1955 GE Fridge compressor running non-stop

[turbokinetic]

Wonderful news!  I was hopeful this (or similar) was going to be the issue.

 

As with John, I'm curious about the guy who worked on it. Was he older? 

 

Sincerely,

David

 

[turbokinetic]

Few things......

... bring a feeling of thankfulness like finally having something repaired after hitting dead ends for so long.

 

[oldschoolmeg]

Thank you everyone

Also, I would like to thank all of you! It's nice that there is a community of people to help out at any time. A special thanks to David (turbokinetic) for using even more time and replying to my emails. He was actually spot on with his diagnosis without even seeing the fridge!

As the technician's age goes, I would say he looked to be about my dad's age. Maybe late 50s early 60s. He said that he had started out on fridges like mine. He even had the special GE tool for the charge port on the compressor. I hope to never need help again with the fridge but thankful to have a lot of support online if I need it.

 

[turbokinetic]

It's no problem responding to e-mails when life isn't getting in the way.  

I had a hunch that the repairman was going to have had experience with these fridges when they were commonplace. Hopefully he continues to find joy in keeping them working, and remains willing to work on them for us.

As far as my remote guess being correct without seeing the fridge; that was as much luck as it was anything else.  When troubleshooting, a person looks at symptoms and checks the most easily verified things first.  When you have no access to actually check anything; you have to draw on what you have seen in the past and try to compare it to the most similar set of circumstances that you've seen.  

I suggested a restriction since the symptoms you described all fit that hypothesis. This hypothesis was further reinforced by having seen this problem caused by restrictions in GE fridges of similar vintage.  They are very consistently manufactured and suffer consistent failure modes.

Also, two people I respect (John L;  and a local friend who is not online) both have described this problem to me. All that added up to a correct guess, which your technician was able to verify and correct. 

Sincerely,
David

 

[mrvintage1959]

1952 GE

I have a 1952 GE that is the combo like yours and it is continuously running. The fridge is about 35 degrees and the freezer is about 10 degrees. I recently purchased it and it has been running for almost 6 days straight without cycling off.I have only found one repair shop who is willing to look at it but has yet to look at it. I was curious, did the man who repaired your fridge rig up a generic filter drier or was it specific to your model? I'm not very handy and very inept about appliance repair so I don't know if there is a such thing as a universal filter drier. Any input would be appreciated. I'd really like to enjoy my fridge.

I live in Michigan in the Detroit metro area if anyone knows a good repair man neat that area.

Thanks!

 

[maytag85]

Reply #23

Does your refrigerator have a fan for the condenser or not? If it does the condenser coils might be clogged with dust and such and could be causing it not to dissipate the heat properly causing it to run constantly.

 

[combo52]

Reply #23

Hi Andrew, Yes Filter-Driers are very generic and will fit almost any refrigerator including newness today.

 

Reply #24, yes be sure that the condenser fan is running, A dirty condenser will not likely cause this type of problem unless the room the ref is in is well over 90F. 

 

It is always good to keep a condenser clean because the compressor and its starting components will run cooler and last longer however we almost never get service calls where the condenser is so dirty that the refrigerator does not cool properly except under extreme operating conditions, like very heavy use and very high room temperatures.

 

John L.