We purchased a whirlpool top mount refrigerator in summer 2013. For the past two months, we have had problems with the refrigerator not getting cold but the freezer working fine. We noticed that the evaporator fan was not working, so, we defrosted the entire refrigerator and after 24 hrs, turned it back on, and the fan worked. However, the same issue seems to continue happening. With repeated attempts at diagnosing the issue, here is what we have come up as being the more specific problem:

When the refrig is on and everything is working, the fan is turning, etc - air is getting from the freezer to the fridge through the damper. The fridge then goes through a defrost cycle. You can hear the water trickling down to the pan under the fridge. When the fridge starts up again, you can hear the condenser working, condensor fan working, but the evap fan in the freezer does not turn on. If I turn the entire unit off - manually turn it off from inside the fridge compartment and then unplug it - and then wait for a minute or two. I hear a "click". Then I can plug it back in to the wall, turn on the entire unit and the fan starts up immediately, condensor and related fan is also working, within a short period of time the compressor starts up...all seems to be working fine until the defrost cycle ends. The evap fan does not come back on after the defrost cycle. I left it like this over night once (thinking that the fan may just come on later) and the upper back part of the freezer coils were all fluffy with frost the following morning and the evap fan was still not working.

We recently had a repair man replace the timer that is located in the ceiling of the fridge section as that is what he thought the problem was....but that did not seem to help. Is our problem related to the defrost system? And if so, is there a way to check this or confirm this? I understand that there are three different components to the defrost system.

The model number is 5GR2SHKXLQ05, again its a whirlpool top mount. I have narrowed the problem down to the following - after the defrost cycle, the evap fan will not start up again. The condensor and its fan start up, the compressor will start up, but the evap fan does not. If I turn the entire fridge off by unplugging it from the wall and then wait for 5 min or so, then plug it back in, the evap fan turns on and everything works fine until the defrost cycle.

Any thoughts or suggestions on how to assess the cause of the evap fan not working after a defrost cycle? I saw an earlier thread on this and now I can't find it.

Thanks for your help. We are Americans, living in West Africa. We purchased this refridge as a 220volt fridge and its barely a year old. We have had a lot of power flucuations as well as power outages in the past two months, and the fridge is on a stablizer now. But, given the power outages, etc this may have caused the issue if the current the evap fan uses to start up is connected to the defrost system. The electrician that came the other day to look at it thought it was the timer, so he replaced it. But this does not seem to have fixed the specific issue.

I really appreciate your insight and am so thankful that you have taken the time to respond!

I am back, with a lot more diagnostic info. Here's what we know:

Tested the entire defrost system - the thermostat is fine and functions normally. The heater works. Timer works. The entire system gets voltage where needed and functions normally. We checked the voltage getting to each section, we checked and visually watched for normally functioning. This part of the fridge operation seems to be fine.

The fan does not always start up after the defrost cycle. Voltage is getting to the fan motor, but the fan itself seems to get "stuck" sometimes. After the defrost cycle, the condenser and fan start up, the compressor starts up, but the fan will only sometimes start up. I have observed a few different things happening right after the defrost cycle with the fan - when the fridge starts up, the fan will jerk slightly as if it is trying to get started. OR, the fan will not jerk at all and remain totally still. OR the fan will start right up. When the fan does not start up, regardless of whether it jerks or not, I give it a spin to see if it is stuck or to see if it will start up. The fan has never started up when I give it a spin. In order to get the fan going, I turn the fridge off by the temp dial in the fridge section, wait a few seconds, then turn it back on. THe fan will start up automatically.

The problem appears to be isolated to the fan not starting up right after the defrost cycle.

Here's the questions:

1. After the defrost cycle, what normally happens for the fan to start to up? Is it when the condenser and compressor start up? When these two start up, does it then trigger the fan motor to start up?

2. Given the description above, is it just the fan getting stuck or is it the fan motor not being able to get it started? And is there a way to test this? We have tested the voltage getting to the motor and that seems to be okay.

3. What parts are needed to repair the fan problem?

Thank you very very much. You have been EXTREMELY helpful! We are ordering the part now. Have a really great weekend.