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Fridge 101
For the last week our fridge has
stopped shutting off periodically like it’s suppose to. It also
hasn’t cooled as well and I had to turn the temp up higher to keep
the normal 0 and 37 degrees.Turns out, there is a timer that is
accessed under the front of the fridge by removing the grill you take
off to clean the coils. You have cleaned your coils, right? This timer has a knurled knob that should
normally be turning ever so slow over a 24 hour period and shuts down
the fridge for a pre-determined period of time for the defrost cycle.
Mine doesn’t move anymore and resulted in a frost build up
restricting the air flow. You can’t see the frost buildup, it’s in behind the freezer panel.
The test is to turn the little red knob
clockwise until the fridge shuts down and then leave it for about 20
minutes. After 10 minutes or so, water was flowing into the
condensation pan confirming the defrost heater is working, but the
timer is not. After the manual defrost cycle, the fridge returned to
it’s normal settings and is working fine.So, if you never hear your fridge turn
off and runs continually, you may have a defrost problem. Mine is an
Amana, so I’m sure different models may have different procedures,
but it appears they all have a defrost cycle as part of the normal
operation.
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3 Replies
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Good to know Tom thanks for the info. I cleaned my coils two weeks ago but I don’t remember seeing the knob you have pictured. I have an Amana too, I’ll take a look for it tomorrow. What I did notice though is a small black antenna coming out from under the fridge, any ideas as to what that might be for?
Fred
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Great question Fred, mine has the same thing, so maybe someone in the know will jump in here. Mine looks like one of those antenna’s that would go on the back of a stereo that hooks to VHF.
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The antenna may be a temperature probe.
As you probably have discovered, changing the defrost timer is not difficult.
I just wanted to add a comment about defrost timers. I replaced my Whirlpool refrigerator and burned-up a number of the electronic defrost timers very quickly. I think the problem was that they did not like the modified square wave inverters. I replaced the electronic, energy efficient timers, with a mechanical timer. I have had not had any problems since.
Ed Roelle
Grand Blanc, MI
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