Not quite sure what is going on with my WP SXS fridge...

[mattl]

Bought a 10lb bag of chicken leg quarters at Kroger last week,  Grilled up some over the weekend and went to do the rest yesterday and they had gone bad.  Never had that happen before, BTW the sell by date was 6/20.  Checked the temp in my fridge the best I could, searched for a thermometer all I could come up with was an instant read unit I use for baking, it did go down to 30 degrees.  Put it in a glass of water and checked it a few hours later and it read close to 50!  When the fridge was new I set it in the upper 30's and had not thought too much about it over the years.

 

Rummaged around a found a few more thermometers, they read upper 40's, not good.  Turned the cold control up and checked again still in the 40's.  Checked the freezer and it read -10, so compressor is working well.  My freezer is packed quite tightly, but the fan is running and I checked the vents in the fridge side and both appear to be open and not frosted over.  I guess the next step will be to empty the freezer and pull the back off to see if there is any frost build up potentially blocking the air flow. It's been a good fridge, I'm guessing I've had it for 12-14 years with only one major issue, a blown lighting control board, cheap fix.

 

Any other suggestions?  What a pain...

 

[vacerator]

Hi Matt,

If no air vents are blocked, then it may be icing up, in which case the freezer will still freeze, as well as parts of the fridge side, or it can also not cool well, because cold air isn't getting passed the damper. Make certain the evaporator fan is running inside the freezer. Check for defrosting cycles. The compressor may run in the pre chill mode but not the evaporator fan prior to defrost. That is when the freezer will drop to as much as -10 f.
If the damper is operating, (if this is an electronic controlled model) the culprit may be the defrost heater.
If it is not electronic controlled, with a pcb board and sensors, the defrost timer may also be bad.
Tech's tell me electronic boards can fail, sensors inside the fridge not so much.
If the condenser coil is fairly free of dirt as well, then it may have a repair issue.
If yours is a thin door style, not a Conquest style, they are the simplest models, and rarely have problems. I'm not an expert, but when we had trouble with our GE Profile's evaporator fan, I called a smaller repair shop, and he told me these same points. Luckily it was not icing up, and the fan was noisy because it had ridden up too high on it's motor shaft.
You need a multi tester to test the defrost heater, etc. inside the freezer air plenum. I don't know the ohm parameters, but I'm sure they are in the Whirlpool service manual.

 

[mark_wpduet]

my WP sidexside

totally died, the compressor was super hot when the repairman came out and he said it needed replaced. it was 13 and a half years old (about the same age as yours)
but reading this brings up a ? that I have.

How often does the unit go into defrost mode, and how do you know when it's in defrost mode? Thanks

 

[mattl]

Well this AM I checked it and the fridge temp read 38.5, which I feel is fine, so I will watch it over the next few days.  I did change the setting on the fridge from 4 (suggested...) to 6.  I'm thinking of mounting  those cheap digital thermometers in each section to just keep an eye on things.

 

anyway use this as a reminder to check the temp in your fridge from time to time.  I sent an email to a bunch of my relatives, some I'm sure never checked, reminding them to take a temp...

 

[vacerator]

Mark,

it happens with the best engineered and built machines. My folks had a Whirlpool compressor fail on a 1967 Coldspot that was only 4 years old. If one unit in every quarter of a million fail prematurely, that's not bad. Especially today. Tolerances are much tighter. Accuracy may not always mean optimal precision.

 

[neptunebob]

One other thing...

Could be that the unit is trying to refrigerate and defrost itself at the same time, caused by a stuck defrost timer. If so, the condenser will be very hot. You might be able to turn the defrost timer with a screwdriver, it was located in front behind the grille.