[Tenak]

I have a Maytag MFD2561HEW.

The other day I heard a noise. Sounded like a tiny jackhammer. When I opened the frige, it sounded like it was coming from the top where the damper control is. The frige was 50 plus degrees. The noise stopped completely and now it's around 68 degrees.

There is no cold air coming through the damper. My husband manually pushed the damper shut and it came back open on its own.

Does the damper control only open and close or does its electronics somehow tell the fan to run and the cold air to circulate?

I checked the back of the freezer and there is no ice built up.

Could my problem just be the damper control?

[Joe / APP Team]

Originally Posted by Tenak

I have a Maytag MFD2561HEW.

The other day I heard a noise. Sounded like a tiny jackhammer. When I opened the frige, it sounded like it was coming from the top where the damper control is. The frige was 50 plus degrees. The noise stopped completely and now it's around 68 degrees.

There is no cold air coming through the damper. My husband manually pushed the damper shut and it came back open on its own.

Does the damper control only open and close or does its electronics somehow tell the fan to run and the cold air to circulate?

I checked the back of the freezer and there is no ice built up.

Could my problem just be the damper control?

Tenak,

Based on your post description,

Yes you have a bad damper control,

Part number: AP4373610

That's where you need to start.

[richappy]

Before replacing the damper, I would unplug it, open the door half way, and see if the fridg gets down to the set temperature. If not, you probably have a clogged air return not allowing air circulation.

[Tenak]

Originally Posted by richappy

Before replacing the damper, I would unplug it, open the door half way, and see if the fridg gets down to the set temperature. If not, you probably have a clogged air return not allowing air circulation.

Are you telling me to unplug the damper control and open the refrigerator door?

We had the damper control pulled off and no cold air came through the opening. How can you tell if the air return is clogged? Also, I can't hear any fan running to circulate the cold air.

We ordered the new damper control and i got it today and all it does is open the damper, just like the one we had. Didn't fix the problem. Is that the only function of the damper control? I thought when the frige was working that the damper control made a continuous noise when the air was circulating. Maybe I was just heariing the noise come up from the fan. Please clarify for me the exact function of the damper control.

Thanks for all your help!

[Tenak]

Originally Posted by Joe / APP Team

Tenak,

Based on your post description,

Yes you have a bad damper control,

Part number: AP4373610

That's where you need to start.

Oh, I wanted to mention that the part number you gave me for the damper control is the wrong part for my frige. I ordered that part from appliance parts pros a week ago after looking it up on the ******************** site by my model number. The ******************** website had the wrong part listed for my frige. Just a heads up for future reference. The correct part is AP4079111. However, this did not fix the problem either.

[richappy]

Pull the freezer back panel and check the evaporator fan motor, probably bad. You will need to order it and the motherboard.

[Tenak]

Originally Posted by richappy

Pull the freezer back panel and check the evaporator fan motor, probably bad. You will need to order it and the motherboard.

My husband looked at the fan and it was not spinning so he manually pushed it and it started running slowly. It is making the soft jackhammer noise I originally heard. So it does look like that is bad.

Why would we also need to replace the motherboard?

Thanks

[Moomba]

Originally Posted by Tenak

My husband looked at the fan and it was not spinning so he manually pushed it and it started running slowly. It is making the soft jackhammer noise I originally heard. So it does look like that is bad.

Why would we also need to replace the motherboard?

Thanks

Same questions as above for my Kenmore Trio. Jackhammer noise, coils frosted over to a minor amount but there was a big chunk of ice on copper tubing that feeds the coils. Thawed with hair dryer. Put all back together and freezer went to 18 degrees but refrigerator was warm. Pulled freezer back panel off and no frost/ice problem but noticed the fan is not spinning. Is the fan my problem? Does the fan normally operate when the drawer is open?

[richappy]

GE designed the board with cheap drivers that fail whenever a load fails, usually drawing excessive current. If you have a meter, you can verify the board is bad by measuring the voltages to the motor. Some people replace the motherboard and not the motor and find out they just blew out the motherboard!

[netgurutoo]

I had the same problem with my GE fridge. It turned ou to be the circuit board. I had a repair guy come out and he looked at the board and you could clearly see one of the transiters was fried. It was like grey/black unlike the rest that have a clean paint finish on them. I looked at the board but did not know what to look for so I dod not spot the fired transister.

On ther hand I alo had a broken damper that caused the fridge to be too cold. I think if the damper is in tact look closely at the board for any fried circuts. it coould be the that blows the air in but the board tells the fan when to blow.