothing is getting cold enough. Cold air blows out in both the fridge and freezer, but the temperatures aren't low enough (I don't have an IR temp gun like yours... yet) and most of the food went bad overnight. I'm wondering if maybe it has developed a small refrigerant leak or something that would keep it "cold but not cold enough".
That's a valid concern. Unfortunately domestic fridges don't have Schrader valves to easily measure pressures, so if a tech wants to measure pressure he needs to puncture the line and install a valve on at least one side. That is beyond the scope of most DIY homeowners. Here in Canada, because of environmental concerns, homeowners don't have access to the correct refrigerant without a license. The cost for that kind of professional repair of any refrigerant leak will be hundreds of dollars. I would carefully walk through the diagnostic steps shown, especially looking at the door seal very carefully. If the door doesn't fit perfectly square, fix it. I show how to adjust an out of square door in another video titled 'freezer frost repair'. Don't forget to look for simple solutions. If the steps shown in this video don't show a problem, you face the dilemma of whether to pay a guy to fix it rather than buying another. Many homeowners decide to save that money for a new appliance....
@@spelunkerd thank you so much for the thoughtful response! I did find information on using a piercing valve and gauge to measure/refill the refrigerant, but without the tools on hand decided not to go that route. The door is sealing well and there is not much dust buildup (I cleaned it out a year or two ago and we don't have any pets), and the fans, compressor, and refrigerator damper flap all appear to be functioning. The refrigerator (a Maytag MBF2256HEQ) came with the house when we bought it in 2012 and as I recall was manufactured in 2005. Thankfully, we had enough in emergency savings to cover a new refrigerator, so we ended up giving the old one to a neighbor who wanted a "garage fridge" for storing drinks, and we bought a new one for our home (an LG LFDS22520S, in case you're curious).
I own my repair service company and your comment hit the Nail Directly on the head. I have more newer units with constant issues that are irreparable. Fix your old units!👍
video solved my problem. old freezer working with frig barely cold. coils not dirty. exhaust fan working. freezer fan working. disassembled until i got to flap that lets air into frig. sure enough electric controlled flap was in closed position. solution was bypass dead elec control and put in a piece of plastic to maintain flap open all the time. works great now. if it was a manual control knob this would never happen.
Hi My Freezer is cold 0 degrees, but the fridge is not cooling 55 degrees. At this point with my Frigidaire GLHS67EHQ side-by-side refrigerator, I’ve replaced the damper assembly, that did not fix it. I cleaned the condenser coil. Then I replaced the evaporator fan motor and blade (which was running), that did not fix it. Although the compressor was working, I decided to install a new start device since the unit is 12 years old and I was already cleaning the condenser coil. The damper is open, and air is flowing, but there doesn’t seem to be much velocity. The freezer is cold, but the fridge side remains warm. There’s no corrosion on any lines I can see. There’s no ice buildup on the evaporator Just a small amount of frost. Finally, I replaced the control panel, but that didn’t resolve the cooling issue on the fridge side either. I’ve checked and rechecked everything, including re-crimping the evaporator thermostat wires to ensure they were properly connected, but the problem persists. I’ve also removed the ice maker and top back panel to check for obstructions, and everything looks good. The vent by the crisper is clear as well. At this point about the only thing that I did not replace is the thermistors. I tested the fridge thermistor, it is opening and closing the damper as it should. I’ve been working on this for days and am not sure what else I can check. Any further guidance would be greatly appreciated! The only thing I can think of now, is the fan moving enough air? Thanks for any ideas in advance. Dean
I remember when frig coils were on the back & very easy to access. Also, they never really got very dirty there. Now they all hide them underneath where a fan sucks in your house dust & it seems to be magnetically attracted to the coils. Some underneath coil designs are all but impossible to clean.
There are vacuum attachments designed specifically for coil cleaning. I don't like having specialty tools for every little thing, but it makes it really easy. I just vacuum from the front once a year - usually in Spring before kitty starts shedding lol.
Why didn't I see this earlier. I just paid American home shield, my Home Warranty , 79.00 bucks for a repairman to come out and clean the coils -no dog hair just a little dusty. Last Thursday my refrigerator and freezer were warm and water drops were on the food in both. Food in frig felt warm. I threw all out when it the frig didn't get colder. I left off until repairman came today. He told me their was nothing he could do since I had the frig turned off. But he vacuum out the dust so I'd have something done.
Thanks for taking the time to respond. Yes, the repair guy came out and said no freon. He mentioned the evaporator line had a hole it it. Also, it needed a "hard start" relay. Is this worth it?
Great question, hard to say. When I go the local recycling yard I am always sadly disappointed to find many new looking appliances. It is hard to compete with brand new devices that come with a warranty, etc.
My tray for water is on top of the compressor. It is decaying but still possible to collect water. To keep it in place I put a dot of hot glue because I found it on the floor behind the fridge. Was it okay to hot glue it in place? I only put a little glob. I took a picture of tray and I am going to find a new one to replace it.
Thanks for sharing this video..I have a refrigerator bought it from Sears and after 2years it stopped working didn't have a warrantee so I called Sears got it fixed got a 3yrs warrantee and 4th year same thing the fridge would stopped cooling in the month of May so we tried using the ac to cooling down and it helped a little but the fridge works fine throughout the winter makes ice too Sears did change that round black thing in the back forget the name rt now the fridge stopped working 2 weeks now we decided to buy a new one afraid to spend money to fix it and have the same problem
One element that fairly commonly goes bad in consumer level fridges is the PTC relay, which allows current to flow through start coils for the first few seconds, following which its resistance increases and current through the start relay is reduced. There is a capacitor in series with the start windings, and all together it is a black or white cube that clips onto the compressor. The details of that are too advanced for an intro level video, but if you're interested there are many videos and resources describing that in detail.
My fridge is on the fritz and a quick google search leads to another excellent Spelunkerd video leaving me wondering, is there anything you can't fix and explain well? Still waiting for your video on "My backyard nuclear reactor melted down, here's how I safely fixed it with duct tape in 30 seconds or less". To be honest though not sure if I should thank you or curse you, instead of taking the lazy way out and calling a repair guy I have to get up off the couch and fix my fridge now. :). Thanks again for another excellent repair video!
Ha ha ha, what a kind remark, James! I'm just watching an RYA video now on racing rules, hoping to get back into racing when allowed. I presume you guys are only racing short handed now?
@@spelunkerd We should hopefully have a return to full crew 'social bubble' racing in the next week or two. Otherwise we've not been racing shorthanded. We started working our way towards SH racing but a few random things sidetracked that plan. We've been taking this time away from racing to enjoy cruising more and have quickly grown to appreciate the 'set it and forget it' approach! Hope you're at least heading in the direction of return to some normalcy up there as well!
