I have a 7 year old whirlpool bottom freezer fridge. If it matters the model has the double doors on the top fridge section. Also, no water dispenser or ice maker. 2-3 days ago it started making an odd noise. And then a day or two later i realized everything in the freezer was thawing and everything in the fridge was getting warmer. Previously I could always hear it turn on and run for a while but this new noise is a louder click and there is a louder buzzing sound instead of the quieter hum from before. Also, this new noise only lasts a few seconds each time but happens very often, maybe every couple of minutes. So there is power and the lights work. I have absolutely no knowledge about appliances but my blind guess is the fridge realizes the temperature is too warm and tries to run to cool it down but it’s not running right and not cooling. I haven’t tried any fixes or touched anything except putting my frozen stuff in a cooler. Thanks for any advice.
Remove the back cover and pry off the start device AP4079373 from the side of the compressor. If it rattles when shook, it’s bad, order a new one.
Thanks for the advice richappy. Please let me know if you still think I should do that after you hear my story. And if anyone can figure this one out you’ve gotta be good! So my fridge had the symptoms I described in my first post and they continued so I had a repairman from a local appliance repair shop come out. $60 fee by the way. Before the guy came I took a look under the fridge in the front and took off the back panel to see if I could see anything visibly wrong, like a busted pipe or something, to possibly save the $60. Of course I couldn’t see anything wrong in the back (where the compressor is) and just vacuumed a bunch of built up dust on the end of the coils at the front bottom of the fridge. So the guy comes out, hears the click and buzz and immediately thinks it’s a bad overload relay (or overload relay switch) I can’t remember which. So he says labor and a new switch is $250. I say ok. I haven’t checked yet to see how much the part goes for and if that’s an extremely high price (which I think it is after watching how easily and quickly he changed it out). After waiting a few minutes to let everything start working right again (he said we needed to) the same problem happened. The click then buzzing and still not working. He tried another relay switch, again we waited, and the same thing. Not working. So he then pulls out some electric meters (sorry, I dont know what they are called) and he tests some parts down there including the compressor. He starts thinking, and then after a call to his boss, confirms that it’s the compressor and not the relay switch. He puts my old switch back and advises it’s better to just buy a new fridge than have him put in a new compressor which he said would run about $650 and not be a great, long term fix. Since it wasn’t the relay switch I’m not charged the $250, only the $60 fee to come out and take a look and give a quote. Ok, I think that’s the end of it. This all happened yesterday by the way. So the rest of yesterday and today I’m in the mindset that I will need to buy a new fridge, not a small purchase. And I moved a bunch of stuff to the freezer at work since I didn’t get the quick easy fix I was hoping for and wanted to save what I could. So what happens? I get home today and…THE THING IS FREAKING WORKING!!! What the??? A couple water bottles I had left in the freezer are frozen solid and everything in the fridge is cold. I’ve been home for about an hour now and no click, no buzz, just the previous normal quiet hum when it’s running. So it’s about 30 hours after the guy left yesterday now. I left the fridge plugged in I guess without even thinking about it. And I’m pretty sure it still was buzzing and not cooling this morning when I left for work so I think sometime in the last 12-14 hours it started working. Any ideas? Am I in the clear? Will it go out any second? Did cleaning the dust off the front coils help? There was a lot.
Side question on how appliance repairmen are paid and how the shop they work at get paid. Basically, how is the $60 fee divvied up? I ask because this happened…when I scheduled the service I actually had two things for him to look at, my fridge and my washer (see the washer forum). I asked if it’s just one $60 service fee. They girl scheduling the appointment over the phone said there is another fee but it’s only $30 for the second appliance since they are already there. So at the end of everything above the repairman is going to charge me $120 or two full $60 fees. I tell him the girl said it would be $90 total and he was totally cool with that. I then tipped him $10(so I gave him $100) because I was late meeting him and he was there working for a while. That all got me thinking, did I just give back $10 of the $30 he didn’t get? Would he have gotten the entire $60 fee? I figure some goes to the shop and some to him. So I’m hoping the $30 saved comes out of the shop’s cut and he gets the $10. Can anyone shed some light?
For Pandorus. If you can ad good, helpfull comments to this discussion, it is wellcome. In this case, you are not, so buzz off.
You have a hard starting compressor that fails to start during high usage periods when the line voltage is lower.Still points to compressor replacement.
Richappy,
I know almost nothing about fridges. By high usage do you mean when the fridge is really running or do you mean energy usage in my home in general? An which line are you referring to about the voltage? Do you still think I should look at the start device? Or am I just on borrowed time waiting for the compressor to go out any minute?
So its been almost 3 full days now that its been working perfectly after about 4 days of it completely not working. That was after 7 years of it working perfectly. This is probably just a general question with a million answers but why is my fridge having problems after just 7 years? I see fridges working fine all over the place that are 10, 15, even 20 years old. Is there anything I can do to make it last longer? Not run it at such a low temperature? Keep the coils clean? Etc? Thanks for your help.
Sometimes, during high usage times the line voltage will go down and your compressor will have trouble starting.
This may have been a temporary problem in your area, so check around if anyone else had problems and call the power company.
Richappy, again, I know nothing about this stuff but based on what just happened I think you are right on. So the fridge and freezer has been working fine now. Tomorrow will be a week since it started working on it’s own again. About an hour ago I’m sitting in my house watching tv. The DVD is also on, I have my dryer running and I decide to switch my ac on. So now I’ve got all these things running at the same time. It can’t be maybe 5 minutes after I turn on the ac (the last thing I switched on) and the fridge does it…the click then short buzz then click which signaled when it went out last time. I crap my pants thinking that’s it, it’s gone out for good. Then I remember what you said about line voltage and power usage and realize I have everything running and that it’s the first time I’ve run that many things since the whole fridge problem started. So I turn off the ac and leave the dryer, tv and DVD player on. That does it, the fridge stops with the clicking and buzzing and goes back to the hum of when it’s working just fine. So does that exactly confirm what you said above? Is it still for sure the compressor? Do I just never run everything at the same time again? I know for sure I used to run everything at the same time before and never had a problem. Any new advice? Thanks again!
The power company can put a recorder on the power line to see if they have a problem, but I suspect the problem is in your home. Moniotoring the input voltage at the electrical panel would confirm an input voltage problem