My Hotpoint refrigerator will not cool.
The light is on.
The fan is working.
It makes the clicking sound every several minutes.
I got it to work a few times by turning it off and waiting for an hour and then turn it back on. The compressor started and it work for an hour or so, but when the compressor went off it never came back on and it was operating then in a state of just the fan blowing - and maybe it was defrosting.
Diagnosis: (I am not a pro.)
The compressor overheats and the overload protect cuts in
It changes to defrost cycle and never goes back to cooling
Fix:
New starter relay
New defrost module
Problem:
When I look at the compressor and see the relay/starter box attached to the side of the compressor I remove the cover of this little box but I see no way of changing any parts in it. Two wires attach in here and that is it. (A third small wire seems like an earth as it goes to the chassis.)
Question: I would like to change the starter/relay but firstly I can’t find the part online and secondly and I can’t see any part I can remove in this box attached to the compressor and it does not look like I can get the whole box off.
Your compressor will run, replacing the overload and start device will not fix it. If you have an amprobe, you could verify the compressor is drawing excessive current.
The compressor will not run at all now. A few times it did operate after I had left it turned off for an hour. But now I hear the click a few times, and the fan operates, and I can turn the defrost timer and make the defrost cycle take effect - but the compressor will not turn on.
So I thought there is a chance the relay was going bad.
I do some electronic repair so I have a multimeter - would I be able to measure the current draw with that? How?
You need a special meter with a clamp on amprobe to do ac current checks.
These meters are available at this repair site, just call, if not available here, go to Lowes.