My dad pulled his unit out yesterday and blew the dust out of the coils on the bottom. He did this while it was plugged in. He used a small air tank. After doing that he put the covers back on and pushed it back where the unit was sitting.

After a while they noticed the ice was melting. The unit was no longer cooling at all. My dad unplugged it and plugged it back in. The unit still would not cool.

Both fans are working (compressor fan and coil fan). The compressor does not hum when plugged in, but will get VERY warm, he says hot, after a couple of minutes.

I found on the posts here:

"Lets use a multi-meter to test the compressor. First unplug the refrigerator and remove the start relay off of the side of the compressor. Go to the single pin on the compressor and check to one of the pins that are side by side on the compressor. The run winding will read 1-5 ohms resistance. Then stay on the single pin and go to the other pin. The start winding will read 3-11 ohms resistance. If your readings are out of these ranges, then you have a bad compressor. If they are within these ranges, then you have a bad relay overload."

I can take my ohm meter tomorrow to check the compressor. However, is the only possibility, if the compressor is good, the start relay?

Any help is GREATLY appreciated. They were charged over $400 to replace the relay on the side of the compressor a few years ago.

I measured the compressor tonight. Here are the two measurements I got.

5.4 ohms

9.1 ohms

Can a compressor be bad when it is less than an ohm out of range?

Also, when it is real quite and the fridge is plugged in here is what happens. The compressor comes on after a few seconds. Then I hear a slight hum and after about 5 seconds a click and the hum goes away. I was really hoping the ohm reading would be clearly good or bad, but I am uncertain at this point. Half an ohm could be caused by little things. I did, several times, make sure I had a good connection with my leads.

What would you think?

Hi.

Sounds like the compressor is trying to start. Replace the start relay/overload and see if that will help.

Simon.

You will need an amprobe to check current. Your overload probably trips out at about 20 amps.
I would try a new start device as Simon sugested.Before replacing, make a diagram where each wire goes including the run capacitor, a two terminal, black device.

I would not use that part. If the part (W10197427) (AP4369220) looks like the old one, order it.