Hello,
I have an LG LFX28978ST Refrigerator that doesn’t seem to be cooling well enough when it’s hot out. For a while now, whenever the weather gets hot (and ice is used frequently), the freezer stoops cooling well. The ice maker will stop producing ice and the ice-cream begins to melt. If I unplug it and pull it out from the wall, and then plug it in after a few hours, it starts working and making ice again. This happened again a couple of days ago. I unplugged it, let it rest, but it did not seem to start making ice. I pulled it out, took off the back panel, and noticed that the compressor was very, very hot (untouchable), but sounded like it was on. I did not hear any clicking when left alone, only when I unplugged it and plugged it back in. The condenser fan was working and appears to have been blowing fast, but it’s hard to tell what “fast” is. In this model, the compressor is on the left side, the condenser coils are in the middle, and the condenser fan is on the right blowing to the left. If I put my hand between the compressor and the coils, I do not feel much air movement, but I’m not sure if I should. The coils did not seem very dirty, but I vacuum cleaned them just in case. Suspecting that the fan was not blowing hard enough, I placed a large table fan next to the coils and the compressor cooled down. I turned off the fan and the compressor began to heat up again. I left the fan on blowing on the coils all evening and then all night. The liquid that was in the freezer did freeze, however there’s still almost no ice produced (usually the ice maker is pretty quick). It seems to be freezing but very slowly. Throughout all this time the fridge and freezer stayed somewhat cool, and there was cold air blowing from the vents.
I expected the desk fan to resolve the issue (pointing at a weak condenser fan), but it seems like it didn’t. Does it mean there’s a problem with the compressor itself? Any guidance on what to try next? Thanks a lot for your time.
-Igor