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Fridge crapped out after only 4 years...


Ralphie

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2 minutes ago, Ralph T. Mooseknuckle said:

OK, let's start a (Whirl)pool as to what is wrong.

I'm going to bet they say that you never vacuumed out the cooling coil under the fridge, which voids the warranty, so not only will they not pay for the repair but they have to charge you for the repair call.

Unless, of course, you vacuum out all the dust today before they come tomorrow...

 

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1 hour ago, Thaddeus Kosciuszko said:

I'm going to bet they say that you never vacuumed out the cooling coil under the fridge, which voids the warranty, so not only will they not pay for the repair but they have to charge you for the repair call.

Unless, of course, you vacuum out all the dust today before they come tomorrow...

 

If you go this route, put some sort of blanket over the microwave or it may video you and then rat you out to the GeekSquad™ 

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I'm going to go with main control board. 

 

That failed on GE I had previously, ordered it online with next day delivery, had my fridge up and running before anything got to warm and for less than $50.

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1 hour ago, Thaddeus Kosciuszko said:

I'm going to bet they say that you never vacuumed out the cooling coil under the fridge, which voids the warranty, so not only will they not pay for the repair but they have to charge you for the repair call.

Unless, of course, you vacuum out all the dust today before they come tomorrow...

 

The Dickens you say. :whistle::mellow:

This might be a great time to RTFM. :)

 

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2 hours ago, Further said:

There is a fridge at work, so old that it has a latch type handle. It sits out on the mill floor, freezing temps in winter, 100 degree plus in summer. It just keeps chugging along keeping stuff cold, never demanding a coil cleaning, or a computer reboot. 

Hmm - I unplugged it to clean underneath, plugged it back in, and guess what?  Started running.  I never thought to reboot the sumb!tch. :(

Of course they still need to figure out why it stopped.  It had indicator lights and the inside lights the whole time. 

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10 minutes ago, Ralph T. Mooseknuckle said:

 

Hmm - I unplugged it to clean underneath, plugged it back in, and guess what?  Started running.  I never thought to reboot the sumb!tch. :(

Of course they still need to figure out why it stopped.  It had indicator lights and the inside lights the whole time. 

vapor lock

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Well it is back working again!  It has a surge suppressor that is shared with a microwave, and unplugging and replugging that "fixed" it. Mrs MK wants to call of the repair guy, and I guess there is a good chance he will try to blame the surge suppressor, but the microwave clock never stopped nor did the fridge light and indicators. 

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15 hours ago, Ralph T. Mooseknuckle said:

 

Hmm - I unplugged it to clean underneath, plugged it back in, and guess what?  Started running.  I never thought to reboot the sumb!tch. :(

Of course they still need to figure out why it stopped.  It had indicator lights and the inside lights the whole time. 

That is some crazy shit! Huh!!!  Did you call off the service guy?  And congratulations @Rick5234!!

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13 hours ago, Wilbur said:

Some refrigerators are forced back to display mode following a power surge or power failure.  The display modes allows all lights and buttons to light up but the compressor won't run.  Maybe ask if your model has display mode.  There is a simple reset procedure. 

It says it will show "cooling off" if you turn it off by holding two buttons for three seconds.  That didn't happen.

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Refrigerator Surge Protectors

It is not recommended to add a surge protector to GE refrigerators and freezers. The compressor is sensitive to temperature and current overloads and will shut itself down with a surge. It will also restart itself. A surge protector will override this system, and if there is a power surge, your refrigerator will not restart. This could cause food spoilage.
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21 minutes ago, Ralph T. Mooseknuckle said:

He came, and blamed the surge suppressor.   Apparently it has a red light that says it needs to be replaced.

His problem solving skills are faulty.  Almost every surge suppressor on the market will fail so the power continues to flow if the surge suppression components fail.  That's because the current to the fridge does not flow through the suppression components.

When the suppression components take a hit to stop a surge, it's a voltage surge.  The components essentially allow the voltage to rise only so far, they turn on, and then hold the voltage at that point until the surge dies away or the components burn out.  In any case, they don't prevent voltage or current from flowing to the protected appliance unless the suppressor suffers a catastrophic failure.  And if that had happened neither the microwave nor the fridge would be working, and the fridge would have had no lights on at all.  To wit, the suppressor red light is on but both appliances are getting the voltage and current they need to operate.

What I think really happened:  Almost all refrigeration system compressors have a control system to prevent immediate restart after a power outage or shut down.  This prevents rapid cycling which can damage a compressor.  When the surge suppressor couldn't handle all the energy in the surge (evidence: the red light) the voltage rose to the point that the refrigerator control system shut itself down or lost its place in the control logic.  When that happened, the restart delay timer was never initiated or never counted down.  Once you unplugged the fridge, you basically did a Ctrl-Alt-Del on the control logic, and it found its place again.

That bit about a surge protector 'overriding' the refrigerator's internal system makes no sense either.  Any surge protector will be transparent to the fridge and its controls.  A suppressor, even a weak one, will reduce the over-voltage condition to the fridge if only for a short time.  That in turn reduces the energy available to fry sensitive electronic parts.  I think GE's statement about the suppressor 'overriding' the fridge's systems is along the line of the wash-rinse-repeat instructions found on all shampoo bottles.  :rolleyes:

 

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