Good afternoon:

A few weeks ago, my refrigerator starting making a clicking sound followed immediately by a humming/buzzing noise. This sequence re-occurs very regulary about every 2-3 minutes apart. for the first couple of days everything was fine but then on day 3 or 4, I noticed the items in the freezer starting to defrost. However 24 hours later everything was frozen solid again but the noise continued. I did some research online and found a website that listed several possible issues:

1) The overload overheating due to the compressor drawing to much current
2) Adaptive defrost control board not sending full power to the compressor.
3) The compressor or its components gone bad
4) The condenser fan not working causing overheating and overload protects itself by shutting off
5) The condensor coils being covered in pet hair, lint, dust, etc.

I'm not a handy man by any means, but I can say for sure that its not #4. I addressed #5 on my own by unplugging the machine and cleaning the coils. Actaully, after I did this, I thought the issue was fixed because for the next day and a half the noise went away completely. However, a day ago the clicking and humming returned but now its not nearly as often and doesn't appear to be in any type of pattern. I have not experienced the defrosting issue since the first instance.

I know its hard to diagnosis over internet but its going to cost be $90.00 just to have a service man come out and diagnosis. If its something simple like the relay or overloard, I can probably repair myself but I don't want to spend the money on those if it sounds more like a compressor issue.

Any advice/suggestions that you can provide on how I can determine exatly the cause of my issue would be greatly apprecaited.

Brian

Thanks so much for the response. Is there a way for me to confirm that the compressor isn't bad. I just don't want to spend money repacing these component parts to find, in the end, that the compressor needs replacing.

Thanks again
Brian

Good morning:

Last night I purchased and replaced the starter as you suggested. It went pretty smoothly and I was confident that it fixed the problem. Then I went into kitchen to turn off light and go to bed and the clicking, followed by the short buzzing, reared its ugly head again.

Its far less oftern and consistent then it was before I cleaned the coils and the freezer has still not lost its temperature from that very first time.

Do you have any other suggestions?

thanks

Forgive me, but I'm not sure what that means. Everything is put back to
How it was except with the new starter in there