Fifty-Six Fridge Failure!

[turquoisedude]

So, file this under 'how not to start the New Year right'.... We had been at Julie's (pinkgurl's) home to ring in the New Year, then drove down to Ogden. The GE LW-11 refrigerator was working as reliably as always; didn't even give it a second thought. We left on Tuesday, but when we got back on Friday, disaster! The refrigerator was nice and warm (damn that butter conditioner!). I heard a couple of loud clicks, like I have heard in the past when the refrigerator was attempting to restart following a brownout or a short power hit.
Needless to say, I was sick thinking that the motor or compressor was fried...
After dealing with the defrosted contents of the freezer (we had an amazing surf'n'turf supper on Friday and I made a pair of Angel Food cakes with the vats of defrosted egg whites) I tried to focus on what could be wrong.
Hubby was busy looking up the numbers of scrap metal dealers, but I was poring through whatever vintage major-appliance repair books I have for clues about why the LW-11 wasn't running.
The most likely causes were: Relay failure, Thermostat Failure, Overload Protector failure, Condenser Fan failure, or (crossing my fingers this isn't it) compressor failure.
Of course, I have no wiring diagram or service information about this refrigerator, so I had to try and figure out which part was which here...
[this post was last edited: 1/8/2012-21:30]

 

[turquoisedude]

Over Hubby's making his throat sore about the problems with my 1956 'dream kitchen' ("The washer/dryer doesn't dry!" "The oven light doesn't work anymore" "This dishwasher won't clean the burnt-on crud from this pan I left under the broiler for three hours") I managed to figure out this was the relay... My first impression was that this may be the problem...

 

[turquoisedude]

But I figured it may be wise to wait and test the fridge after a good rest. I also thought it might be wise to film the test in case anyone might recognize the sounds being made. By the time I tested this, I had talked to a couple of other members, too. John (combo52) suggested the condensor fan may be the cause and I think this may indeed be it. The fan tried to start, but nothing happened when I heard the relay (I am guessing that is the click heard here) engage and try to start.
If anyone recognizes these 'symptoms', please, please let me know what trouble they are pointing to. I have invested a lot in getting this fridge into service and I am so not willing to walk away from it!!

 

[steved]

this help?

from Jan 1957 - from the pics your compressor has a resistor

 

[steved]

pg 2

more

 

[steved]

pg 3

.

 

[steved]

pg 4

.

 

[steved]

5

.

 

[steved]

pg 6

.

 

[steved]

and 7

one more

 

[steved]

finally pg 8

not too familiar with fridges but thought this info might help - good luck!

 

[cfz2882]

that is a strange winding arrangement with 3 seperate windings in the compressor
motor-that resistor and the starting relay would be the first things i'd check.
should be easy to find the problem-thanks to those great diagrams/descriptions
steved posted up.

 

[philr]

Hi Steve,

I'm always impressed to see the quantity of documentation you have and how fast you are at finding information in it!

Is there any schematic showing how the fan motor is connected on models with "M" type relays?

I'm wondering what determines the use of 0.6 or 2 ohm resistors?

 

[combo52]

1956 GE WALL REFERGERATOR

Yes as Phil said we need a schematic that shows how the condenser fan motor is wired into the power supply. Some of these older refs had a three wire dual winding condenser fan motors wired through the compressor start relay, this was to give more starting torque and then save power once it got running. The problem Paul is having is the condenser fan is not running the compressor seems to be doing fine. Most likely its just a bad fan motor and the newer two wire motors can be easily substituted if we can see how it wired in . Or if no Schematic is available I would just wire it to the power supply for the compressor, bypassing the relay and compressor overload altogether. If this were mine I would also use one of the new supper efficient fan motors that are used on new refs today, as these will drop your power use from over 30 watts to less than 6 watts. 

 

[steved]

Let me look

I will see what I can find tonight.

 

[turquoisedude]

Wow, Steve, thank you for the literature! As always, it is very much appreciated - you are very kind!!

 

[steved]

Found this

some testing info

 

[steved]

more

2

 

[steved]

3

troubleshooting

 

[steved]

page 4

.

 

[steved]

pg 5

.

 

[steved]

pg 6

.

 

[steved]

pg 7

.

 

[steved]

last

hope this helps

 

[firedome]

hmmm... a capacitor start motor, just like you'd find on a table saw or other high current draw motor.. was that typical then? Good luck with a fix, it's worth saving!

 

[turquoisedude]

Test plans for the weekend

With thanks again to Steve,  I found the capacitors described in the fan motor testing procedure he posted and I am planning on doing that this weekend.  

PhilR will probably be down in Ogden to witness this, so if I suddenly stop posting,  he will likely have news of how I fried myself... LOL

I am actually hoping that I won't be able to get the fan to run, meaning this is definitely the problem...

 

[turquoisedude]

Progress report - January 14 & 15

Armed with the diagrams and procedures that Steve posted, I planned to do some tinkering with the GE wall refrigerator this weekend. I was hoping to figure out the root cause of why the fridge wouldn't run, but I was also thinking this was going to turn into a long-term project. My track record on getting things fixed is not, well, good. The idea of having no working refrigerator in the kitchen in Ogden (even though it is only a weekend place) was not appealing. But I had a plan...

 

[turquoisedude]

The Frigidaire 'fill-in'

PhilR had offered me one of his extra Frigidaire refrigerators - this 1962 Imperial Cycla-Matic was one he found this fall at a demolition sale. He acquired two more (both frost-free models) in rapid succession and was getting tight on space. When the GE LW-11 conked out on me, I figured it was time to take Phil up on his offer. On Saturday, I went to his place to help him load it and we drove it down to Ogden.
Here's how it looked on arrival[this post was last edited: 1/15/2012-22:14]

 

[turquoisedude]

I was thrilled with my new acquisition, but for some reason, hubby was less than enthusiastic...

 

[turquoisedude]

When I came to....

I figured a break from refrigerator woes was in order.... Phil was the first official AWO visitor to the new Ogden laundry and enjoyed the tour!