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Fridges made by Whirlpool.

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Intermittent cooling issue on side by side freezer.

Hi,

My whirlpool side by side freezer is having intermittent cooling issue. Every time I unplug and restart, it works fine for 8-10 hours. I can hear compressor running and all the fans runs fine. Everything freezes nicely inside the freezer. After about 8-10 hours, i don’t hear compressor running and sometimes evaporator fan also shuts down. In most cases, evaporator fan keep blowing air and freezer temp reaches around 30-35F. I see lot of frost inside the freezer. If I leave it, sometimes everything refreezes again. after few hours.

I had technician come over yesterday and he cleaned the condenser coils. He didn’t see any frost on the evaporator coils. I left fridge running since yesterday and started to see same issue again today with frost inside freezer and temperature rising.

Technician suggested sealed system repair or re-charging refrigerant gas., which are both very costly repairs. Can you please help me understand why freezer is cooling intermittently?

Thanks for help,

Nitesh

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My model no is GSS26C4XXY02 (whirlpool side by side)

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I have this as well but it works for a week or so and them does it again. Any suggestions?

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Hi,

The compressor and the evaporator fan stopping every 8-10 hours is just the refrigerator going into the auto defrost cycle.

When this happens they are turned off and the temperature in the freezer is allowed to rise to 32 F (0 C) to melt any ice on the evaporator unit which drains away to the evaporator pan under the fridge near the compressor. The melting process is sped up by turning on the defrost heater - part #26 Unit parts as you don’t want the food to even begin to thaw.

If there is a lot of ice, disconnect the power and use an Ohmmeter check that the heater element is OK (usually 20-50 Ohms, if OK check that power is getting to the element - be safety aware as the heater operates at lethal AC mains voltage) and also that the drain tube is not blocked preventing the meltwater from draining and then refreezing when the compressor is restarted. Pour a small measured amount of water down the drain hole (under the evaporator unit) and check if all of it reaches the evaporator pan underneath.

When the temperature in the freezer reaches 32 F(0 C) the Bi- Metal thermostat -part #4 Air Flow parts operates to signal the control board to turn off the heater and to restart the compressor and evaporator fan to drive the temps back down to the set temperatures.

If the thermostat is OK then the compressor capacitor -part #13 Unit parts may be faulty.

Usually the whole process takes 15-25 minutes and is repeated every 8-10 hours.

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Thanks a lot for the quick response. I talked to technician again today and he thinks control board is not working. Once the cooling system turns off (either for defrost or setpoint reached), compressor doesn't restart by itself. Even opening fridge door multiple times doesn't start and i don't hear any clicking sound; evaporator fan keeps running though and temp keeps climbing up. Only way to start compressor is by switching off/on. Once it starts, everything start cooling down normally again. There was no ice when opened last time.

Will a capacitor issue explains compressor restarting after switching off/on?

Thanks again,

Nitesh

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Hi @Nitesh Kumar

The capacitor is in the compressor's operating circuit so it might be the problem.

Disconnecting the power and reconnecting it might provide just enough of an initial surge through the capacitor to start the compressor whereas if the power is connected to the refrigerator all the time and the compressor is just turned off by the control board it might not be the same amount.

This is just conjecture on my part but capacitors when faulty can have some unusual effects on circuits.

I know that the capacitor is not cheap but it is a lot cheaper than a control board so it may be a gamble that you will have to decide whether to take or not.

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my side by side is cooling most of the time on frig side but the freezer side the ice cubes some times makes never fill the tray. It acts like a timer that is failing, but the one I have in the control panel is solid state with a relay. I wonder if the relay is causing the problem with bad contacts? Anyone have this problem?

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@richardnea63693

What is the model number of your refrigerator?

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