Refrigerators

The refrigerator, our most favorite appliance in the home due to of course the goodies it holds. The moment this piece of equipment fails, its like the end of the world. Well not really but you get the point. Most of the time its not as bad as it seems. Doing some preventative maintenance on it every once in a while ensures that your refrigerator stays up and running. A couple of things to look into can be done very easy. Here's a list of a couple of DIY repairs that take just about 30 minutes to complete.

Check all of your door gaskets!

Make sure that you wipe your door gaskets about once a week to ensure a nice seal all around. Get in the ribs of the gasket and get that gunk out so it doesn't ruin your gaskets and cause them to degrade. Even just a small air leak draws warm air into the unit which ends up building very large amounts of frost in the evaporator section which leads to loss of cool air circulation and in some cases total loss of cooling if you have a single evaporator unit. An example of this issue can be seen in the bottom left picture above.

Overloading and under-loading is a thing!

There are actually a couple of rules that not too many people talk about and that is overloading your refrigerator. When storing food in your refrigerator keep in mind that the air that circulates in your refrigerator is what cools your food. If you completely fill up your refrigerator to the point where you have to shut the door closed with your shoulder then you definitely know that you are filling it up way too much. Interestingly enough under-loading your refrigerator can also cause some issues where it affects the cooling. Having things such as bottled water, food containers, and vegetables actually helps hold onto the cold temperature which keeps your unit from running too often.

Clean your condenser coils!

Condenser coils are the coils on the back of the unit usually right next to the compressor but can sometimes be found on the bottom of the refrigerator. The condenser coil is the heat exchanger and works by cooling down the high temperature refrigerant. If you notice, there is a fan that helps circulate the air in that compartment to help cool down both the condenser and compressor. Unfortunately, this fan brings dust and pet hair, if you have pets, right into this area and clog up the condenser which in turn will not allow the refrigerant to cool down.

First method:

To perform this job you must find out whether your unit has the coil behind the unit or under the unit. Now if you're concerned about having to roll out that refrigerator due how heavy it is, you can start by looking at the front bottom of the unit. You'll need to remove the plate off the front of the unit. If no screws are visible, then it just means that it pops off. Use a flat head screwdriver to help you gently pry it off. Worse case scenario its going to be on the back of the unit. For this, I recommend that you get some help to roll the unit forward. (Be aware that rolling the unit forward can scratch your floor.)

Second method:

If you are having to roll the unit forward, here are a couple of pointers on what to look for. All refrigerators have height adjusters that work like a screw and must be raised in order to allow the unit to sit on the wheels and not scrape your floor while allowing the unit to roll freely. Once you verified those screws, it is now time to pull the unit forward. It will take a little extra tug if the unit is sitting on linoleum floor due to the softness of the material. The weight tends to leave dent marks on the floor which is just enough to keep the unit from rolling at first. When the unit is sitting on tile flooring, the wheels can sometimes fall into the grout lines which only takes a little extra force to get it out of there. Be aware that if you have not moved the refrigerator in years, there will mostly likely be a bunch of stuff that somehow got kicked under or swept under the unit. Many times I have found broken glass, utensils, crayons, bolts and screws, and other foreign objects that may scratch your floor. So either try to peek under and reach in there with a thin wooden stick (non-conductive) and pull out as much as you can or get a thin board that you can roll your fridge onto. Hardwood floors will scratch very easily along with natural stone floors, granite, marble, stone, and linoleum.

Let's get to cleaning!

So now that you finally found the coil, its time to bring the vacuum out and vacuum off the dust and hair collection away from the fridge. It is not necessary to unplug unit at this point, simply and gently go over the dust and it should be able to get most of it off. If you must take off the rear plate, you can do so by first unplugging the fridge and removing the protective panel. Warning! Be on the lookout for sharp sheet metal edges! Under the condenser there is a drip tray which collects water so don't stick your vacuum in there as it will damage your vacuum. That water is normal and comes from the unit's defrost cycle. Use the brush to lightly brush the dust off of the coils as you vacuum them away.

Compressor is not running

If your compressor is not running, first thing is first, make sure that the unit has power, it could just be a breaker that tripped in the electrical panel. Best way to find out is to listen for any fans running, next open the door and see if you have lights on, if you have a user interface on the door it will light up and that basically will answer your question. Check to see if the user interface is displaying an error code, a quick Google search can help you figure out what's going on. You can easily do this by typing: "(model number) error codes". If you still have not had any luck, this doesn't mean that its over, it can be a compressor starter problem , a dirty condenser, or a bad run capacitor. Other units have an inverter board which receives power from the main board and converts the power necessary to start the compressor. The compressor ends up overheating and the thermal protect kicks in which then will not allow the compressor to receive power until the temperature drops. So this can be a repeating cycle. The compressor starter helps bring the voltage up to get the compressor up and running while the run capacitor provides a continuous flow of electricity. If you are not comfortable with replacing these, then you should call the professionals. A start capacitor can store a large amount of power and if you touch the contacts on accident, this could shock you and possibly even kill you. So do your research about how capacitors work and how to handle them. If all checks out, the next thing to consider is a bad control board.

Ice maker issues or not dispensing water

Sometimes this issue throws you for a loop and its simpler than you think. If you have delayed changing your water filter or if you've never changed it because you don't know about it or when to do so, the filter usually ends up getting clogged and will not allow you to dispense water or allow to fill the ice maker. In some cases, if you don't use the ice maker enough, this causes the fill tube to freeze over in some models. This is usually accessible through the back of the unit depending on the unit. Another scenario would be if the water filter is too close to the cold air intake coming from the freezer compartment and will freeze the filter internally if your fridge settings are too low. In this case, remove the water filter and set it aside overnight and make sure your temperature settings are set to the recommended 37 degrees for the fridge section and zero degrees for the freezer section. (If there are no numbers or anything to decide how to correctly set the temperatures, Please see owners manual. A digital version may be found online based on model number). Once the filter has had time to thaw and you have verified temperature settings, you may put the filter back into the unit and give it a try. Be aware that when removing and reinstalling or replacement of the filter will get air in the lines and must be purged in order to get a regular flow of water. To do this you will need to request water from the dispenser up until you get a normal flow. In some cases you may want to do pulse fills instead of a steady fill. Another test you can perform, when requesting water at the dispenser, make sure that you hear the valve activating. You can hear a clicking sound when activating the dispenser. If you don't hear it, then you have a bad water valve. If you do hear the valve activating, Make sure that there is a good water supply and enough pressure. A water valve needs about 20 PSI in order to operate correctly.

Other reasons for cooling issues...

• Can be caused by bad sensors.

• Bad defrost timer. (some models)

• Check for error codes

• Condenser fan not working

• Evaporator fan not working

• Blocked vents

• Refrigerant leak in the sealed system