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johndoe111  
#1 Posted : Friday, July 4, 2014 11:10:44 PM(UTC)
johndoe111

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Joined: 7/31/2011(UTC)
Posts: 10

I have a GE Freezer that has stopped cooling. The light inside is on but the compressor does not run and is cold to the touch. I don't hear any clicking or any other noise. There's no condenser fan in my model. I have tried manually advancing the defrost timer in case it was stuck with no success.

Part schematic

I removed the start relay and shook it. While it does rattle, it seems to be of the older wire wound type (I'm no expert though). I took a couple pictures of it to help identify it:
http://i549.photobucket...._20140704_234243_912.jpg
http://i549.photobucket...._20140704_234448_242.jpg (it's upside down in this pic to make text easier to read)


I measured resistance on the compressor's pins:

Between side-by-side pins: 13.2
Bottom-left to center top: 10
Bottom-right to center top: 4.5

These measurements aren't quite the same as some tutorials I followed and I don't know how to interpret them, so I'm not sure if the compressor's good or not.

The serial number starts with ML, so it's from July 06.

Is there any way to definitively rule the compressor out? Or a way to directly test it? Could I replace the relay with a 3n1?

Any advice is appreciated!

Additional info: I just tried to measure any kind of voltage coming into the start relay from a connector with a yellow and white wire and read nothing, even though I turned the defrost timer to make sure I didn't happen to be in a defrost cycle. Is that right? Maybe the compressor and relay are good but the "cold control" (I assume this is the item labelled "control temp", #43 in the schematic) or defrost timer itself is bad?
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johndoe111  
#2 Posted : Saturday, July 5, 2014 10:18:03 PM(UTC)
johndoe111

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Joined: 7/31/2011(UTC)
Posts: 10

I found a guide today to help interpret the resistance measurements. My original measurements would make the compressor seem bad, but the multitester I used was cheap and actually broke. I tested again with a better one and measured:
13.2 Start-Run
4.1 Common-Run
9.1 Start-Common
No shorts from any pin to the compressor shell

I think that's an encouraging sign that the compressor might still be good. Is there a way I can bypass the other controls and get power directly to the compressor to find out if it will start?
richappy  
#3 Posted : Monday, July 7, 2014 1:31:13 AM(UTC)
richappy

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Most probably a bad cold control. You can always short the wires to it and check for a running compressor.
johndoe111  
#4 Posted : Monday, July 7, 2014 1:54:27 AM(UTC)
johndoe111

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Joined: 7/31/2011(UTC)
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It's running.

It might have been corrosion on its terminals or somebody bumped the knob and accidentally turned it off (I honestly can't recall if I even checked!). I took off the panel covering the cold control and slid the connectors on its terminals a bit to expose enough for me to touch a probe. Re-attached the plastic dial, turned it to "coldest" setting and when I plugged in the freezer everything started up normally.

The cold control passed the test described here and had 120V across its terminals. I carefully turned the defrost timer a couple turns to make sure the the unit was going into defrost mode like it should and it appears to be working.

I put a half-filled bottle of water in there for about 10 hours and it's now frozen so things are looking good. Thanks for your help!
rotovacgroupca  
#5 Posted : Monday, July 7, 2014 10:38:32 PM(UTC)
rotovacgroupca

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Joined: 7/7/2014(UTC)
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Thanks for your reply !!
You need to take some expert help for this issue.
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