My fridge/freezer stopped being cold the other day, and all ice melted and pooled out. I read up on what to look for and opened up those parts of the fridge to try and narrow down what part to replace;

- Compressor= Vibrating but quiet. Might just be drowned out by Cond fan
- Condensor Fan= running fine
- Evap fan= running fine
- Evap coils= clean. No ice. Would've melted anyway from fridge being room temp
- Condensor coils= Dirty. Cleaned them. Still no result.
- Grill plate= Dirty, cleaned it. Haven't put it back on yet.

Here's what I haven't checked because I didn't have enough time to go out to my shed, get my multimeter, pry apart those parts and test them:

-Thermistor
-Compressor relay
-Capacitor
-Control board
-Freon level (can't do that anyway)

My wife is going to call a repair guy. I'm only agreeing to it because I have a strong feeling it's the Freon.

But mostly I want to arm myself against the same BS tactic I've been suffering a lot lately from other repair people (mechanics, electronics, HVACs) spending 3 seconds looking and shooting STRAIGHT to the MOST EXPENSIVE problem. The problem that makes you weigh out fixing vs buying a whole new thing because it's only $100-$200 difference.

Computer= "Your motherboard's fried"
Car= "The transmissions gone"
Appliance= "It's the compressor"

If the repair guy tells me it's the compressor or another part that fixing it would cost as much as a new fridge, is he lying?

I always told the truth when I was doing it, but I know there are some who do not.

If the compressor is vibrating, its probably running. Its could have broken internally and not be compressing Freon anymore.

Or it could be that most of your Freon is gone, leaked out. Both are bad and usually it means that it will be cheaper to buy a different refrigerator rather than attempt to repair.

I hope that helps.