Question about start device.

Refrigerator & Freezer Repair
1

The fridge is a Whirlpool ET8WTEXKQ01. A couple days ago it started buzzing every minute for about 10 sec at a time, but it’s working just fine otherwise.

I’ve been looking around which led me to the start device which I pulled and it doesn’t rattle. I read in another thread about checking resistance on the compressor, which I will do before ordering any parts. My question though is, the start device on my unit looks nothing like the one pictured on the site here. It’s small and black and has what looks like the cap plugged into it. There’s no cover over it, and there are 2 wires connected to the fan. It’s a 3-prong connector that goes into the compressor (can’t see that side on the pic here). Would this be the wrong part, or has mine likely been replaced in the past?

Thanks for any help. :slight_smile:

3

You will need a meter to check things, post back when you get one.

4

The bottom two pins are the run and start ones. The higher resistance one is the start pin. Check across the two mating pins on the old start device, should be between 5 and 10 ohms.

5

The resistance on those is right at 5.

6

So your old start device measures 5 ohms, seems good to me. Plug everything back together and see if you get 115 volts to the two wires going to the compressor from the refrigerator, if ok, you probably have a bad compressor.