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Re: Whirlpool American Fridge Freezer broken down – help!
Okay how about this for positive, spin only the first number round….yee ha!!!
Right enough of that, my beer is getting warm lets get back on topic, can anyone specifically help with the red relay function on the back board, all the clicking has stopped since the caps were changed and I can get the compressor to work (once after turning on the fridge), but it turns of at random times and does not start again.
Cheers, cheers
Re: Whirlpool American Fridge Freezer broken down – help!
Hi Everyone, just to let you all know, i have fitted a new rear PCB and all is well, so fingers crossed. as i said before the unit is not hooked up to the water supply yet so im not sure if the ice maker works or not. does anyone know if there is any way i can tell without connecting it to a water supply as it will be some time before i am ready to install it in our new kitchen, what i can say is that the red l.e.d. inside the freezer flashes when i open the door. thanks sid
Re: Whirlpool American Fridge Freezer broken down – help!
woody30 wrote:Okay how about this for positive, spin only the first number round….yee ha!!!
Right enough of that, my beer is getting warm lets get back on topic, can anyone specifically help with the red relay function on the back board, all the clicking has stopped since the caps were changed and I can get the compressor to work (once after turning on the fridge), but it turns of at random times and does not start again.
Cheers, cheers
Hi Woody
I would replace the Orange Relay as it is the most likely cause of your problem, given that the compressor appears to be working.
The Fan next to the compressor should also be running when the compressor is on. If not, the compressor will overheat and stop.
You will find the details of this Relay in previous posts.
Good LuckRe: Whirlpool American Fridge Freezer broken down – help!
creamytash wrote:Hi guys,
I have just created an account on here today – simply because I have a Whirlpool American Fridge Freezer and I have had some problems with it for a while – THEN – I discovered this fantastic site which I have been reading over the Christmas Holidays.
I have become aware from this site that on here are a couple of Masked Heroes who spend an awful lot of their own time helping others by way of sorting out problems with their fridge freezers thus saving them quite a lot of money and loads of grief and frustration.I bought Whirlpool because I thought that they had a good reputation (you live and learn-and all learning comes with a cost). However – I am stuck with this beast having paid nearly £1,200. for it in 2007.
I don’t have any insurance on it – I did have but the company terminated it when they paid for a Whirlpool engineer to replace a ‘ Back Control Box’ and I then reported the ice maker had failed.
The model I have is; FR SS 36AF20/2A – the Product code is; 858619015012.I have just spent Christmas day and Boxing day removing the interior back panel from the freezer side, removed the defrost heater element and the little fan from above the condenser (I am guessing at the names of these parts because I don’t know and I am just learning my way around). The heater element tested that it has a continuing circut and therefore should be working. The fan was also working.
I found the condenser – the bit that freezes- was a block of white ice from bottom to top – right up to the base of the fan.
My problem was that the freezer alarm kept sounding and showing the 2 hyfons in the display window while the fridge side was running an interior temp of 20 deg.
I defrosted the whole thing, mopped out the plastic tray underneath, put all the bits back together and fired up the power. Overnight the freezer has returned to normal temp -18, and the fridge is now running at 5 deg – but only just – seems to be struggling toget any colder.In the past I remember the Fridge /Freezer unit used to make a lot of noise (like a motor running – growling ) but it now seems much more quiet – not sure if something within has stopped working.
The ice maker on the thing has not worked for over 18 months but the water dispenser is fine. The WP engineer told me at the time he replaced the back box that the ice maker needed a complete new unit at £500 and to wait 9 weeks from him replacing the back box before I reported the ice maker, that was when the insurance company cancelled my policy – hence it is still not working and by that I mean not delivering water to make the ice.
I must point out that I am not electrically minded and don’t undertand the lingo so I need the idiots guide and the baby words, so I can take it in.My hobby is building and driving 2 seater Kit Cars but electrical appliances loose me.
On the positive side my son who is 29yrs is a switched on cookie with all that stuff and I am sure he will assist me and ensure that I don’t fry myself.
Thanks for reading this far and any help would be gratefully received.
Dave Ross ( Nottingham)Hello Creamytash
You need to check that the motorised baffle is letting cool air into the fridge. If not, it may be faulty. (Check previous posts on how to check this) If you had to do a manual defrost, it suggests that the auto defrost is not working. Have you had to defrost again since the last time ? If yes then, there is a problem, although you say that the back board has already been replaced so it is unlikely that the Orange compressor relay has failed. When you say that the fridge is at 5 degrees, how did you meaure that ? The temp indicator on the front panel does not show the actual temp, only the temp that you set it at. You should be able to drop this down to say 3 or 4 degrees and then the fridge should get colder.
Remember that this may take a while though.
Hope this helps
RegardsRe: Whirlpool American Fridge Freezer broken down – help!
Thanks for the reply,
the unit is still running normal just now and thats from New Years Day, however I am keeping an eye on it but I do expect it to act up again.
Thanks
Creamytash.Re: Whirlpool American Fridge Freezer broken down – help!
Just want to thank everybody that have contributed to solve the problem with relay clicking and water spirting etc. on Whirlpool side by side American fridge/freezer. I took my time reading trough this forum thread, and decided to buy the “repair kit” from UK whitegoods. Living in Sweden, I got it real quickly, within 48 hours. I thought I should try to replace all cap´s on the rear board before buying a new one. Half an hours work really paid off. Works fine after 24 hrs, but I think I´ll have to wait a week to be sure.
Anyway thank you all. It´s a shame that whirlpool use parts with such a poor quality. I showed the old cap´s to a friend that repair all type of electronics, he laughed loudly. Later confirmed that most of them where out of spec´s.Re: Whirlpool American Fridge Freezer broken down – help!
I found this forum when searching for a fix for my fridge/freezer. Having read through this entire thread, I’m really grateful to the people who have spent the time and effort posting information here.
My model is Admiral GC2027. I didn’t realise when I bought it in 2007 it was actually a Whirlpool with a different badge!Problem I had: Display/lights clicking when you operate the ice dispenser.
I found the offending capacitors – this time in the front board. Value should be 3 X 0.68uF = 2UF. Measured 1.2uF. One capacitor was only 0.1uF!
I paralleled with another 0.47uF cap I had and now it’s working.
There’s not much space in the front board to fit replacements, and I’ll order some to do the permanent fix.A word of warning – don’t “hot plug” the front board with the mains power on. You can get some sparking, and in my case I got a “CF” error. I found that 2 resistors (220ohm marked 221) near the 3 pin connector had gone open circuit. These are the data connection to the rear board and replacing them fixed it.
My understanding is that when the fridge is turned on, the front board tries to communicate with the back board. If it doesn’t get any response in about two minutes, it flashes CF and beeps. I think the back board then operates in a failsafe mode and sets to -18C / 5C and operates the fridge normally (but the controls don’t work)
I traced out some of the cables to the front board. Your model may be different, so don’t take this as certain, but it may help:
3 pin plug : orange and white wires data communication to the back board. These are low voltage (+5V)
Other wire: switch input from ice dispenser (mains voltage)5 pin plug:
Brown / Blue Live and neutral mains supply
Brown/Green Supply to the light (mains voltage)
other wire – switch input from the water dispenser? (mains voltage)Thanks again to everone who has contributed on this forum!
Re: Whirlpool American Fridge Freezer broken down – help!
StephenB wrote:
A word of warning – don’t “hot plug” the front board with the mains power on. You can get some sparking, and in my case I got a “CF” error. I found that 2 resistors (220ohm marked 221) near the 3 pin connector had gone open circuit. These are the data connection to the rear board and replacing them fixed it.
My understanding is that when the fridge is turned on, the front board tries to communicate with the back board. If it doesn’t get any response in about two minutes, it flashes CF and beeps. I think the back board then operates in a failsafe mode and sets to -18C / 5C and operates the fridge normally (but the controls don’t work)
This is the problem I had, I blew both these tiny ferrite bead resistors, not by hot swapping the board, but by in fitting the electrolyte cap in the wrong polarity, C3 I think on the front board.
They can be repaired but are very small. I have fixed mine and now all is well so very pleased. R58 and 59 on the picture below. You can just see the new resistors on top of the blown black ferrites.
Re: Whirlpool American Fridge Freezer broken down – help!
I registered today just to thank those who have posted fixes for Whirlpool fridges with chattering relays. I have a Whirlpool All Refrigerator, model WRF40, bought in South Africa where I live. It already has its second control board (the first board replaced under warranty in 2006). Although a completely different model, the orange relay and white sausage shaped capacitors are very similar.
Grudgingly removed the control board yesterday, after watching the fridge slowly deteriorate over the last year, clicking away at an ever increasing rate. An extensive net search led to very little – nothing on the model. Found this site by chance, and read through the whole post.
Due to the similarities in the fault, I decided to take a chance on the caps. Got all the caps, but only replace the two 250 volt (Now 275 volt) capacitors. [My soldering prowess and antiquated equipment leaving me in doubt as to the success I would have with the smaller electrolytic caps.]
😀 Thanks to you gentlemen I now have a working fridge again.
AndrewPs The Whirlpool repair quote was two thirds the replacement cost of a new equivalent fridge.
Re: Whirlpool American Fridge Freezer broken down – help!
Have had a Whirlpool Side by Side for about 5 years. It broke down after a short time and the service engineer replaced the back board at that time, and I remember him warning about the front board inevitably needing to be replaced in time.
He said “blue means two” – some reference I think to the blue sticker up under the water dispenser indicating that the unit had vulnerable PCBs both back and front.
Anyway, recently fridge starts with front panel clicking and flashing – the click was the alarm piezo, not a back board relay. Luckily the fridge and freezer continued to function OK. Ice maker was OK too.
Front boards has electrolytics at C3, C6, C8 and C9 – all replaced to no avail (easily found at Maplins).
Film caps are at C5 (0.33), C15 (0.68), C14 (0.47), C2 (0.47), C1 (0.47) and C16 (0.047). My board had old style axials caps at all bar C16 which was a modern style rectanuagular radial package anyway.
Just replaced C5, C15, C14, C2 and C1 with perfect results.
Could get C5 to drop in no problems, but had to fit C15, C14, C2 and C1 to the rear of the board and dremmel away a small window in the back plastic guard plate. The caps I bought, which were the lowest profile I could find, are too tall to fit from the front, they hit the fascia.
RS part numbers were:
C1,2,14 470nF 22.5mm pitch B32923C3474K 334-704
C15 680nF 22.5mm pitch B32923A2684M 497-4270
C5 330nF 22.5mm pitch B32923D3334K 334-697Have a number left over (had to buy bags of 5 or 10 variously) – contact me privately if anyone in the UK wants a set free.
Thanks to all here for inspiration.
J
Re: Whirlpool American Fridge Freezer broken down – help!
Folks an update on my fridge that now appears to be working. I hope this may help others.
The fridge had the chirping going on for a good 2 years but I just ignored it as it came and went. I assumed that as the fridge was not on mains water that it was something to do with that.
The fridge then suddenly lost temp on the freezer side and started to beep.
I found this website, read the full thread and ordered the fix kit for the rear board. I fitted the kit with ease, however the fridge was still not playing the game.
The clicking/chirping had went however it seemed as though the compressor was only working for one cycle after start up i.e it would run and get down to -18 but when it turned off it would not come back so it would defrost again.
From advice given I ordered from Farnell the red relay on the rear board (117-5017) and a solder pump.
When I changed this over I initially thought that it did not work because I got a D on the sceen and the service call sign. I turned it off and on a couple of times and hey presto 😀 .
Now been working for nearly 24hrs with he compressor kicking in and out as required. As I am in Australia and it is 34+ most of the time it has been a nightmare with my beer fridge outside being taken over.
Cheers to all, I hope that you all get a similar happy result, and bahh 😈 to Whirlpool for not sorting what is an obvious manufacturing problem.
Re: Whirlpool American Fridge Freezer broken down – help!
I found this thread after Googling ‘knocking noise whirlpool fridge freezer’. Not sure whether to be pleased to have such a wealth of information, or dismayed to find that this is such a common fault!
Anyway, my side by side Whirlpool FF starting doing this knocking noise a few months ago, as water was being dispensed, and the water itself came in pulses. It started as an occasional thing, now it’s much more common for it to happen each time the dispenser is used, and more recently, there has been a knocking coming from the rear of the FF even when not being used.
I thought it was a water pressure problem, or a trapped pipe, and got as far as pulling off the bottom rear panel to check, before I read this thread.
My question – is it okay to leave this if I can tolerate the annoyance, or is it a symptom of worse to come and therefore should I do something now?
Thanks in advance.
Re: Whirlpool American Fridge Freezer broken down – help!
Hey mate,
I am no expert, it sounds exactly like mine started. If you can solder I would get the repair kit from here and change the caps. Its only a couple of pounds and it should sort the problems.
It usually only a matter of time so have a go.
Re: Whirlpool American Fridge Freezer broken down – help!
Thanks woody. Have you got a link to this repair kit? I did a search and can’t find it.
Edit: think I’ve found it here: http://shop.ukwhitegoods.co.uk/Refriger … r+Kit.html
Re: Whirlpool American Fridge Freezer broken down – help!
father in laws whirlpool broken down this needed work done on the back and front boards as i have done before with my f/f with the help of broddersbaldrick and was hoping he could help me again. as father in law done a defrost after it frozed up on him about 1 week later but how he has to do a defrost every 3 or 4 weeks as the frezer keeps fosting up and the frige stops working proprley can anyone help me again 😳 😳
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