[westfielder]

Re: Whirlpool American Fridge Freezer broken down – help!

Great Dingle – well done

Unfortunately – I’m still jiggered

Swapped around the supporting triacs and transistors – still no joy – still got the SAME relay chattering.

Next is the 1000uF electrolytic….

Nick

[westfielder]

Re: Whirlpool American Fridge Freezer broken down – help!

Capacitor Updates:

I measured all the ones I took off and replaced

Cap Spec Reading Delta
C1 1.2 0.99 -13{e5d1b7155a01ef1f3b9c9968eaba33524ee81600d00d4be2b4d93ac2e58cec2d}

C6 0.68 0.48 -28{e5d1b7155a01ef1f3b9c9968eaba33524ee81600d00d4be2b4d93ac2e58cec2d}
C16 0.68 0.44 -35{e5d1b7155a01ef1f3b9c9968eaba33524ee81600d00d4be2b4d93ac2e58cec2d}

C5 0.22 0.24 +9{e5d1b7155a01ef1f3b9c9968eaba33524ee81600d00d4be2b4d93ac2e58cec2d}
C7 0.22 0.22 0{e5d1b7155a01ef1f3b9c9968eaba33524ee81600d00d4be2b4d93ac2e58cec2d}
C8 0.22 0.15 -31{e5d1b7155a01ef1f3b9c9968eaba33524ee81600d00d4be2b4d93ac2e58cec2d}

C14 0.1 0.102 +2{e5d1b7155a01ef1f3b9c9968eaba33524ee81600d00d4be2b4d93ac2e58cec2d}
C26 0.1 0.102 +2{e5d1b7155a01ef1f3b9c9968eaba33524ee81600d00d4be2b4d93ac2e58cec2d}
C27 0.1 0.103 +3{e5d1b7155a01ef1f3b9c9968eaba33524ee81600d00d4be2b4d93ac2e58cec2d}
C28 0.1 0.084 -16{e5d1b7155a01ef1f3b9c9968eaba33524ee81600d00d4be2b4d93ac2e58cec2d}
(Not sure of which of the .68s and .1s came from which place on the board so they could be the wrong way around ie i’ve read C6 as C16 etc)

So you can see that a lot of the radial capacitors are off spec and surprisingly C1 was not too bad however all these figures are not from when the caps are under 240v load

anyone got any ideas what they all do? I am hoping that the ones that are way off spec control the defrost as this seems to be working now that I have done the replacements.

Next – going to try bridging more capacitance across C1, currently at 1.2uF (original said 1.2 on the side) – will put up to 1.44 and see what happens.

[westfielder]

Re: Whirlpool American Fridge Freezer broken down – help!

Hi all,

OK, so I replaced all the capacitors on the back board with Farnell parts that fit nicely. And replaced the red relay. Let the whole thing deforst over night. (Filled the water tray to almost overflowing).

Switched on and got the chattering relays, not just one – two of them now 🙁

However, after 24 hours, the whole thing is working – no frost build up and it doesn’t run all the time – so some good news – I think all the bits are working.

I tried an extra .22uF across C1 but still got the chattering.

Going to buy a capacitance meter to test all the capacitors taken out and put in.

So still got the original original problem of chattering relays.

any ideas…..

Nick

[westfielder]

Re: Whirlpool American Fridge Freezer broken down – help!

The saga continues….

The fridge warmed up as per Wellers mail. I realised that teh external fan wasn’t cutting it as the regular fan needs to draw air from teh front, past the copmpressor and out the back. Also the exchange elements under teh fridge part were getting v hot and were full of dust. So a vacuum out and hard wire of 240v to the control board to permanently run the fan.
On switching on – nothing – zilch -really pissed off, noticed the evaporation tray filling and filling – right to the top. Rang a neighbour to ask for freezer space and as was on the phone it all started up – I guess it was doing a defrost….. and the fridge cooled down in 1 hour to 6 deg.
All was fine till we got this really hot weather and the fridge started warming up again – just after a big shop and a bbq. Her indoors NOT happy.

I have checked for all the things in teh troubleshooting manual.
Which says that it can get hot around the fridge seal in hot weather.

Today – freezer started defrosting with temp alarm on panel.but when got home from work I cycled the on-off button and teh alarm went – but food definitely going soft – left for 1/2 an hour and frost forming in freezer.
It did this once before last year – don’t know the cause. The fan and the compressor and the whrring air moving noise all going. They have all been going non-stop for days – but it has been very hot weather.
I suspect that the airways in the freezer (That I think are used to cool the fridge are blocked – either iced up cos hot weather makes it run constantly or some other cause cos despite the fact that the motors and whirring are there all the time And the freezer ’till today had been fine, the fridge still won’t go below 15 degrees.

Am I right in saying that the freezer is cooled by the gasses in pipes and the fridge by cold air blown from around the freezer???

Is there a thermostat somewhere?

So WELLER – hoover out the front underneath (Take off plastic plate thingey – a screw on each end) then make sure the fan is working – put the back of the Fridge freezer back on as it needs that to make sure air flows over the heat exchanger elements.

If fan not working, check fan is ok – it’s 240v ac so you could wire to mains like me, If it is ok, look to changing C1 as above in thsi thread.

So tonight – carted all the frozen food to neighbours and have switched off at the wall. Opened Mr Tupperware and replaced C1 again with a smaller farnell version and a few other capacitirs and the red relay.
Will let you know the outcome.

[westfielder]

Re: Whirlpool American Fridge Freezer broken down – help!

🙁

Another problem – have I killed it?????

Having fixed the clicking as above – a few weeks on and the compressor cooling fan has now stopped and the fridge compartment is starting to warm up. I have put an external fan on the compressor but still the fridge is getting warm – I suspect it’s from the lack of heat extraction from the rear/underside.

I have measured the output to the cooling fan and it’s 167v (measured AC). Which is really strange as I would assume that it should be supplied by switched mains voltage.

Any ideas really gratefully recieved.

[westfielder]

Re: Whirlpool American Fridge Freezer broken down – help!

Update:

Nearly a week on and so far no clicking.

BIG Thanks to all on this thread and your input

Total cost to fix my clicking problem £3.61

Nick

[westfielder]

Re: Whirlpool American Fridge Freezer broken down – help!

When I put mine back together after the taskks listed above, I got the bleeping, red light flashing and CF on the display and the Compressor Fan not working.

I opened the control box one of my solder joints on my new Capacitor C1 had come apart. Once fixed, the above symptoms disappeared.
This did help prove that C1 is the capacitor that supports the RED relay which controls the fan.

I have found that since replacing C1 with the 1uF maplin part that the clacketing was still there. However as I stated above I was going to replace the other capacitors. I had to send the better half to Maplins to buy them, but by the time she got back I had proved that it’s C1 that is the Fan one I don’t have to. AND as time goes on the clicking is becoming much reduced – Less often and quieter but still happening.

I wondered if it was the fact that it was 1uF and the original was 1.2uF so I soldered a piggy back .22uF capacitor in parallel with C1 to make 1.22uF. This did not make any difference.

The clicking is still there and the fan still runs slow when the clicking is happening and full speed when it’s not and off when it’s not needed. The clicking is still not as bad as when I started. So I will see how things go over the next few days.

Nic Digby I would suggest that you open the control tupperware box (be very careful if you do this without unplugging) and see which relay is clicking. I would guess that you have 2 problems – one for the ice and one for the compressor fan. I would start by replacing C1 first to fix the CF problem then work on the ice one – don’t know which capacitor that one is though.

Good Luck

[westfielder]

Re: Whirlpool American Fridge Freezer broken down – help!

Same clackety problem here – could I ask for a little help please?

I have model S20D FSS10-A/D

Service number 8586 161 15000

I get the clacketing sound as above – open door it stops.
I opened the back and thought it was the fan cooling the compressor as it was juddering or slow running but would suddely speed up when the noise stopped. But after reading above checked further. I opened the tupperware box to find a red relay clacking. I assume this drives the fan I am hoping that someone could please tell me which capacitor to change.

I put a picture of the board here

http://www.avwt78.dsl.pipex.com/fridge/

Many thanks in advance

Kind Regards

Nick

[Author]

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