Ice Box Compressor relay failures

At the present time their are a whole lot of compressor relay problems going on. Check with your manufacturer to see if you qualify for a recall status. Pictured here is a defective relay. One like it or others simular designs can cause fires or compressor failures> If you have an older machine it could very well be the problem also.

       failed relay

These relays mount on the compressor.

 They allow multiple windings in the motor

to power up the unit and when it

gets to speed the relay drops out power to half the windings.

To check these you remove it from the compressor

Shake it, normally if it feels like a salt shaker is it bad.

If it makes no noise at all it is bad. You should feel the

sliding start switch inside the relay.

It is recommended to get the exact replacement relay

 but if the machine is too old or comes from china or Iran then you cannot

always get the replacement parts. So what you do is get a hard start relay. No need to worry about a cap or overload. It has an overload, a capacitor, and a relay, all built into the package. Plus it has enough UMF to boost the older compressors back to life:

HS410 Hard start

This one comes with ready wired compressor lugs, a couple of blue wire nuts, and 2 bare wires to connect power. Under $25 the HS410 is a pretty good deal. Instructions are clearly printed on the hard start device and you need not be a rocket scientist to hook this one up.

Bonus info: A lot of the cold controls will literally fall apart.

 Bypass the control briefly to confirm or check it with an ohm meter:

                                                                                       APPLIANCEJUNK.COM FORUM

                          Typical cold control