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Appliance Gurus,
5' tall single door garage freezer. Compressor not running, unit making clicking on off sound, every 10 seconds. By advice of others posting here, opened ptc relay, found ceramic disk inside, burned on one side. Took sandpaper to disk, flipped it reinserted, freezer runs great now, icy cold for 24 hrs. I'm afraid its on borrowed time however...
Where can I find a replacement starter relay? I've spent two days calling over 25 places, most cannot pull up the "Magic Chef" model (#MCUF7W). Most parts websites don't seem to have this either. I'd hate to have a perfectly good freezer go bad for a $10-$20 part.
There's GOT to be a generic that will somehow fit. Can I just order the ceramic disk? The frame of the realy and contacts are fine, just a little soot. I'm guessing they have a specific resistance cutout for the start winding boost, so I don't want to guess when ordering....
Thanks for any ideas!!!
Scott
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Originally Posted by: musicman_77  Appliance Gurus,
5' tall single door garage freezer. Compressor not running, unit making clicking on off sound, every 10 seconds. By advice of others posting here, opened ptc relay, found ceramic disk inside, burned on one side. Took sandpaper to disk, flipped it reinserted, freezer runs great now, icy cold for 24 hrs. I'm afraid its on borrowed time however...
Where can I find a replacement starter relay? I've spent two days calling over 25 places, most cannot pull up the "Magic Chef" model (#MCUF7W). Most parts websites don't seem to have this either. I'd hate to have a perfectly good freezer go bad for a $10-$20 part.
There's GOT to be a generic that will somehow fit. Can I just order the ceramic disk? The frame of the realy and contacts are fine, just a little soot. I'm guessing they have a specific resistance cutout for the start winding boost, so I don't want to guess when ordering....
Thanks for any ideas!!!
Scott Scott, You may want to try and contact this company: MC Appliance Corp. 1-888-775-0202 That model number appears to have been a "licensed" product to this company by Magic Chef a few years ago. I hope they can help or direct you to a parts source, so you can make the repair. Good Luck, :) :) :) I'm pretty sure, if you get the
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Thanks Joe!
You are correct, MC appliance was responsible for this model. They promptly discontinued it after only a year. They were able to tell me the part number for the PTC relay (#BD131-H), but don't offer a replacement. I have checked websites for this part number with no luck. She mentioned they often use "AP Wagner" to get parts. I gave them a call at 1-888-279-2463. Gave the guy my Model/part #'s, he said he'd have to talk with some engineers and tech folks and would get back to me. I'm getting closer. I'm going to order 3 of these relays if I find them.
Any idea what might have short-lifed the relay? The freezer is on a thick heavy duty (#12) 10' extension cord. The freezer shares an outlet with a "yard lights" transformer. The transformer can pull 10A when all lights are on. It's a 20A circuit, maybe the freezer needs a dedicated circuit to itself with no extension cord?
Scott
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Originally Posted by: musicman_77 Thanks Joe!
You are correct, MC appliance was responsible for this model. They promptly discontinued it after only a year. They were able to tell me the part number for the PTC relay (#BD131-H), but don't offer a replacement. I have checked websites for this part number with no luck. She mentioned they often use "AP Wagner" to get parts. I gave them a call at 1-888-279-2463. Gave the guy my Model/part #'s, he said he'd have to talk with some engineers and tech folks and would get back to me. I'm getting closer. I'm going to order 3 of these relays if I find them.
Any idea what might have short-lifed the relay? The freezer is on a thick heavy duty (#12) 10' extension cord. The freezer shares an outlet with a "yard lights" transformer. The transformer can pull 10A when all lights are on. It's a 20A circuit, maybe the freezer needs a dedicated circuit to itself with no extension cord?
Scott Scott, Great, Glad to hear your getting somewhere, Sorry to loose your business, but you come first. As for the relay/overload, It could be due to wear and tear,age,etc. it happens. But, yes, you're correct, you should have a dedicated 120 VAC 20 amp power supply outlet to the freezer and no extension cord, that's the best way (factory reccomended way) to be safe, and sound. Good Luck, :) :) :)
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Your old ptc relay blew out from either a power surge, or a shorted compressor.You should install a 1000 joule surge protector to prevent future problems.
If your compressor is a 1/4 - 1/3 hp compressor, you can use the start device UPRO41 or this sites AP4503412. Just don't use a 3 n 1 hard start device, they have a bad history of starting fires!
You should use a meter to check your compressor for shorts or blown windings. The URO41 has installation instructions with it,so installation should be easy. The older compressors had standard start winding pin on the lower left, lower right run, and top common.
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:D :D :D :D :D :D :D :D :D I am back in business with a working freezer. Joe, I ended up ordering #AP4503412 (UPRO41 relay) from this website (great price), so I ended up supporting appliancepartspros after all. THANK YOU so much for your help and this forum. Richappy, man you are an expert!!!, thanks to you as well. Your write up in the discussion section on PTC relays (found HERE) is VERY helpful for the layperson. The directions of the UPRO41 come with four different wiring option on the package. Diagrams for: No capacitor, run capacitor only, start capacitor only, and both run&start capacitor. I saw a tall white capacitor in the bottom of the freezer, just wasn't sure if it used as a "start" or "run capacitor". I tried the "start capacitor" wiring first. The compressor just hummed and I quickly unplugged it knowing that it wasn't turning over. Richappy's long article on PTC relays made me realize it was functioning as a "run capacitor", staying on giving the motor a boost and not turning off after startup. I tried the "run cap" wiring and PRESTO, fired right up immediately. I was sure to check all three pins on the comp for shorts first. I did have to cut off a weird proprietary connector for the common lead coming off the little circle Klixon temp cutoff sensor (that sits directly against the metal outer body of the comp) and crimp on one of the ones provided in the kit. I also had to remove the capacitor wire from the plastic harness to strip back about another inch for the new relay to fit properly back inside the protective plastic cover box and make it look pretty. I also ran a new dedicated GFCI 20A circuit to the area and plugged a 1500 joule surge box that has an alarm if it loses power. No more extension cord. I thought I'd try to be descriptive in case it helps anyone else out there. The best part of this experience?? Grillin' steak for five nights in a row!!!! Man, the cholesterol.... Scott
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Good work, glad you got it running, you are lucky the compressor had "standard" pin configuration.
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Originally Posted by: musicman_77 :D :D :D :D :D :D :D :D :D I am back in business with a working freezer. Joe, I ended up ordering #AP4503412 (UPRO41 relay) from this website (great price), so I ended up supporting appliancepartspros after all. THANK YOU so much for your help and this forum. Richappy, man you are an expert!!!, thanks to you as well. Your write up in the discussion section on PTC relays (found HERE) is VERY helpful for the layperson. The directions of the UPRO41 come with four different wiring option on the package. Diagrams for: No capacitor, run capacitor only, start capacitor only, and both run&start capacitor. I saw a tall white capacitor in the bottom of the freezer, just wasn't sure if it used as a "start" or "run capacitor". I tried the "start capacitor" wiring first. The compressor just hummed and I quickly unplugged it knowing that it wasn't turning over. Richappy's long article on PTC relays made me realize it was functioning as a "run capacitor", staying on giving the motor a boost and not turning off after startup. I tried the "run cap" wiring and PRESTO, fired right up immediately. I was sure to check all three pins on the comp for shorts first. I did have to cut off a weird proprietary connector for the common lead coming off the little circle Klixon temp cutoff sensor (that sits directly against the metal outer body of the comp) and crimp on one of the ones provided in the kit. I also had to remove the capacitor wire from the plastic harness to strip back about another inch for the new relay to fit properly back inside the protective plastic cover box and make it look pretty. I also ran a new dedicated GFCI 20A circuit to the area and plugged a 1500 joule surge box that has an alarm if it loses power. No more extension cord. I thought I'd try to be descriptive in case it helps anyone else out there. The best part of this experience?? Grillin' steak for five nights in a row!!!! Man, the cholesterol.... Scott Scott, Great to hear, I had a feeling you would work something out. We're glad we were able to help,after all. We have a lot of good information, and a lot of good people here at APP. Good Luck, :D :D :D
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For the APP team, you might want to upgrade my article "replacing compressor start devices" to a sticky.
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Originally Posted by: richappy For the APP team, you might want to upgrade my article "replacing compressor start devices" to a sticky. I lost a lot of information, when my computer failed. I'll be working on things like that for a while. Thanks,
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