Amana Refrigerator Cooling Problem

Hope someone can help me here, I've never worked on fridges but getting a crash course. Here's my issue:

Came home last night to a warm refrigerator and thawing meat in the freezer. Turned up the thermostats for both freezer and fridge, no luck. Felt the back of the fridge and down low it was blowing warm air. Tried unplugging and plugging back in with of course no luck.

Started doing some research and found out about defrosting issues. Left it plugged in overnight and when I removed the back panel of the freezer this morning the bottom coils in the back were very frozen over. I went ahead and unplugged and let it all melt. I also reset the defrost timer at the bottom of the fridge in the front by turn clockwise till it clicked several times.

I've plugged it back in and it's been cooling for the last hour, however a cup of water at the bottom of the freezer is frozen while a cup of water at the very top of the freezer is not. The fridge seems to be cooling down somewhat, but definitely colder at the bottom than the top.

I thought I had the issue narrowed down to either the heater evaporator or the defrost timer. But now I'm not so sure and wondering if it could just be a circulation type issue. Any thoughts and help would be greatly appreciated!

 

You need to look at the coils in the freezer section and see if they are frosted nicely over the whole coil. Probably not a defrost problem, you could have a system problem. Also check to make sure that fan by the compressor is working anytime the compressor is on. With the freezer inside panel removed, those coils should frost up completely in less than 1 hour if the compressor is running. Give us some feedback.

H.

 

Coils were frosted over, and "fins" on outside of those freezer coils were very frosted over. To test things I kicked over the defrost timer several clicks to see if the evaporator heater kicked on. It never heated up, but had no clue if the timer was the cause or not. Let it go for a while and after a bit I heard the compressor kick back on so knew that the defrost timer was doing its job.

Took my evaporator fan in because I thought that might be the problem. They wired it up and it worked just fine.

Had a buddy come over with a multimeter (never had a need for one, so have never purchased one) and we tested the evaporator heater. Set it at 200 ohms and it registered 26.5, which was close enough to 30 as was suggested in other reading material. Tried a few "red neck" tests with the thermostat and never could get an accurate reading. Ended up just purchasing a new thermostat, popped her in and middle of the night, low and behold, I heard ice being made in the freezer and knew everything was good to go. Felt dang good doing it myself and not having to shell out more than $41.22 for the repair.

 

Hope that was your problem and not a coincidence. You never said if when you ran off to parts store or by the time the friend came to test it, if you had the unit unplugged, thawing out, door open, etc., to room temperature, as THAT could warm up the stat and open it, also! (fooling you into thinking it was bad).

Just because the defrost timer clock rotated doesn't mean the element is good.

What may have happened (not that it did, but I'm giving you a scenario that could show how you could be fooled). Let's say you thawed out the freezer. Then when you got it back going with the new part in, all seems well, because now you have open evaporator coils that air can circulate through. But this good fortune may be short lived if the element is shot and the coils freeze over again.

Let us know if it acts up again. Hope not. But I'm just saying.

 

Tested the element though...it read the proper amount of resistance. I'm more worried about if there was something that caused the t-stat to go bad. And the fridge has now gone through several defrost/refreeze cycles, so for now things are good and cold.

 

Oh, ok. I got your thread mixed up with another one.

I wouldn't worry about what may have made it go bad. You did not say you saw anything out of the ordinary like with wires being pinched and shorted or a wire pulled loose or anything. I'd only think more about it if the new part were to very prematurely fail.