KitchenAid KTRC22EMBL00 - Behaving oddly after repairing broken fan

[norwood]

A few weeks ago, our KitchenAid fridge stopped cooling. When we followed the Appliantology troubleshooting flowchart (thanks, Samurai!) we discovered that the fan blade had fallen off the fan. Hurray, I thought! I can fix the fridge for free, without even needing to wait for parts! I put the fan blade back on, put the fridge back together, and figured the job was done.

Fast-forward a week or two: we notice that although the freezer is at 0 F or below, the fridge is tending to warm up - we saw 50 at one point. However, if left alone all night, it would get down to 32. We had also turned both freezer and fridge to maximum cooling by this point.

At this point, the freezer is at 10 F and the fridge is holding around 50 even after having all night to cool. I had the idea that I'd somehow managed to install the fan blade backwards, took it back apart, and found that the fan blade can't be installed backwards. The coils looked like this:

 

The fan had been turning really robustly, making a great stream of air, when I first put the freezer back together. Now, it turns but it doesn't feel like it has any oomph to it. Vibrates a little, too. I got out the DMM and measured 120vac to it, so we're good on the power supply.

I'd seen the defroster mentioned as a problem, and when I tested the voltage to it, I got 7vac. Ah! But -- I entered forced defrost mode, and 120vac. Reconnecting the defrost heater, it definitely warmed up and cleared the ice quickly. Now the bimetal did not look very happy:

 

Would a bad bimetal still allow it to go into forced defrost mode? In other words, does forced defrost bypass the bimetal on this fridge?

One other clue: we noticed that from the first day after I'd put the fan blade back on, the freezer door gasket would always stick when I opened the door. It didn't do that previously.

So: start by replacing the bimetal? How can I tell whether the fan is turning fast enough? And why would both of these things go bad at pretty much the same time? I'd always had the attitude that 2 failures at what looked like the same time meant 1 root cause, but I don't get what would cause the fan blade to fall off and also goof up the bimetal.

Thanks in advance!

[16345Ed]

That fan is your load of interest. Bi-metal has nothing to do with your issue. 
 

 

[Budget Appliance Repair]

2 hours ago, 16345Ed said:

Bi-metal has nothing to do with your issue. 
 

Did you neglect to look at the picture of the bi-metal - In this case it has all to do with the problem.

@norwood, I believe your bi-metal is intermittently loosing connection internally and if it not it will be shortly - REPLACE THE BI-METAL DEFROST T-STAT, (If it's not your problem it will be shortly).

The moisture and ice builds up and freezing pushing the blue epoxy seal out further pulling the wires loose from where they connect internally.

It may also need a fan motor, but I would replace the defrost t-stat first and see if that takes care of your problem because it is obviously bad.

Edited August 10, 2023 by Budget Appliance Repair

[16345Ed]

3 hours ago, Budget Appliance Repair said:

Did you neglect to look at the picture of the bi-metal - In this case it has all to do with the problem.

@norwood, I believe your bi-metal is intermittently loosing connection internally and if it not it will be shortly - REPLACE THE BI-METAL DEFROST T-STAT, (If it's not your problem it will be shortly).

The moisture and ice builds up and freezing pushing the blue epoxy seal out further pulling the wires loose from where they connect internally.

It may also need a fan motor, but I would replace the defrost t-stat first and see if that takes care of your problem because it is obviously bad.

Lol completely neglected. Frost pattern was perfect 

Edited August 10, 2023 by 16345Ed

[norwood]

Update: replaced the bi-metal with new factory unit, and - freezer works a little more effectively, but the fridge is still 50 degrees.

Looked at the fridge door gasket, which had come off its mount towards the bottom. Oh, I thought, now we've found the problem. Nope, no change to the temps after fixing that.

Tried unmounting the fan, taking it apart, and oiling the bushings. It felt like it turned a little more smoothly. NOW we've found the problem, I thought - nope, no improvement. It gets very cold indeed (like -12) in the freezer, but in the fridge, it's always 50.

The fan still does not spin very fast - actually, at one point I opened the freezer and found that it was trying to spin forward, not getting past a certain point, and going backwards, over and over. Carefully giving it a head start with my finger got it going, still not very fast.

Checked voltage to it again, wall voltage present.

Go ahead and replace fan motor then?

[Budget Appliance Repair]

@norwood Yes, replace the evaporator fan motor, (Fan in freezer), what you describe it doing is what they do, or not run at all, when they fail.

There is an electronic control board encased in the black box instead of an electrical coil like on the old motors - the board converts the AC input to DC to run the BLDC, (Brushless DC fan motor).

When the electronics fail the motor either won't run at all, will run lots slower then it should or just kind of quiver a little until given help to start.

[Captain Dunsel]

That is a 120 volt fan motorPart number: WP2315539

http://www.appliancepartspros.com/ShowPartImage.aspx?forumimg=WP2315539

[Terry Carmen]

Quote

 It gets very cold indeed (like -12) in the freezer, but in the fridge, it's always 50.

This is a single evaporator system, so if the freezer is cold (it is), the refrigerator should be cold too. If it isn't, it's an airflow problem.

Did you check both the discharge and return ducts to see if they're clear? If either the return or discharge ducts are blocked or restricted, the refrigerator won't cool properly. 

If all the ducts are clear, it has a bad fan motor. Personally I'd replace the motor and blade. It fell off the first time, so it's going to fall off again. Also I don't trust that it's running at full speed, or isn't just stopping after a while.

[Budget Appliance Repair]

13 hours ago, Terry Carmen said:

Also I don't trust that it's running at full speed, or isn't just stopping after a while.

My feeling exactly and exactly what @norwood described is indicating this.

On 8/12/2023 at 2:48 PM, norwood said:

fan still does not spin very fast - actually, at one point I opened the freezer and found that it was trying to spin forward, not getting past a certain point, and going backwards, over and over. Carefully giving it a head start with my finger got it going

 

[norwood]

On 8/13/2023 at 7:10 AM, Budget Appliance Repair said:

@norwood Yes, replace the evaporator fan motor, (Fan in freezer), what you describe it doing is what they do, or not run at all, when they fail.

There is an electronic control board encased in the black box instead of an electrical coil like on the old motors - the board converts the AC input to DC to run the BLDC, (Brushless DC fan motor).

When the electronics fail the motor either won't run at all, will run lots slower then it should or just kind of quiver a little until given help to start.

Replacing the evaporator fan motor indeed fixed the problem. Thank you very much!