LG Side by Side, fridge section not cooling

[Richarddza]

Hi,

I own an LG side by side fridge GC-M237AGNN since 2012.

Two years ago the fridge side stopped cooling, the technician first claimed the 18uF compressor capacitor had gone bad and ordered for a new one which would take about a week to arrive. No temporary solution was provided, so I rigged up a 20uF capacitor to keep the fridge going.

After a week, the freezer section now started to not work properly i.e. no cooling. A  Senior LG techie was sent. He came along with the replacement capacitor and also discovered that the evaporator coil was covered in ice. Took us a while to get all the ice off. He blamed the heater coil of the defrost circuit to be non operational and that would take another 2 weeks to get a replacement coil.

The fridge now started working perfectly fine.

The defrost heater coil did eventually arrive after 2 weeks. When we opened the freezer to replace the said coil, we found the evaporator coil absolutely clean with NO ice formation. So, we did not replace the old coil and I kept the new heater coil with me for future emergencies.

I had NO error code or message throughout the whole drama.

Fast forward to last week, and the fridge section again was not cooling properly. Again, NO error message or code anywhere.

This time another techie shows up and I tell him to check the evaporator coil. On getting to the coil, we discover the top 2" of the coil was covered in ice, the rest of it was fine.
He tried blaming the defrost coil, told him no error message and the test mode when triggered (which he had no clue about) would cut off when the heater coil reached +5 C, and the fridge would automatically go back to normal Mode.

He then said the evaporator coil is choked and that is causing the frost buildup on the coil. Needs to take the fridge in for a good flushing and gas charging.

I didn't allow them to do any flushing cuz I think its not the right diagnosis.

My fridge as of now is working absolutely fine. It cools down to the set temperatures and maintains them to within a degree.

Now, What exactly is wrong with my fridge? Why is it having the same problem but 2 years apart?

Any advise would be helpful.

 

Thanks and apologies for the length.

 

[johntech]

If your evaporator coils are evenly frosted now but frost and ice is building up towards the top of the coils over time then I would want to check the defrost thermistor if there is one. Sounds like it is not fully defrosting. If the thermistor is not reading the temp correctly then it could terminate the heater early before it is done completely defrosting and turn the cooling back on and refreeze the partially defrosted evaporator. Could also be the bimetal or control  intermittently failing. Didn't have any luck with your model number so I'm not too sure what components are actually in your model.

[Richarddza]

Hi Johntech, 

Thanks for your feedback.

I have a scanned copy of the internal wirings and error codes.. but cannot attach the same here.