Last week the wife was complaining that our Amana side-by-side wasn’t making enough ice. I checked the temp and it was running at 20F. I found a dirty condenser coil and a bad condenser fan motor. I blew out the condenser coil and temporarily put a small 4" desk fan behind the unit to move some air through until I could get a new condenser motor. The freezer worked great for four days, it pulled right down to 0F and was cranking out the ice.
Yesterday, I got the new fan motor and installed it. I unplugged the unit, slapped the new motor in and plugged it back in 20 minutes later. It’s moving plenty of air now, but it quit cooling as soon as I installed the fan. I watched the temperature rise yesterday and by this morning the freezer was at 35F. The compressor is running, the condenser fan is running, defrost timer works fine, but it’s not cooling even though it was working fine right before installing the new fan motor.
It’s an Amana ARS2665A. Yes, everything was back in place. I took a look at the evaporator coil this afternoon and only a few inches of the inlet line was frosted. I have no idea how long the fan was out, but the compressor was hot as a firecracker when I first checked things. My only guess is that the compressor was damaged by overheating but didn’t show symptoms until the new fan brought things back to normal operating temperature. I have no idea otherwise.
This was a 10 year old unit that was here when we bought this residence a few years ago. I brought another one in from the garage that I purchased new for a previous residence a few years ago. Now I don’t have a beer cooler for the garage…
…My only guess is that the compressor was damaged by overheating but didn’t show symptoms until the new fan brought things back to normal operating temperature…
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Your guess sounds right to me. You can call a local refrigerator guy to confirm it.