8 replies to this topic

[bogreen]

My landlord customer just rented his condo with this refrigerator in it.

He plugged it in yesterday morning and it started up fine. Display set to "0" in the Freezer
and "37" in the F/F section.

He left for a couple of hours. Came back and the Freezer and Ref felt cold, but the display
was reading 41/48. Then the display went off and the unit beeped about 3 times.

He turned off the breaker for about 2 hours and did it again. After he turned it on again,
the same happened. Getting cold and looking good.

About 2 hours later when he returned, 3 beeps, display gone black and unit turned off.

When I arrived, I had him turn it on again. The compressor came right on, the display looked
good and the condenser fan came on. When I left, it was still running and cooling.

Recommendations??


Thanks,
Bruce

[Cactus Bob]

was the heat on in the house and the house warm when you first plugged the fridge in ?

refrigerators are made to work within a range of room temps , lets say 65f -90f if the room it's in is to cold or to hot the fridge will run longer to get down to temp , this sometimes will log a code for "refrigeration failure"

unplugging and replugging the fridge in when there is some cold in the fridge will most times keep the code from coming back

you can also make sure the room is at normal temps before you start the fridge in the first place

[bogreen]

We're in Los Angeles. It never gets that cold here. We had short sleeved shirts on.

[Cactus Bob]

Ok so that's not it

lets try this "guess"

I have seen control boards that have done weird things until the boards have warmed up , and then never done them again . in this case there is a problem but if it never shows itself again, does it matter ?

I am guessing all is well now , with no problems with the fridge ?

[bogreen]

No, the same thing happened again. It ran for a couple of hours, then turned off and the display
went dark, with a few beeps also.

[Samurai Appliance Repair Man]

One of the conductors in the ribbon connector in the control box has an ultra fine break that separates as the box cools down (the metal contracts).



It's interesting to note that the entire control box assembly with the ribbon connectors, housing, and control board, is less expensive than replacing just the control board itself. Compare:

Control box assembly $165

Control board alone $240

[bogreen]

The control box assembly is backordered til February 2013 at Whirlpool.

 

The control board is available.

 

But based on what you're saying, the control board by itself won't handle this problem??

[Cactus Bob]

"But based on what you're saying, the control board by itself won't handle this problem??"

 

no it may not , but it may if your problem is not in the ribbon cable or the display

 

the problem with your problem is a shutdown of the control board is not a normal type of failure and makes us start to guess what the problem might be

 

the shutdown might be caused by

 

a bad board

any control wire making and breaking contact anywhere in the system

a chewed wire by a rodent anywhere in the fridge

a wire anywhere in the system wearing through and the copper core touching the metal case

water or moisture in any sensor

a bad touch pad

a loose connection just about anywhere

 

these are all guesses , when you don't have a system that will stay on and log a code and give us something to work with , we are flying blind

 

I have junked great looking appliances for just this reason , sometimes you just have to cut your losses . some of these type of problems just never get fixed

[bogreen]

The control board did not do the trick.

 

It turns out, the doors were not striking the light switches hard enough (go figure), and the computer

was sensing the doors were open. The customer glued something on the switch strikes and that

fixed it.

 

Very embarassing indeed.

 

But, thanks for the input fellas.

 

Bruce