Fridge Help

[tn_junk]

Thought I was a pretty good "fix it" guy but this has me stumped. Went to get somethig out of the freezer on my fridge Friday and it felt soft, not frozen. Sure enough, stuff in there was not frozen solid. Took most stuff out and threw it away or moved to big freezer. Took back off of fridge, nothing looked wrong, no ice on coils, etc. Decided to wait till Sat. morning to work on it. (The fridge part was still working) Sat. morning the few things I had left in the freezer were frozen rock hard again. Sat. night they were soft again, Sunday morning frozen again, etc. The dern thing is cycling off and on and I can't figure out why (The ice in the icemaker has melted and refrozen into one big clump, its sitting in the sink thawing right now). Any ideas?

galump

[uncle Will in In.]

Is the plug-in where it could get bumped? Does the plug fit solid into the receptical?

[liveswithinlogs]

I'd suspect the defrost circuitry, sounds as though it may be playing a role in the problem.

[GrinningPlanet]

Something's flaky there somewhere. No warranty? Is it a Frigidaire? I bought a new one in December and they have replaced it 3 times. The first one lost freon. The second one had a knocking noise when it kicked on and the door hinges needed to be replaced. The third one also is making that knocking noise. My father said something about the screws to the motor needed to be loosened up a bit. Anyone know anything about that? (Sorry to bust in on your thread, but I though as long as people were already viewing...)

[tn_junk]

No warranty, this is a '90 model. I have checked every dern thing I can check and it still is cycling on/off. It's getting continual power cause the lights are on. Maybe low freon, but the coils aren't freezing up like I would expect. Probably, as you suggest, circuitry problem of some type. Guess I will break down (no pun intended) and call a service person.

galump.

[agmantoo]

Your situation with the cold now not cold at other times sounds like the contacts or motor in the defrost mechanism are shot. At some defrost intervals the contacts make decent connection and the unit goes back to making cold and at other intervals the contacts fail to carry power and the freezer fails to cool. The cold from the freezer is keeping the lower portion cool during the malfunction.

[morrowsmowers]

My first guess would be a faulty defrost timer. It's not low on gas or it would be freezing up. Make sure the fan is running -- you may have more than one fan to check -- some have a fan to move air inside the box and another moving air over the outside coils. Another thing to check is the overload on the compressor -- some have an auto reset and that could be cutting out and in repeatedly (if its this problem it will eventually stop resetting and just stay cut out).

Ken in Glassboro, NJ

[Yankee1]

All your timers should be within you T stat Get the numbers and go to a local supply.

[boonieman]

OK, here's my thoughts on it.

If it's the defrost timer they generally just stop and stay stopped. Not always, but that's usually how they fail. So my opinion is that the defrost timer motor is probably OK. Your food and ice is melting and thawing awfully fast.

When it goes into defrost mode, the time energizes a relay and/or circuit to kick on the defrost heaters. At that point, the timer has no clue as to what is going on in the freezer. Most of these have a bi-metal thermostat that actually cycles the heaters on and off. My inkling is that the bi-metal thermostat is bad and when the heaters come on, they stay on. Take the back panel off inside the freezer. If you have an ohm meter, clip the leads onto the two wires on the thermostat. Then advance the defrost timer to defrost mode and see if the bi-metal thermostat is bad. The bi-metal thermostat usually looks like a round metal device, about a half inch thick and a little bigger in diameter than a quarter. It's usually clipped onto one of the refrigeration tubes and has two wires coming from it. Easy to replace and fairly cheap. This same device can also cause the freezer to not defrost and eventually ice up the cooling fins so bad it can't get any airflow and lets the refrig warm up. It just depends in what mode the thermostat failed. I'm no expert, but it happened to me. Good luck!

[GREENCOUNTYPETE]

You have probably leaked just enought refrigerant that you are low when you get low on refigerant it freezes the lines then the compressor over heats trips off and then it warms up in the refrigerator and freezer when you get low they work great when you plug them in then go a few days to a week get realy cold
then they stop and over heat

i would bet that if you put a timmer on it running 12 hours on 4 hours off you will be ok till you can replace it just don't go to long manybe a few weeks at most

we had one are work that did the same thing we would think it was working great then it would die after running for about 3 days

[vicker]

Sounds to me like youe auto defrost fan is not working and the fins under the floor of the freezer compartment are encased in ice. remove the floor and have a peak.