My refrigerator was hit by a power surge causing the fresh food side to start freezing. I replaced the control board because it actually melted the plastic on the box. This did not fix anything so I then proceeded to change out the fresh food temperature control switch. It seemed to work fine for a few days but now the fresh food side isn’t cooling at all. I noticed that if I open the freezer door that air actually starts flowing through the vent on the fresh food side. If I press in the light switch on the freezer side the cold air stops. Any ideas on what might be causing this? At least with the burnt out parts it was keeping the food fresh.
Thanks.
Open both doors and press in both door switches, if you fail to get the evaporator motor to run, replace both switches, if it works, you probably have a clogged bottom vent in the fridg section.
Upon further inspection the coils in the bottom of the freezer where frozen over. I melted the ice from them and the cool air was able to reach the fridge. That was yesterday. Today the fresh food side is starting to freeze and there is ice forming back on the coils in the freezer. I also noticed that the damper seems to be constantly opening and closing. So I’m wondering if I have multipe other parts that where hit by the surge. What would you recommend that I do next?
After the fridg has been running for a long period, remove the freezer panel and describe the frost pattern, full light frost, heavy frost, or partial frost.
It is evenly frosted and I would say medium to heavy thickness. Just to try something else out I turned off the fresh food side temp control and it sounds like the damper is still opening and closing but I didn’t leave it off form more than 30 seconds during that test. I went ahead and removed the water filter and case so that it wouldn’t freeze up and crack the housing again.
It is almost a solid block now and is starting to clog the airway into the fresh food side again.
You most probably have a bad defrost thermostat AP2150145. If you have a meter, you can check it when it is cold, should be near zero ohms. If the cal-rod heater is burnt (which is rare) replace it AP2150169
You can short the wires (Temporarily) to the defrost thermostat and manually initiate defrost by pushing in the fridg door switch 5 times within 6 seconds, cal-rod heater should heat up. Push it in again 5 times within 6 seconds to go back to compressor run mode.
The trick with hitting the switch 5 times worked. The heating coil came on and defrosted the coils. I have placed an order for the defrost thermo. I’m still wondering if the damper has gone bad. Even with the defrost thermo causing the freeze over shouldn’t the damper stay closed prevent the much to cold air from entering the fresh food side? I would think the temp control would make it stay closed. Just wondering.
The control that controls the damper is probably getting turbulent air due to the ice, will probably work fine once all the ice is gone, rare these damper control thermostats go bad.