Whirlpool American Fridge Freezer broken down – help!

[cockney steve]

Re: Whirlpool American Fridge Freezer broken down – help!

you need to check the motor for continuity…..it was doing something before!

also, just because you were getting a voltage,does not mean there was any current able to flow….a high-resistance connection can show full “no-load” volts, but zero as soon as the circuit is completed.

don’t jump to conclusions without properly and methodically testing and eliminating the good parts….you’d feel very silly buying a motor, only to find the fault lay elsewhere.

not saying that it is ok…as previously stated, if it’s a brush-motor, it’s almost certain the armature will fry on the windings connected at the stall-position…….but you were getting a “clomk” when switched,,,,I assume you eliminated that being a relay and narrowed it down to the motor.
glad you freed it off….but are you sure you didn’t just shear a siezed shaft internally?

meter across terminals and slowly rotate output shaft….if it’s a brush-motor, you’d expect the meter to twitch a bit (ohms range)….an induction motor shouldn’t make any difference.

[andyhart21]

Re: Whirlpool American Fridge Freezer broken down – help!

Hi guys, I just dicovered this rather excellent forum which I hope can save me from having to call out a Whirlpool service engineer 😥

My fridge model is S20DRSS33-A/G

8586 158 15020
110421 011104

I have read this whole post and I still cannot decide on the best course of action.

My problem started as the usual water chattering which didn’t really bother me, but then it progressed to a rather loud buzzing noise and malfunction of the ice maker which I traced to the ice maker relay on the rear board. I then changed C1, C2, C3, C4, C5, C6 and C7, as well as the three Schrack relays and the orange Tyco relay for the compressor. All then appeared well for a couple of weeks.
Then last week I was greeted in the morning by a puddle of water under the freezer door as the ice in the ice hopper had started to melt. It was also alarming on freezer temperature (with — in the freezer display) The fridge side also appears to be too warm.
I then changed all the above components again but it still does not appear to be getting down to temperature. The compressor and cooling fan appear to be working correctly. The only thing I have found is the power connector on the rear board to the compressor appears to have been getting warm on the spade connections (they are discoloured).
I have also visually inspected the front board and all the capacitors look ok, but I will test them at work on Monday to verify correct values.

What I would like everybody’s advice on is:

Does anyone know what the likely fault could be?

Is it worth taking out a Whirlpool service contract to sort the problem?

Could it as simple as needing a re-gas?

Can anyone think of anything else I could test?

I would really value everyones opinion on this as I hate to be defeated on things like this and it really bugs me when I have to call out an engineer 😀

Thanks guys, Andy

[andyhart21]

Re: Whirlpool American Fridge Freezer broken down – help!

Hi guys there has been a development 🙂

I have just emptied the freezer and taken all the back panels off, where I found one huge block of ice. This block of ice covered the whole coil, the fan and was blocking all the vents. I did not realise that the fridge side gets it cold air through the back panel of the freezer which would lead to the problems I have described in both the fridge and the freezer. There were no external signs that the freezer was iced up, the vents appeared to be clear from the outside. It took nearly an hour with a hairdryer to defrost it there was so much ice! The only problem I have now is that there must be a reason why it iced up in the first place 😥

I am hoping that the icing was caused when I had the problems with the rear board last week, and that there was just too much for the fridge to defrost itself after I repaired the board.

I will keep you posted 🙂

Andy

[andyhart21]

Re: Whirlpool American Fridge Freezer broken down – help!

Well after 2 days, everything is working exactly as it should be 😀

Fingers crossed but it looks like I may have cracked it 8)

[cjboycie]

Re: Whirlpool American Fridge Freezer broken down – help!

Hello again.

Still having problems, changed all the caps on the rear board about 4 weeks ok…….no problems for about 2 weeks…..
Then got the flashing — on the freezer and the fridge felt warmer. Took the rear internal panel off the freezer to be greeted by the exchanger all frozen up.
Defrosted it but same happened 2 weeks later.

The freezing up happens soon after switching the fridge/freezer back on, as you can see from these pics

After 30 seconds

After 60 seconds

and After 1 hour (cover refitted)

Right here comes the $6,000,000 question……what could be causing this to happen?

Many Thanks
Boycie

[cockney steve]

Re: Whirlpool American Fridge Freezer broken down – help!

The “heat exchanger” -Evaporator, has to extract the heat from the entire cabinet air….so it WILL get extremely cold….that is also why it has panels and a fan to guide the air and pump it over the surface,thereby cooling it all…..when the air -temp is low -enough, the compressor switches off…….now the evaporator will gradually stop cooling the surrounding air, BUT it’s in a cold environment which will NOT allow the ice (water out of the contained air) to melt.
SO….there’s a heater (usually under the lower part of the evaporator) which comes on to melt the ice.

Needless to say, the temperatures, times of operation and sequencing of all these activities become quite complicated.

I’d suggest, as the cabinet cets cold, the circulating fan is OK (well, until ice jams it)

The heater is not melting the ice…. check that it is actually OK…..if so, the thermistor (temp. sensor) is the next likely suspect…..do not confuse this with the one which controls the ‘fridge or freezer temperature.

As you may have gathered, it’s not a simple subject…and I’ve left a lot out because I’m not a refrigeration engineer and my knowledge is actually pretty superficial 😳 …so take this post with a pinch of salt until a proper professional tells you the correct story! 😆

[wilmac]

Re: Whirlpool American Fridge Freezer broken down – help!

Could someone please advise me do i require both boards for the following model.
S20B RBB20-A/G
8386 152 15001
11 0335 030029

Cabinet is approx 5 years old and the rear has gone faulty.

Cheers
Billy

[Gilmo]

Re: Whirlpool American Fridge Freezer broken down – help!

Hi,

I have a Whirpool side by side fridge freezer on the blink. Lights are flashing and the relays are clicking.

Everything else is working fine, water dispencer and ice maker still working.

Could somebody please help and advise if I need the rear control PCB replacing or front & rear.

Purchased: Jul 04

Model number: S20B RSB21-A/G

Service codes 8586 151 15000 11 0317 005313

Thanks
Matt

[danny11]

Hi Guys

Whirlpool 858615215001, not producing ice. everything else seems ok, infrared reciever light flashes twice when the door is open, when you press the door switch and close the infra red door, the reciever light goes out permanently

Any idea??

Thanks, Dan

[Engines]

Re: Whirlpool American Fridge Freezer broken down – New Post

As a new joiner, having found this forum, may i ask what may be a basic question?

I have a Whirlpool S20D FSS10-A/G American Style Fridge freezer, Product code 8586 161 15000. I have what seems to be a common problem, in that the freezer system is malfunctioning, with the warning light coming on, red led, and two bars in the freezer temperature display. It can be cleared by selecting standby and back on, but we have had to remove the food from it as the freezer compartment is not cold enough.

No leaks, and I have removed the fluff and dust from the coils at the bottom of the machine, behind the plastic front grille.

Having read this very useful thread, can someone tell me where the ‘PCB’ boards are located? It looks as if replacing or repairing the boards may be the best way forward here.

many thanks in anticipation

[cjboycie]

Re: Whirlpool American Fridge Freezer broken down – New Post

The front PCB is behind the front control panel, remove the drip tray to locate 2 screws.

The rear PCB is round the back at the bottom, remove metal cover that spans across the bottom, far right you will see a black plastic box….the rear PCB is inside.

Cheers
Boycie

Engines wrote:As a new joiner, having found this forum, may i ask what may be a basic question?

I have a Whirlpool S20D FSS10-A/G American Style Fridge freezer, Product code 8586 161 15000. I have what seems to be a common problem, in that the freezer system is malfunctioning, with the warning light coming on, red led, and two bars in the freezer temperature display. It can be cleared by selecting standby and back on, but we have had to remove the food from it as the freezer compartment is not cold enough.

No leaks, and I have removed the fluff and dust from the coils at the bottom of the machine, behind the plastic front grille.

Having read this very useful thread, can someone tell me where the ‘PCB’ boards are located? It looks as if replacing or repairing the boards may be the best way forward here.

many thanks in anticipation

[raceboy]

Re: Whirlpool American Fridge Freezer broken down – help!

Hello all, just found this forum while seraching for fixes for my….

S20B RBB20 – A/G
Serial No: 110331021303

I’ve got by the sounds of it the usual load of Whirlpool issues, started with the clicking noise when making ice, progressed to clicking every 1/2 an hour or so all the time, pulsing water, and now the ice maker has stopped making ice.

I thought I had found some PCB’s going cheap as that seems to be the fix but the seller has said they will only be compatible if my fridge/freezer has a filter and I’m pretty sure it hasn’t so I’m reluctant to blow £100+ on these items if they don’t work.

So…….
any idea on a part number of the PCB I need or if there is a cheap capacitor fix, not sure if I’m up to the job of doing it but should be able to remove it and get a electrical expert to do the soldering if I think it’s beyond me.

Can’t really believe Whirlpool can get away with this, it should be a free recall type fix, my boiler had an issue a few years ago and after seeing the company get a slating on Watchdog they upgraded all the faulty boilers free of charge if you contacted them.

Steve

[snake]

Re: Whirlpool American Fridge Freezer broken down – help!

This forum helped me gratly last year when the “clcking” noice from the back nearly “killed” me. This was the part I needed then:
“You need 481221778213 which can be ordered from this link:
http://tinyurl.com/69bq75”

That was the rear PCB and it removed all “clicking” noice from the frigde/freezer.

Now it has starting to act up again.

Symptoms: Flashing lights on the front panel especially when I turn on the light or trying to draw water. Water will not pump, but it tries. Flashing of the front panel stops if I swith off the ice maschin. But the ice maschine still works.

So it seem that as soon as I incread the power load it starts flashing.

I need help on finding the right sparepart no for the front panel, so I can order it.

Whirlpool S20B RSS31
ID: 8586 1510 1010 / 1102 4502 9302

All help is greatly appreciated

Arvid

[paul_h]

Re: Whirlpool American Fridge Freezer broken down – help!

Hi everyone,
I’m an a/c tech in australia.
I mainly do a/cs (but do sharp and samsung fridges), and when I was looking at an a/c jopb the customer got me to look at their whirlpool fridge.
It’s a side by side S26S5DF (SB715W), that wasn’t cold and the display turned off frequently (no flashing).
I found the evap coil iced up, so I defrosted it. When I tested the heater it was 86ohms, when I meggered it it was shorted to earth.
I have no idea why it wasn’t tripping the c/b though 😯
I thought about this and guessed the heater short must have damaged something on the board, causing it to not attempt defrost.

Anyway, I thought it would run for a couple of days with the heater disconnected while I go and buy one, so I put everything back together again and turned it on.
When I turned it on, display was normal, no flashing, but no compressor operation either. When I tried some buttons, like the water dispenser light or holding down the temp buttons, then the display flash and relay clicking started happenning.

I was hoping it was caused by the heater being disconnected, but now I’ve found this thread and realise that this is a PCB problem.
I don’t have the other numbers though, and I have no idea which capacitors, which boards etc may need replacing.
Anyone want to help me out?
This is the first and looks to be the last whirlpool I look at 😀

[joop1000]

Re: Whirlpool American Fridge Freezer broken down – help!

hi all

hope you guys can help. i have a american style fridge freezer, it’s a whirlpool model S20BRWW20.

I have the front flashing panel problem also. The fridge and freezer are working fine, it despences water ok, but not ice.

I too the front panel off to check the pcb and found that there was brown scorch marks around CAP D12. Also on closer inspection, C7 seems to be missing. What is C7? The legs are on the bottomside of the pcb, but no part on the topside!

Not sure what has happened hear!!

Any help would be most appreciated!

Thanks

Anthony

[Author]

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