My 2011 Whirlpool refrigerator

[maytagbear]

is bugging me.

I swear that it has not cycled off in nearly 24 hours. It has performed flawlessly until now. I called Whirlpool's 1-866 help line, and they were not particularly concerned with it. Vents are clear, no visible frost in the freezer.... No idea at all. I scrolled down the temperature control to the place where it should be "off" over an hour ago, and it is still running. Could it be the control chip? The person on the other end of the phone said "if it is maintaining temperature, nothing to worry about."

When I bought it from a local mom and pop, I bought their extended warranty for five years....

I am more concerned about it than my Ohio Edison statement, but it is distressing.

Model EBS9SHKXVQ3

Serial K04719998

Thank you in advance.

Lawrence/Maytagbear

 

[combo52]

Refrigerator not shutting off

This is nonsense have you actually sat and listened to it for 24 hours?, relax have a drink and stop worrying, even if it did run 24 hours a day it would only add a few dollars to your monthly bill and I would try to get your money back for the 5 year service policy and spend it playing the lottery as you have a better chance of getting a return on your money, LOL.

 

[maytagbear]

Perhaps not literally 24 hours,

but truly 12 hours. I can attest to that.

Thank you, John, for replying. At least I did not buy Whirlpool's own policy, which was more money.

Lawrence/Maytagbear

 

[washer111]

Not shutting off:

Take a temperature test inside with a wi fi thermometer or IR gun. Provided it isn't feezing food, and is stayin below unsafe temps, all should be well. Bear in mind it will stop to defrost, and recovery on the newer models isn't too flash... Especially with undersized compressors many models have today. may have adaptive defrost; and won't go until there are enough for openings or frost buildup to go

 

[maytagbear]

It was running

when I went to bed around 1 am, it is running now, at almost 6 am.

Yes, the thermometer in the glass of water reads 40F.

A word about the layout of this apartment: the kitchen is literally about 10 steps from the bedroom.

L/Mb

 

[qsd-dan]

Ehhhh, that doesn't sound right to me. My ref doesn't run more than 30-40 minutes without cycling off even during the hottest summer days when it can get up to 77F inside. 40F is a little on the high side, isn't it? I keep mine at 36-37F.

 

[combo52]

Refrigerator not shutting off

A little more seriously, if it keeps running this much I would schedule a service call to have a technician check the frost pattern on the evaporator, this is the best way to tell if the refrigerators sealed cooling system has enough refrigerant etc. You should first check to see if the condenser fan is running and that nothing is blocking air over the condenser in a major way, dust pieces of paper and plastic bags. Also check inside the freezer and refrigerator sections and be sure that something like a plastic bag or other piece of plastic or paper is not blocking a return vent or other air vents inside.

 

I probably should have taken your problem more seriously, but I cannot tell you how often we get a service call like yours and 90% of the time nothing is ever found to be wrong with the refrigerator. It is just funny the things we notice in life, two years ago my brother and I installed a new [ 1984 KM Hi Efficiency ] upright frost freezer in my pantry and I did lots of upgrades to make it even more efficient. We used a 3 year old compressor from a newer energy star GE SxS a 24 hour defrost timer and two 4 watt electronic fan motors and we mounted the whole compressor and condenser in the basement so the pantry would stay cooler.

 

Well since the compressor was mounted right in the ceiling of the shop where I almost always enter and leave the house from I soon decided that this system was running all the time. It truly seemed like every time I came in or out of the house it was running, so I connected a time recording clock and after a week or so we found that it was only running about 45% of the time, LOL.

 

[washer111]

Yes, please do schedule a service call. Better safe than sorry, IMO.

When we used our Heller cycic fridge (only), I found during hot weather that it would run through the day, cycle in the evenings and nights and the early morning. Thankfully with cyclics, one can tell if its cycles by drawing patterns in the frost on the evaporator plate. Our F&P freezer runs constantly on their factory setting (way too cold. At least -5F), including when indoor temps are 72*. I've clocked it back, and it cycles much more now. Perhaps the stat is going out, IDK.

 

[maytagbear]

Still running;

Fresh food compartment now 36F, same as outdoors.

Lawrence/Maytagbear.

Update: just called, and the refrigerator tech will be calling and coming in tomorrow. We will see what we will see.[this post was last edited: 3/26/2013-14:12]

 

[arbilab]

Good luck Lawrence. A lot of techs today failed burgerflipper 101. They can only diagnose gross failures, like a search engine can. High duty cycle is subtle. Be aware, it can just be your perception. Just because it was running at 1A and again at 6A doesn't tell you what it did in the meantime. I can hear mine run from bed too, but only if I'm wide awake the whole time. Which thanks to cheap wine I'm not.

You're right, if it really is running long cycles it is costing more than it needs to. That's why they charge you by kilowatt HOURS. But perception of 'when you think a fridge should or shouldn't run' is highly subjective. I catch mine running when I think it shouldn't and not running when I think it should. Overall it operates properly.

While anything is possible, it is not a characteristic failure for sealed systems to lose capacity or stretch duty cycles doing the same work. You have confirmed that you are fully closing the doors, right? That has bit me in the butt more than once.

 

[tolivac]

Are the condensor heat sinks under your fridge clean?No dust or packing material left in them?The condensor fan draws in lots of dust as the fridge runs-that reminds me--got to vacuum mine!!Since the box is going on three years old-there might be a few dust bunnies under there blocking airflow.Esp if you have pets.Their hair can clog the system.

 

[maytagbear]

I have the control-

-electronic, unfortunately, set at - -, and it is still running.

I am getting a phone call tomorrow (Thursday) to set up an appointment time for Friday.

Lawrence/Maytagbear

 

[maytagbear]

He just left

about 10 minutes ago.

Replaced control board, defrost timer, and evaporator fan motor.

Lawrence/Maytagbear

 

[goatfarmer]

Didn't know those still used a timer....

 

[maytagbear]

That's

what the statement reads.

L/Mb

 

[petek]

So how's it going, cooling down and cycling away?

 

[maytagbear]

Pete,. it is taking

a technician ordered 24 hours off with both doors open and towels spread in front, for the frost accumulation to melt.

I didn't want the several hundred dollars' worth of meat and other things in the freezer anyway. (that's meant all ironic-like. No one nearby had any freezer space.)

Thanks for asking,

Lawrence/Maytagbear

 

[combo52]

Defrost Problems With A 3 Year Old WP Ref

I am glad they found a problem that will cause the ref to run an excessive amount of time or even continuously. When refrigerators do not go through their automatic defrost cycle the temperature raises in the refrigerator section and the back wall of the freezer is coated with frost. You did say that the refrigerator was staying at 40 degrees { which is really too warm but some people like their refs at this temperature ] and I should have questioned this and it likely was even warmer by the time service arrived.

 

BUT in all my 30+ years of repairing refrigerators I have NEVER walked into a customers house that still had a freezer full of frozen food and told them as I left that they had to leave the food out to thaw and left them with no working refrigerator, unless they had another place to put the frozen food AND they wanted to do so. Needless to say they you should give them a bill for any lost food.

 

This goes back to my original post in this thread, NEVER BUY A SERVICE CONTRACT [ especially from an independent third party company ] unless you have money and time to burn and like abuse. It is most unlikely that this ref needed all those parts and it is strictly against Whirlpools service policy to leave a customer with a non working refrigerator when it can be easily defrosted in less than an hour and put back into proper operation.

 

[kb0nes]

Sounds like a shoddy repair to me too

If the tech was in to replace the evaporator fan, it wouldn't take much time at all to pull out a heat gun and defrost it then and there. Its the ONLY way he/she could know it was working properly anyhow.

The question I have is what part failed to cause the lack of defrost in the first place? Defrost timer quit?? It is possible the evaporator fan may have been damaged if it was frozen over and stalled (maybe), but I can't see a need to shotgun a control board into it. Perhaps its all about the warranty replacement profit on the parts.

Condolences on the loss of the frozen goods Lawrence. Hopefully this will put things straight and you will have a long trouble free appliance after this!