# Kenmore Side X Side not working



## wmtelsr1 (Jul 29, 2010)

My daughter's kenmore (whirlepool) stopped working lites and fan under unit working. Not freezing or cooling food. I found the start-dev burnt inside, I tested the compressor pin-outs open to ground and 4.6 ohms, 11.1ohms, 7.1 ohms no shorts. Is it possible the compressor is still good? how does the state-dev  work? what was the metal looking disk for?



Any help would be great


----------



## Nestor_Kelebay (Jul 31, 2010)

Wmtelsr1:

The most common cause of a fridge suddenly going on strike is simply a stuck defrost timer.

Check with any appliance parts shop to see if your fridge has a mechanical defrost timer and where it is located inside the fridge.

Basically, the reason why your side by side fridge doesn't need to be defrosted like the old fridges is because it defrosts itself.  It has a timer that runs on electricity, and every 10 to 24 hours, this timer diverts electric power from the fan and compressor to the defrost heater.  The defrost heater melts the frost off the evaporator coils.  Once all the frost is off the evaporator coils, the temperature in the vicinity of the evaporator coils rises quickly, and the defrost thermostat shuts off power to the defrost heater to prevent damage to the plastic and styrofoam parts around the evaporator coil.

Then, the fridge just stays in a coma until the defrost cycle is over, and the defrost timer diverts electrical power back to the compressor and evaporator fan.  At that time, the fridge regains conciousness, and starts cooling again.

The problem is that sometimes the defrost timer will stick in defrost mode, so the fridge appears to have stopped operating completely, and with no warning that it's going to stop.

If you can locate the defrost timer, then you should find a shaft sticking out of it somewhere.  That shaft will be designed to be turned in one direction only with a screw driver.  Turning that shaft forward will advance the defrost timer and put it back into operating mode.  Turning the shaft backward can wreck the defrost timer.

I'd check with your local appliance parts shop and find out a) if your side-by-side has a defrost timer or if that job is done electronically on circuit boards.  If you do have a defrost timer, it'd be the prime suspect in my view, and you should advance the timer shaft to see if the fridge comes back to life when you do.  If it does, you simply need to replace the defrost timer.


----------



## woodchuck (Jul 31, 2010)

You said the starter relay was burnt. Did you replace it. Lots of times that's the only problem. It protects the compressor from overload also.


----------



## wmtelsr1 (Jul 31, 2010)

Thank you for your answers, I have ordered the start up dev, named such by Kenmore. It had a waffer that was chared and brooken. When it get's here I will follow up.


----------



## Nestor_Kelebay (Aug 1, 2010)

Your compressor should still be good.  When you were testing the resistance between the three electrical connections to the compressor, you were actually measuring the resistance of the start winding in the compressor motor, the run winding in the compressor motor, and the start and run winding in series.  The fact that your measured resistances of 4.6 and 7.1 ohms add up to very close to the third measured resistance of 11.1 ohms means that there are no shorts or an open circuit in your compressor motor, so it should still be OK.

The start relay on a refrigerator compressor motor simply cuts out the start winding once the motor has come up to speed.  Years ago the way this was done was by connecting the coil in the start relay in series with the run winding of the compressor motor.  When the compressor first started, the draw of current through the run winding of the compressor motor was high, and so there was high current through the relay's coil, and the magnetism generated by the relay's coil was enough to overcome the force of a spring and keep the start winding in the circuit.  As the motor came up to speed, the current through the compressor motor's run winding diminished, and the result was that the current in the relay coil also diminished, resulting in the magnetism of the relay coil dropping and the spring pressure breaking the electrical connection to the start winding in the compressor motor.  Thereafter, the compressor motor would continue to run on the run winding with the start winding disengaged.  The "start device" you've ordered does exactly the same thing, but might not do it in the same way.

I found this web page on replacing the start relay on a Whirlpool/Kenmore side-by-side:
[FIXED] How to replace a (Whirlpool/Kenmore Model 106) Refrigerator Start Relay - ApplianceBlog.com - Appliance Repair Forums


----------



## wmtelsr1 (Aug 2, 2010)

Nestor,
Thank you for the link to the website for the kenmore repair. The pic's that guy used were of our frig (only kidding just looks the same). This hleped along with your comments thank you very very much


Will


----------

