Hi everyone, I recently got a really good deal on a whirlpool French door refrigerator for 150 dollars. Well I thought it was a good deal. The guy I got it off of said it worked great. I got it home and plugged it in on my porch for 3 days and checked it daily. It worked great. I put it in my house and about 8 days later (today) the back of the freezer was covered in frost and the fridge was warm. I unplugged it for 8 hours with the doors open and ran the force defrost a few times. Plugged it back in and the fridge is cold again. I am sure that in 8 to 10 days it will be froze up again. After some research on these forums I came to the conclusion that it can be one of three parts. I ran the diagnostics on the refrigerator using this very helpful site Refrigerator Control Board W10503278 Diagnostics Everything in the diagnostics checked out good. I haven’t had time to pull the fridge out from the cupboards yet to check the parts with a multimeter. I am leaning toward the control board being bad. I was wondering if there was a way to check the control board before pulling the trigger on buying a new one. Thanks for any information. It is greatly appreciated.
Easiest way to test the board is by forcing defrost. If you force defrost and the heater comes on, the board is bad. The board controls the defrost cycle as far as initializing it. If you have a defrost issue and the heater works when you bypass the board and force it, then the board isn’t initializing the cycle. Fairly common problem with these. Let us know how it works out. Thanks!
Ok thanks. How can I tell if the heater comes on when I force defrost?
If you want to be sure, take the back cover off over the evaporator. Then you can see it working. Otherwise, if you listen to it, after a bit you can hear it sizzle.
Ok thanks a ton! I am at work now so I will try that tomorrow. Should I stick my head toward the back of the freezer while in force defrost mode to hear the “sizzle” sound?
You’re welcome and it can’t hurt to stick your head in there. It should be fairly apparent after 10 or 15 minutes that the heater is working. Back wall near the bottom in the freezer will likely be warm to the touch as well.
Ok, I’ll report back tomorrow with my findings. Thanks!
Ok, so I did a force defrost and can not hear any sizzling. Everything in my freezer is frosted and the radiator behind the back wall is froze solid, this is after two days. Two days ago I let the unit unthaw for 8 hours and now it’s frozen again. I had my head in the freezer for the entire force defrost and did not hear a single noise. How do I check the heater? I know how to work a multi meter, do I just check for continuity from one side of the heater to the other? Can I check it by removing the back panel inside my freezer or do I need to access it from the rear of the unit? Thanks for any info, it is greatly appreciated.
The heater is accessed by removing the rear wall of the freezer. There is a heater that starts on each side of the evaporator (radiator) and runs down and under it. You can unplug both sides of the heater and ohm it out. There is also a bi-metal defrost limit that you can ohm out as well. I will attach links to each part for easy reference and replacement. The evaporator coils must be cold to test the bi-metal. If you thaw it first, the bi-metal will show as open. It’s ok to thaw enough to get at the wires if need be, just be sure to avoid heating the bi-metal attached to the evaporator. After you determine which part is bad, use a hair dryer or heat gun and thaw ALL the frost/ice behind the back wall. Be careful to not melt the liner of the unit. It will work well for several days unit parts come. When you install the parts, thaw it again and you should be good to go.
Whirlpool WPW10165425 Bimetl-Def - AppliancePartsPros.com
Whirlpool WP67002493 Heater, Evaporator - AppliancePartsPros.com
Hey man, you’re awesome! Thanks a ton! I’ll report back with my findings!
No problem! Let me know if you have any other questions.
Ok, I checked the continuity on the heater and the defrost thermostat. Both check good.
the freezer coils were froze solid and the thermostat had continuity then I removed it from the frozen pipe and let it warm up. It then didn’t have continuity. Could the control board be bad if the force defrost doesn’t even cause it to defrost?
I would force it into defrost while you have it apart and see if it’s even sending voltage to the heater/bi-metal. If not, I see a new control board in your future…
Ok. What kind of voltage could I expect at the heater and thermostat?
Ok, I get zero voltage at the defrost thermostat when in force defrost mode. I am assuming this means that I need a control board? Thanks for all information.
Ok, sorry for all the replies. Even when the fridge setting is set to off. I have 22 volts going in to the heater. When force defrost is enabled the voltage does not change at the heater and I have 0 volts at the thermostat. Does this make sense?
It sounds like a control board issue to me. The odd voltage readings concern me a little though. The 22 vac should be consistent thru the heater and bi-metal unless one of them is open. Was the unit cold when you ran this test? Are you using a digital meter? Curious what the actual ohm readings were when you tested the bi-metal and heater? The heater should have 120 vac supplied when in forced defrost.
I am just going to order a new jazz board and hope that fixes it. My ice maker does not work either. Does the Jazz board control that as well?
No it does not control the ice maker. Pop the front cover off the I/M and use an insulated wire to jump T and H. That forces it into a harvest mode. After is runs for a few seconds, pull the wire out and let it keep running by itself. Should go thru a whole cycle, eject the ice and refill with water. Give that a shot and post what the result is and we can work from there.
Ok, I installed the new jazz board and it seems to have fixed my problems. My fridge is cooler then ever now. The display numbers on my old board was real dim the ones on this board are nice and bright. For some reason my ice maker started working as well. I was sitting in my dining room earlier and I heard the ice drop. Sure enough I looked in there and I have a whole bin full of ice. I don’t know why it started working all of the sudden? Anyways, thanks for everything it is greatly appreciated.