My ear can "tell" when the refrigerator starts its defrost mode (long post only for refrigerator geeks)

[John105]

Some context: We have a 2002, Kenmore Elite 18.5 cu ft freezer on bottom. It was very nice in late 2002, seems to be real stainless steel unlike today's "finish" or "appearance." I found long ago, a magnet doesn't stick to it, and when I researched that characteristic, it meant more chromium and molybdenum and won't corrode. To me it just looked like it was high quality, vs. today's that even cost $3,000+.

Anway, the ice maker broke maybe 2012, no big deal don't care.

BUT, starting in 2016, one day, the refrigerator was warm. Hmmmm. From this point on, I learned hey, refrigerators defrost. That failed and evap iced up.

This began with using a hair dryer, getting it working again, finding the same issue in 3 weeks, and learning about this guy:

Whirlpool Bi-Metal Defrost Thermostat for 10632842010 Refrigerator | Ferguson

Shop for Bi-Metal Defrost Thermostat for 10632842010 Refrigerator from Whirlpool At Ferguson. Ferguson is the #1 US plumbing supply company and a top distributor of HVAC parts, waterworks supplies, and MRO products.

www.ferguson.com

Changed it and seemed to be good again.

Unlike the first one, it wasn't 12 years later, but replacement OE thermostat failed in only about 3 years. Unit froze up and bought a non OE product, much less expensive.

When the same happened in 2021, I bought an evap fan OE, and a defrost timer, "just in case." And, sensors to monitor the temps in fridge and freezer!

So the last time I changed that defrost thermostat was last year. Now, I know the temps very well--this unit has a knob and a mechanical flap for the fridge. I hear when the defrost cycle kicks in as the compressor seems to stop abruptly and when I check the temp, it's not at its usual -5F, something random, and popping sounds ensue with the freezer rapidly gaining temp up to around 19F-22F depending on where it started from.

Because this fridge is smaller than normal, its price is jacked up. The newer model is identical other than the fact that today it has electronic controls.

https://www.bestbuy.com/site/whirlpool-18-5-cu-ft-bottom-freezer-refrigerator-stainless-steel/3928057.p?skuId=3928057

My biggest fear is shelling out that kind of money, and having an appliance break in a few years. If it would last 20+ like this one, I would be perfectly fine with spending the money. Until then, I keep monitoring temps. Heck, the bottom panel is not even screwed in anymore, I simply slide it out in case of it freezing up.

The thing I'll never understand--my replacement OE defrost timer says 3X per day.

This one clearly only defrosts 1X per day, and it's not 24 hours on the dot, something less. Curious if there is logic on top of the mechanical timer....

Again, to date, only the defrost thermostat has ever been replaced, but I have a spare evaporator fan and defrost timer just in case!

Anyone else go through what I have been since 2016?

p.s. we bought a chest freezer to supplement, can't get a full sized fridge into the basement, door not wide enough

 

[dishdude]

New fridge time. GE, Whirlpool or Frigidaire. It'll probably last 20 years.

 

[bullwinkle]

I would keep repairing it, buying parts wherever you can find them the cheapest (generally eBay in my experience). The newer ones seem to have weak/flimsy coils, the old ones were (ARE) an order of magnitude better. Happy New Year from a professional refrigeration tech (26+ years, commercial).

 

[John105]

I would keep repairing it, buying parts wherever you can find them the cheapest (generally eBay in my experience). The newer ones seem to have weak/flimsy coils, the old ones were (ARE) an order of magnitude better. Happy New Year from a professional refrigeration tech (26+ years, commercial).

Thus far it's only been that defrost thermostat that failed....thanks so much for the input, and Happy New Year!

 

[Gyro Gearloose]

New fridge time. GE, Whirlpool or Frigidaire. It'll probably last 20 years.

That was the pre Y2K stock. Now they just try to get thru the warranty period. 4 year old Whirlpool has to have the power cycled periodically to reboot whatever logic system runs the icemakers and the LED interior lights that are supposed to last 15 years - have gone out.

 

[sopususer]

IMHO you will not get a new refrigerator close in the quality of your 2002 when it was new. We have a Frigidaire Gallery side-by-side from 2016. Overall it's had only one issue where it would not let a new water filter click in. It had extended warranty and the water filter housing was replaced under warranty. However, ever since it was a few months old it will occasionally go crazy and drop the freezer temp 8-10 degrees colder than set. (electronic controls) Have to unplug the unit and let it set for about 1/2 hour. Plug it back in and it is fine. Not sure when the electronics will fail, sooner or later, but that seems to be the Achilles heel of most modern appliances.

 

[HonorAndHonesty]

We have a 2010 Maytag french door fridge, it has been been a great unit, in 2021 the control board went out. After researching common problems with the unit it seemed that bad control boards were usually the only problem they had and even then the board can be fixed by recapping it. I decided to replace the board with a new one and saved the old one to recap and have a spare.

I would personally repair the fridge you have.

On our Maytag it has adaptive defrost, it monitors how many times the doors are opened and defrosts accordingly with a maximum time between defrosts which I believe is 36 or 48 hours even if the doors are not opened at all. You can shut the adaptive defrost off and then it reverts to a traditional defrost cycle based on time.

 

[PW01]

We bought a Whirlpool Gold French door refrigerator when we built our house in 2016. The unit froze up and stopped working twice and we had to have the thermistor (pretty sure that’s what it was called) both times. Same thing just happened again, we decided to replace the unit. Our trusted appliance repair guy said that the French door design is so problematic he won’t work on them. We caught a Whirlpool Gold side by side (I know, but we wanted it to match) on sale at Lowes for $1,800. We decided that there was no way we were going to spend $3k on a new French door model when we probably won’t be in this house longer that 5 more years And we only got 6 years out of the last one. We don’t like it as much but it will do. You can bet your ass we bought the extended warrant/service 5 year plan. By the way, the Lowes plan is much better than the Whirlpool plan.

 

[John105]

Noticed something that the technical folks can likely say yay or nay to. I have to occasionally watch that nothing bumps the knob in the freezer--again, ours is a 2002 that has a control knob in the center of the freezer on bottom. The refrigerator also has a knob that actuates a flap.

The instructions say to set both at 4. imho all the engineering that went into it likely was around those settings where the temps are what they should be.

As I began to have troubles with the unit, I figured the lowest setting that works would be better--meaning 3 3/4, 3 1/2, 3, etc.

What I noticed today, is it seems that lowering the setting from 3 3/4 to 3 1/4, does not affect the low temp achieved, it's -5F. What it does is to raise the high temp, before the compressor goes back on. Potentially from 3F to 6F.

Does that make sense? Again, don't see the low number budge, but the high number varies with the knob.

Also it's amazing imho for a compressor to just keep going and going...please...keep going!