Whirlpool American Fridge Freezer broken down – help!

[dingle4eva]

Re: Whirlpool American Fridge Freezer broken down – help!

the comresser is too hot to keep your hand on . thin pipe is hot fat pipe is normal neither hot or cold and the fan is on .

[broddersbaldrick]

Re: Whirlpool American Fridge Freezer broken down – help!

Hi Billy,
Right, all the electrics and electronics are working.
You need to establish if the evaporator is icing up.
Unfortunately, you need to empty the freezer, remove a few shelf brackets and remove the cover from the rear wall.
With the compressor running, ice should form on the condenser.
Let me know
Regards
brodders

[sanfridge]

hi John,
I have finally got round to changing the relay for the ice maker but still the ice maker wont work, I managed to borrow a back control board and my fridge is producing ice. so this means the sensors are ok so what else could be the problem

[broddersbaldrick]

Re: Whirlpool American Fridge Freezer broken down – help!

Hi,
Triac Q6 maybe faulty.
It’s the next place to look.
hth
bb

[sanfridge]

Thanks bb
which is the best place to get a replacement triac Q6 and do you by chance have the part no
regards

[abhaslaj]

Re: Whirlpool American Fridge Freezer broken down – help!

A few pages back, I posted my attempts to repair my S20BRWW20 by the usual means of changing capacitors etc – I had had some success – but on my last attempt I must have done something to damage the rear board. Brodders was kind enough to examine both boards and declared the microprocessor unserviceable – however the front board looked OK to him.

So I ordered a new rear board from the spares section of this site. As part of that order process, I provided both the part number from the pink label on the chip “461950209764” and the service number “8586 152 15011 11 0349 030468”

To save typing effort I’ll paste the brief exchange with Dave

> Hi Dave,
>
> Collected board from Courier depot this afternoon.
>
> After fitting it and switching on everything worked -ice, water, temp
> controls – everything!. But 5 minutes later I heard a beeping – it
> was the front panel displaying “CF”
>
> I turned it off waited a few minutes and turned it back on – again 5
> mins of everything working, then “CF” again, and all front panel
> controls are ‘locked’. Did notice the compressor turn on and run even
> while the front panel is displaying “CF”.
>
> I have since turned it off and removed and replaced the front and rear
> boards to ensure all connections are correct – but every time, 5
> minutes of working followed by “CF”.
>
> What should I do?

Hi,

I would ask again in the forums to be honest, I do not have access to the fault codes on these.

Regards

Dave.

So does anyone have any idea?

The new rear board did not have a label on the chip itself – but had two identical white barcode labels, one on the outside of the plastic box and one on the relays – these read:

L26273/25VN Date 23/09
CUB000002G
461950209767A

In addition, there was a green label on the board with:

04 CUB000002G SWR4

Perhaps that is SoftWare Release 4?

Brodders has tentativly suggested there could be a firmware incompatibility between the two boards – but that were the case, I am intrigued as to why everything works perfectly for the first 5 mins after the appliance is turned on.

[broddersbaldrick]

Re: Whirlpool American Fridge Freezer broken down – help!

Hi Arthur,

‘CF’ means ‘control fault’ / ‘communication fault’ which usually means the front module processor is unable to communicate correctly with the rear processor.

Confirmation of this can be done by trying to dispense some cold water or, put the fridge on ‘stand-by’

Both of these functions are controlled by the rear module via the communication line from the front.

Since these functions do not work on your unit, I believe the software of your new rear module is not compatible with the front or, your front module has a fault in it’s communication line.

Hope this helps.

bb

[GavinW]

Re: Whirlpool American Fridge Freezer broken down – help!

In case it’s useful for someone, I’ve put my faulty front board on ebay:

http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/ws/eBayISAPI.dll? … 0359704922

Might be useful if you want to give replacing the cap.s a go but don’t want to risk trashing your current board.

[justino]

Re: Whirlpool American Fridge Freezer broken down – help!

I’ve got the chattering front relay problem in a new house where we bought the fridge as part of the deal.

I’ve read this thread with great interest, and find the level of effort and ingenuity that has been spent on this problem mind blowing. Whirlpool should be truly ashamed.

Part of the reason the fridge was left when the house was sold is due to the difficulty in moving it as a radiator stops it sliding out unless you remove a door.

Whilst I fully intend to replace the capacitors, I don’t want to do this before Christmas in case of a mishap and the difficulty in getting to the back, so in the meantime I am considerng just removing the chattering relay.

From what I have read I believe this relay controls the ice maker/dispenser, which looks correct as no ice is produced. But before I start desoldering would doing this have any other side effects?

For information the front temp display flickers for the freezer on -19, but the fride temp just dispays a dash. The temperature + and – buttons don’t seem to do anything. The water dispenser works fine, but the front light flickers badly. Recently when I turned the fridge off with the front button, It took about 1 hour to get it to turn back on as pressing the button had no effect, and when it did ‘engage’ it would turn back off almost immediately. I’m guessing this is one ofthe capacitors struggling to keep a relay engaged due to low output.

thanks

Justin

[broddersbaldrick]

Re: Whirlpool American Fridge Freezer broken down – help!

Hi Justin,

Welcome to the world of Whirlpools and their chattering bits. 😀
The chattering on the front module is not actually a relay; it’s a pizzo buzzer that clicks.
I wouldn’t advise on removing any components unless necessary because, the front pcb is ‘through plated’ i.e tracks on both sides.
This means, additional heat is required to remove components then usually required which usually destroys the component being removed.
Just get some caps and fix it.
Hope this helps
bb

[justino]

Re: Whirlpool American Fridge Freezer broken down – help!

Hi bb, thanks for the quick reply.

In normal operation what does the pizzo buzzer do?

Justin

[broddersbaldrick]

Re: Whirlpool American Fridge Freezer broken down – help!

Hi Justin,
In normal operation it does nothing.

Put some tape or blue tac over the front of the buzzer to quieten it.

Regards bb 🙂

[justino]

Re: Whirlpool American Fridge Freezer broken down – help!

Hi BB

What is the buzzers use? If it is not needed in normal operation what is teh downside of disabling or removing it somehow?

Justin

[broddersbaldrick]

Re: Whirlpool American Fridge Freezer broken down – help!

Hi Justin,

The buzzer (pizzo crystal) is the warning alarm for when the freezer is warmer then minus 12 degrees.

You will spend more time trying to remove it that then fixing the actual fault.

Get a couple of caps or just one big 2.2uf and the job’s done.

Regards

bb

[justino]

Re: Whirlpool American Fridge Freezer broken down – help!

Hi BB,

If it just the front caps which are at fault, then you are correct. Doing the back board will be a full days effort by the time I have extracted the fridge due to how the kitchen was designed by the previous owner.

From what you say it suggests you think it is the front board caps. Is that correct?

[Author]

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