Kenmore dehumidifier: cools, but no fan

I am having a problem with a 3 year old Kenmore humidifier, model 405.54. It seems that when the unit is plugged in, the condesner coils cool, but the fan doesn't spin to move air through the machine.

This dehumidifier has a control panel that's supposed to let you control when/how it turns on, with different modes like "Comfort", "Turbo", or a relative humidity setting. None of those buttons work anymore. Because now, the instant I plug it in, I hear a loud noise from some part of it turning on, and the only way I can turn it off is to unplug it.

From my understanding, there is a metal plain consisting of cooling coils used to condense the moisture in the air. This element gets cold, so that part is working. Next is a metal plain that gets hot. And beyond that is what looks like a fan. I feel the front of the dehumidifier get cold, but there is no air movement: the fan is not spinning.

I took the thing apart, but the fan motor seems to be closed up enough that I can't get contact on the fan's wiring (5 wires!?) to see if the fan is getting power. There are several components and sets of cable... I can take basic voltage measurements and replace fuses, but I'm not sure where to start with this.

Here is a video of it partially dissembled: https://streamable.com/py154
The buzzing noise you hear is the noise it makes when plugged in, which I'm guessing is the compressor. The silver metal area is the plain that gets cold. The copper coils get hot. The fan doesn't spin. I could get the fan motor open, but it's tapes/glued up pretty well inside, so I can't get the end ends of any cables.


Can anyone steer me in the right direction?

Thanks!

 

You need to find the capacitor..Trace the blue and brown wires from the motor.

 

That Kenmore model number you posted is incomplete.
That unit is manufactured by Guangdong Midea

If the controls/control panel isn't working.... I doubt it's a bad fan motor.

 

I see the capacitor in question. It's supposed to be 6 micro Farads, +/- 5%. I tried testing the capacitor with a multi-meter, but it always come back as "out of range." Though it seems that I can't properly test the capacitor without cutting it off of the board, according to the instructions from my Fluke multi-meter.

 

When testing a capacitor.... one leg needs to be disconnected.

 

Thank you for the ideas. While I'm happy to test external nodes with a multimeter and replace any components that are meant to disassemble, I'm going to draw the line right now at cutting into the circuitry, to check the capacitors. Basically because I don't have a soldering iron. So even if I learn something, I will have made the device unworkable.

Thanks, though.