Last rites for a fridge?

[fieldgrade]

Opened the freezer on my 15 year old GE Profile that came with the house this morning and all the ice was melted. I've got one of those fridge coil brushes, so I cleaned up the coils underneath, unplugged it to see if anything needed to reset, plugged it back in, several times, anddddd....
nothin'.

The only thing that works is the light inside. I rolled it out, took off the rear panel near the bottom that exposes the compressor and fan and the fan does not come on and neither does the compressor.

Should I dump it and roll the beer fridge into its place, or is there something else I can troubleshoot further?

 

[Mitch Rapp]

A couple things come to mind right off....
First, have you checked the thermostat? I bumped ours a while back either putting something in or out and it was turned all the way off. I did all the same stuff as you before I realized it.
Second, if the thermostat is set right, it could still be bad. Never had that problem, so I don't know how easy/hard it is to replace, but it *should* be pretty straightforward.
Last, there's a relay back there on the compressor/fan assembly. Sometimes they burn up. That's a pretty easy fix.

I really hope it's something simple like this for you.

 

[pirate]

Likely the compressor overload or relay-start capacitor. Do a search for your model frig and search compressor and fan will not start. Easy fix. I have done two myself over the years for $40 in parts.

 

[Derek8404]

There's only one thing to do with it. Pack it full of tanerite and blow the hell out of it. Be sure to video for us.

 

[Ghost1]

when I was kid I prayed someone had dropped off a new fridge in the dump site in the woods...so I could shoot the hell out of it. In other words....can I have it?

 

[J.R.]

There's only one thing to do with it. Pack it full of tanerite and blow the hell out of it. Be sure to video for us.

I was just gonna say shoot it, but I like your idea much better.

 

[fieldgrade]

Okay, four pages into search results and nowhere do I find symptoms of both the fan and compressor not running.

So I fixed it the same way I fix lots of things. I got ready to load it in the truck to haul it off, but gave it one more try. I plugged it back in, let it sit five minutes and the fan and compressor both came on. I have a thermometer in there and will see if it actually cools down.

Back later.

 

[Bailey Boat]

Sometimes their like a woman, ignore them long enough and they snap back in line.....

 

[fieldgrade]

Okay, freezer is down from 60 degrees to 40 degrees since I posted exactly 30 minutes ago. I think this beast got stuck in some weird defrost cycle, and with dirty coils.

Updates later.

 

[Mitch Rapp]

Okay, freezer is down from 60 degrees to 40 degrees since I posted exactly 30 minutes ago. I think this beast got stuck in some weird defrost cycle, and with dirty coils.

Updates later.

That's a couple grand worth of good news

 

[fieldgrade]

another 20 minutes later and I'm down from 40 to 30 degrees.

 

[J.R.]

That's a couple grand worth of good news

you can say that again, when we bought our house we didn't realize the previous owners were taking every appliance in the house. Needless to say it was costly.

 

[trcubed]

you can say that again, when we bought our house we didn't realize the previous owners were taking every appliance in the house. Needless to say it was costly.

That should have been in the disclosure. Did you check?

 

[Mitch Rapp]

you can say that again, when we bought our house we didn't realize the previous owners were taking every appliance in the house. Needless to say it was costly.

Boy, aint that the truth. We've been updating the kitchen in our house...new fridge, stove, dishwasher this past summer. Gobs of money there. New floor already this winter. Refinish cabinets and new countertops this coming summer.
It's easy to pump a lot of dough in a kitchen.
Gonna do the small bathroom next winter and the master the summer after that...*sigh*

 

[Ghost1]

That's a couple grand worth of good news

Actually, because of efficiency changes and the effects age has on older electrical motors and such, a new fridge/freezer can save you enough to pay for itself...at least by the time you need another new one hehe

 

[J.R.]

That should have been in the disclosure. Did you check?

yeah it was in there. We knew about the fridge but our realtor said it was probably just for negotiating leverage and it was like 10 years old and in mediocre condition so we figured they would just leave it bc they were moving into an apartment. needless to say, we called our realtor and they said they were taking it all. Not sure how we missed it but I guess you live and learn. we wanted to replace them anyway but it sucked having to do them all at once (even the washer/dryer)

 

[Mitch Rapp]

Actually, because of efficiency changes and the effects age has on older electrical motors and such, a new fridge/freezer can save you enough to pay for itself...at least by the time you need another new one hehe

No denying that...still a chunk up front, though. See post above yours...we were posting at the same time lol

 

[J.R.]

Boy, aint that the truth. We've been updating the kitchen in our house...new fridge, stove, dishwasher this past summer. Gobs of money there. New floor already this winter. Refinish cabinets and new countertops this coming summer.
It's easy to pump a lot of dough in a kitchen.
Gonna do the small bathroom next winter and the master the summer after that...*sigh*

does your dish washer dry the dishes? ours leaves them a little wet, we called and said something about energy effiecency so they no longer dry the dishes. but yeah, id like to put tile or something in our kitchen. I'm trying to be strategic and only do things that will boost the value since well probably move in a few years

 

[J.R.]

another 20 minutes later and I'm down from 40 to 30 degrees.

maybe it just needed a tune up. at the very least you've bought yourself some time to start saving some change in the event it bites the dust

 

[Mitch Rapp]

does your dish washer dry the dishes? ours leaves them a little wet, we called and said something about energy effiecency so they no longer dry the dishes. but yeah, id like to put tile or something in our kitchen. I'm trying to be strategic and only do things that will boost the value since well probably move in a few years

Yep, it dries them...mostly lol. We went with a padded vinyl instead of tile at about 1/3 the cost. Looks real nice and it's soft underfoot. But, we aren't planning to sell anytime soon, either.
Kitchen and bathrooms bring the most bang for your buck in resale and help it sell quicker. Learned that lesson selling a house in Tennessee about ten years ago.

 

[kcult]

does your dish washer dry the dishes? ours leaves them a little wet, we called and said something about energy effiecency so they no longer dry the dishes. but yeah, id like to put tile or something in our kitchen. I'm trying to be strategic and only do things that will boost the value since well probably move in a few years

No, she just puts them on a mat to air dry.

 

[fieldgrade]

Actually, because of efficiency changes and the effects age has on older electrical motors and such, a new fridge/freezer can save you enough to pay for itself...at least by the time you need another new one hehe

I heat and cool 3100 feet of finished space, and another 1000 sq feet partially finished space with a 30 year old Trane, along with two fridges. My bills rarely run over $275 at the height of a screaming hot summer (gotta love 8 ft ceilings), and gas heat in the winter. Any efficiencies I can gain will take more than 8-9 years to offset the initial investment of new appliances and HVAC, and with devices that will last a third as long, so I will just continue to run what I brung.

 

[Ghost1]

Our 10 year old DW will dry the dishes but man you can hear the power meter spinning from inside the house!

 

[J.R.]

Yep, it dries them...mostly lol. We went with a padded vinyl instead of tile at about 1/3 the cost. Looks real nice and it's soft underfoot. But, we aren't planning to sell anytime soon, either.
Kitchen and bathrooms bring the most bang for your buck in resale and help it sell quicker. Learned that lesson selling a house in Tennessee about ten years ago.

ill have to look into padded vinyl, we have that like really thin vinyl right now and whatever dumbass layed it did a poor job on the perimeter. I'm thinking the floors and then maybe just crown molding although I'm not sure how much that will do.

 

[J.R.]

No, she just puts them on a mat to air dry.

yeah we have to leave the door open to air dry, so bizarre.

 

[J.R.]

I heat and cool 3100 feet of finished space, and another 1000 sq feet partially finished space with a 30 year old Trane, along with two fridges. My bills rarely run over $275 at the height of a screaming hot summer (gotta love 8 ft ceilings), and gas heat in the winter. Any efficiencies I can gain will take more than 8-9 years to offset the initial investment of new appliances and HVAC, and with devices that will last a third as long, so I will just continue to run what I brung.

yeah thats awesome, ours is around $220 and half the size of your place.

 

[Mitch Rapp]

ill have to look into padded vinyl, we have that like really thin vinyl right now and whatever dumbass layed it did a poor job on the perimeter. I'm thinking the floors and then maybe just crown molding although I'm not sure how much that will do.

We weren't set on color/style...that was fluid for us. So, we shopped around for quite a while at several of the salvage warehouses in our area till we found what we ended up with. Took some time, but we saved a huge chunk. Ended up getting it at a place in Shelby on Grover St where the old J&C Dyeing mill is. The name escapes me right now.
I see you profile says upstate SC, if you're reasonable distance from Shelby, it might be worth your time to drive up and take a look. They had tons of tile and vinyl flooring.

 

[J.R.]

We weren't set on color/style...that was fluid for us. So, we shopped around for quite a while at several of the salvage warehouses in our area till we found what we ended up with. Took some time, but we saved a huge chunk. Ended up getting it at a place in Shelby on Grover St where the old J&C Dyeing mill is. The name escapes me right now.
I see you profile says upstate SC, if you're reasonable distance from Shelby, it might be worth your time to drive up and take a look. They had tons of tile and vinyl flooring.

I just looked it up, only an hour away which is well worth the drive. once I moved out on my own, I'm all about saving a buck.

 

[Mitch Rapp]

I just looked it up, only an hour away which is well worth the drive. once I moved out on my own, I'm all about saving a buck.

I just looked up the place...
Depot Salvage 2
1000 Grover St
Shelby NC

It's right on the outskirts...they've got another place in town, but Grover St is twice the size of it.

 

[fieldgrade]

Okay, while y'all are picking floor colors, my freezer is down to 15 degrees.

 

[Cowboy]

you can say that again, when we bought our house we didn't realize the previous owners were taking every appliance in the house. Needless to say it was costly.

You like those windows? To bad we are taking them with us!

 

[J.R.]

You like those windows? To bad we are taking them with us!

dude they even took the blinds! didn't even have the decency to throw some spackle over the holes.

Oh yeah, they also had wallpaper on the ceiling in our guest room but thats a whole other issue

 

[trcubed]

One of our neighbors sold their house a few years back. Took the cabinets, appliances, sinks, vanities. The law never did catch them.

 

[Mitch Rapp]

One of our neighbors sold their house a few years back. Took the cabinets, appliances, sinks, vanities. The law never did catch them.

Ouch...my mom has a similar story that one of my brothers did to her in one of her rentals smdh

 

[Diablos]

Gonna need 50lbs of tannerite to properly diagnose this

 

[fieldgrade]

All systems go. The good news is that's the first time this thing has been cleaned out and cleaned up in 11 years.

 

[cold1]

Usually, if the fan and compressor are not running it is stuck in the defrost mode. All frost free fridges have a defrost. At some time interval, it shuts off the comp and fan and turns on a heating element that is connected to the evap coil in the freezer. The time interval is dependent on the MFR, some are 10 minutes every 6 hours, some are 20 minutes every 8 hours,etc.. You can order the exact replacement or you can get a Supco adjustable defrost timer. The timers are usually located in two places, one the lower kick panel, two in the fridge compartment where the light bulb is in that panel.

This only applies to older refrigerators, not the energy star rated ones. Energy star rated ones are controlled by the PCB and usually cost between $500 and $1200 for the PCB when it goes bad.

It sounds to me like Fieldgrades problem is the defrost timer got stuck in the on position. The points in the switch probably welded shut.

 

[fieldgrade]

It sounds to me like Fieldgrades problem is the defrost timer got stuck in the on position. The points in the switch probably welded shut.

So then let me ask, if this might be the case should I anticipate some issues in the future? This GE Profile was bought new around 2001. Everything seems to working as it should this morning.

 

[Cowboy]

[video=youtube_share;eHANLC9JtWI]https://youtu.be/eHANLC9JtWI[/video]

dude they even took the blinds! didn't even have the decency to throw some spackle over the holes.

Oh yeah, they also had wallpaper on the ceiling in our guest room but thats a whole other issue

[IMG2=JSON]{"data-align":"none","data-size":"full","src":"https:\/\/youtu.be\/eHANLC9JtWI"}[/IMG2]

 

[Cowboy]

[video=youtube_share;eHANLC9JtWI]https://youtu.be/eHANLC9JtWI[/video]