Mini Wine Fridge Buzz, No Display, No Cooling (Frigidaire 8 Bottle)

I messed up I think. My mini 8-bottle countertop frigidaire wine fridge wasn't cooling so I pulled it out and realized the back mesh and inside the fan were coated in dust.

Removing the dust seemed to fix the cooling but then I decided to take it a step further, removed the back panel, wiped the plastic inside compressor fan with a damp cloth (not soaking just damp) and blew some compressed air in there to kick out the dust.

Reassembled and now, the fridge kicks on for a second (display and all) when I plug it in, but then within 1-2 seconds the display goes dead, it emits a small buzzing noise, and the fan runs but nothing else.

It's almost as if something is shorting out but I have no idea.

Anything I can try before I have to junk it? It was working great after clearing the dust, I just got too enthusiastic in cleaning out the insides and I suppose touched something that was delicate.

Much thanks for any advice!

B.

 

I can't see a cleaning or blowing air causing any problems.
Is the control board back there ?
A picture or two may help..... otherwise we'd just be guessing.


http://www.doityourself.com/forum/el...-pictures.html

 

So silly of me to not have included photos.





First pic is everything inside.

Second pic is a closeup of the top left corner. I saw a small spark at the outlet when I plugged in the fridge after cleaning it (remember there is no off switch so it kicked right back on). I'm wondering if something surged and fried something on the board?

The buzzing seems to be coming from the board in the upper left area, there is a green and red light on the board. The red light is dim and barely flickering and that also seems to be the source of the buzz sound. The fan does spin when I plug it in (there is no on-off switch so the plug is the power).

I plugged it in again, and now the display doesn't come on at all and the buzzing is instant (like it got even worse or finished frying whatever was close to frying when it went bad).

That's what I get for taking the back plate off to try and get more of the dust out I guess.

 

Thanks for the pics.

Actually pretty sophisticated for what it is. The right half of the board is the AC to DC conversion stages and the left side is the logic stages. The LEDs not coming on are illustrating a problem in the AC>DC side of the board.

Since the unit runs on DC there must not be a compressor. It uses a thermal junction plate and fans to do the cooling.

That board could be serviced as the conversion stages are used in many devices but there aren't many service places that will troubleshoot down to board level.

Can you post the model number of the fridge.

 

Yes sir, and thanks for sticking with me.

It's ironic - The thing ran for 5 years straight without cleaning it or anything, as soon as I removed the back to clean out the inside, it died. Delicate I guess. I didn't even move it off the counter where it was sitting, just sort of delicately slid it out. I guess it was just its time and the sure of the unplug/replug did it in? (I don't think I'd unplugged it in 2 years).

Model is the Frigidaire LFWC08T5LB. Lowes sells it for around $75 so it's not going to be worth repairing, I just hate to waste something that probably just has a very small thing wrong with it on the board -- Wish I knew more about circuit board repair.

Shop Frigidaire 8-Bottle Black Wine Chiller at Lowes.com

I can post a video if it helps further? Getting the board out also looks pretty easy. Remove the cables and a couple screws and it should come right out.

 

That board on the right is probably nothing more than a 10A 12vdc inverter power supply.

I read some interesting items about that unit online. I read instructions on how cleaning that exact cooler helps the compressor to run better. I read about the self defrost feature.

That is a thermoelectric unit. Basically no moving parts other than fans. No compressor. No defrost. The fans keep the heat transfer fins cool.

I didn't realize they were so inexpensive. I saw several on eBay for under $50.

 

Thanks, I found some interesting threads about it too just now. Seems the board is common among the cheap units, they also seem to have a pretty high fail rate. One thread had folks replacing every capacitor on the board to fix it.

Repair thermoelectric cooler

Looks like I just jolted it one too many times by unplugging it to clean it, unfortunately. Doubt there is much of a fix without just junking it and buying a new one.