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I Have a LEC T663AW which is maybe 15 years old. It’s an older non Frost-free type. Recently, the Fridge compartment lost most of its cooling effect. A temperature logger I left inside for 24 hrs showed this to be stable but at 12.5C, far too warm. The Freezer section below however is perfect (top -18C, bottom -28C) and not excessively iced. The two thermostats at the top of the fridge compartment are not marked which is which (why oh why…) and there’s no manual I’ve located yet. But assuming the rear is Freezer and the front is for the Fridge, I notice that the rear Freezer one clicks and activates the compressor when turned down, suggesting it works, whereas the front (assumed fridge one) does neither.
This has lead me to wonder if the Fridge thermostat is to blame. I’ve read your fault FAQs and realise the thermostat is a less likely cause of this warm fridge fault, but I managed to buy one for a giveaway price. From what I’ve said, is fitting the new Fridge thermostat likely to fix the fault?
OK, well I’m answering my own post now for anyone else who could find this useful. It was the thermostat at fault, and this is the nearer/front of the two unmarked ones in the roof of the fridge compartment.
Initially I found this forum post partially useful:The combined thermostat/light housing at the top of the LEC T663AW fridge compartment is released with one external screw to the rear, then a second one to the fore at the light/reflector end after removing its translucent cover. The assembly thereafter is stiff to pull down due to the three capillaries attached (one freezer, two fridge) plus wiring working its way from above. A nut secures the spindle of each of two thermostats to a plastic plate.
The front fridge thermostat has two capillaries: a silver metallic one going straight into the rear wall which is easy to remove/reinsert; and a second one coated with white plastic (apart from first few inches) going up into the roof space along with various electrical wires. This white coated capillary later reappears to the lower/left wall of the fridge compartment behind a ventilated plastic cover which can be removed to reveal a short tight coiled end.
Whereas the post above described having to tug fairly hard to extract the second white capillary, no reasonable force would do this for me and the cause later became apparent. The roof of the fridge needs to be removed via a pair of screws to left & right of top rear. The stubborn capillary in fact passes up through a short pipe (along with wires) which is plugged with some foam insulation, then topped above with a golf ball sized chunk of Blu-tack or plasticine type material which must be peeled away. It then crosses to left-hand wall before descending via a conduit again plugged with foam and Blu-tack. The foam plugs are best removed with long-nosed pliers. Once Blue-tack and plugs are removed, it’s easy to extract the descending length of white capillary. If you attach some string to the lower protruding coil end beforehand, you can (like replacing old electrical cable runs) use the string you pull through to later help pull the new one back down again into place.
Replacement is quite straightforward, replacing the foam plugs and reshaping the two Blu-tack mounds back in place. There will be some slack in the white capillary in the roof space which should be snaked around the raised foam hump, in the valley as it were.
Anyone with the same fault (warm fridge despite a working freezer) pondering replacing their thermostat should first check it in situ by removing its wiring connectors and checking its conductivity with a multi-meter. A working thermostat in a (too) warm environment should be calling for cooling with its two contacts closed like a switch. My faulty one, unlike its replacement, was open circuit. The correct thermostat was a Ranco K52 – L2010, LEC part no. 082622036.
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