Any refrigerator experts here?

[trmiv]

For the past few weeks we've been having problems with our Whirlpool gold bottom freezer refrigerator. We've only had it for about a year and half (of course the warranty is expired). At first I thought it was a problem with the ice maker because the entire freezer section was covered in water, but everything was still frozen. I figured the ice maker was spraying water everywhere when it filled. So I turned it off. Well the problem didn't go away. It seems the water everywhere must have been the left over frost defrosting because now if I catch it right I the entire freezer will be covered in a nice layer of frost when I slide the door open. Not just the walls, but everything in the freezer. Eventually it defrosts, soaks everything in the freezer and re-freezes, and then happens again. Any idea what I can do about this?

 

[x-alki]

Check to see if there is a drain hose that might be plugged.

 

[iGas]

Door seal failed

 

[schneiderguy]

Check to see if there are mice inside. They like air conditioners, refrigerators, etc.

 

[iGas]

or cracked casing

 

[Pepsei]

same thing happened to my fridge. after researching on some handyman website (sorry, i can't find it now), they told me it could be the 'timer', 'heat element' or the 'thermostat heat switch'

the way frost free freezer works is that the cooling coil cools down the fridge but the ice will form on it over time. the "timer" counts the number of times you open/close fridge, and then it turns on the thermostat heat switch which will start the heat element to melt the ice on the cooling rod.

if any of those parts are not working, the cooling coil will freeze over and it will fail to make the freezer any cooler, so you can't make ice anymore and the freezer feels like a warm box with a block of ice.

an appliance handyman can determine which part is broken, or you can be like me and go to the whirlpool website to look at the parts list. You should be able to get the parts from appliance parts store (or they can order them for you). I didn't know which part was bad, so i started with the easiest part to replace for my model, the timer ($25). that didn't work. so I tried the thermostat heat switch ($15), which is attached to the heat element behind some plate in the fridge itself. and that did it. the fridge is back to working condition.

hope this helps.

edit: an easy way to tell if this is the problem is to look for freezing cooling coil, (usually located lower, inside fridge, behind a plastic plate with air vent). if you unplug the fridge. and let all the ice melt first over night. plug the fridge back, it will go back to normal for a couple days...until it freeze over again and make the fridge warm.

 

[rudeguy]

Originally posted by: iGas

Door seal failed

 

[I Saw OJ]

Is your refrigerator running?

 

[Modelworks]

You got lucky , my brother was here, he does appliance repair.

he said:

Drain hose blockage
Thermostat cutoff on heater not working makes it defrost too much
Timer staying in defrost cycle for too long causing ice to melt naturally then refreezes

He also said that you can check the timer using a watch.
They usually run in a 6 hours on 35 minutes defrost cycle. Pull off the grill at the bottom front of the refrigerator and you should see the timer, a black box with a round knob and a kind of slit. Use a flat screwdriver to turn the timer clockwise and you will hear a click when it enters the defrost cycle. Start timing it , if it stays like 40 minutes, that is the problem.

 

[imported_weadjust]

Try this link to trouble shoot

http://www.repairclinic.com/0088_4_1.asp

 

[trmiv]

Door seal huh? I found a link that said to try slip a dollar bill in and see if there is gap, and sure enough I found one. Thanks guys, looks like I have a seal replace.

 

[olds]

Door seal or defrost heater/timer. Try advancing the timer manually and see if that helps.

 

[boomerang]

The widder woman across the way bought herself a new fridge. She dropped $2300 on it. They told her where she bought it that they were making them so cheaply these days that it would last her 7 to 8 years before expiring.

I've got a GE in our kitchen that's 22 years old and going strong. The conversation came up because I was toying with replacing ours solely for the potential energy savings. Don't think so ........

 

[geno]

Originally posted by: schneiderguy
Check to see if there are mice inside. They like air conditioners, refrigerators, etc.

orly?