I've had two different refrigerators go bad (the first was a two year-old whirlpool & second is an 11-year old GE) with seemingly the same problem. Fridge gets warm then freezer run cool. Both times I've checked the coils and both times they are frozen over. I've read the forums on the possible problems and I'm assuming that in both cases the culprit is the motherboard but I'm concerned that the root of my problem is not with the refrigerators but rather with the electrical wiring to the wall socket. Our house is about a 150 years old and we bought it from a flipper who seems to have taken quite a few short cuts when rehabbing the house. Could faulty wiring be burning out the motherboard or causing some other sort of problem?

An electrician, who is a friend, told me that I should consider dropping in an appliance surge protector rated for 1800 watts, do you think this will help?

To protect the refrigerator, you need a 1000 joule surge protector for power surge protection. If your refrigerator is getting low voltage, it will make the compressor hard starting and most modern compressors will eventually fail due to this.