COMPRESSOR WILL FREEZE A CYCLE OR 2 THEN STOP WORKING

Hello Danie;

My name is Peter. I am a retired field service refrigeration technician.

The normal setting for a freezer is -2 to +2 degrees F., and the normal setting for the fresh food section is +35 to +40 degrees F.

You only have one source of cooling and that is your freezer. With the settings that you have, you are asking your unit to do what it is not designed to do.

The ice maker is struggling because if it is a cast steel ice cube mold, the heater beneath it is not designed for the current to break the ice cubes free @ -18 degrees F., or if you have a plastic flex ice cube mold it is too ridged to flex enough to break the ice cubes free. Normally your ice maker should dump 8-10 times in a 24 hour period.

A note on food storage. Make sure you do not overload your freezer of fresh food section to the point where food product extends beyond the edge of the shelves.

90% of ice maker problems are water related. Sounds like water may be continually seeping in from the inlet water valve (normal thing to do if the water level is low). This will not allow the water to get down to freezing temperature. You have to identify the reason that water is constantly running in. It's probably "leaking" out at the dump valve. Or does that unit have a float valve that may be leaking. Check your drain to see if water is leaking out during the freeze cycle.

chattering relay can cause compressor to over heat. replace that first and see if that does not resolve your issue.

float switch is stuck in the "down" position. The unit goes thru a fill cycle and after 1 minute, the board "Looks" at the float swith to "see" if the sump is full. If float is stuck down, it tells the board that the unit does not have enough water and stays in the fill cycle. The compressor will not come on as long as the machine "thinks" there is not enough water. let me know if I can help further

On Hoshi ice maker, if coils are HOT, it is passing hot gas from compressor into the lines. After the defrost of the first cycle, after this cubes are completely cleared from the plates, the "Hot Gas Valve" should close and the freeze cycle should start over. It sounds that the valve is sticking open and not stopping the hot gas from entering. Look there first.

this indicates that the backup freeze timer terminated the freeze cycle. Stayed in freeze cycle 60 minutes. Causes can be: stuck float switch, water valve leaking incoming water, and the more extreme can be hot gas valve leaking, txv not feed properly, low refrigerant charge, or bad compressor. Usually one of the first 2 items are the root cause.

Sounds like the relay contacts are staying open.

Here's my thoughts, I hope it helps. I'm going on foggy memory here, so I may not be entirely correct.
I worked on something like this a few years ago. The icemold (plate) is vertical, there is a circulating pump that runs water over the mold, with the water freezing as it passes. The sealed system is a heat-pump scheme, it freezes the mold to form the cubes, and reverses to heat for release. And when it works, it makes ice fast. It runs constantly until the ice hopper is detected to be full. (there should be a bail to detect the ice level) The system will not run in the event that it thinks the hopper is full (bail up) but the pump motor runs continuous to avoid it freezing. There is probably either a false detection of "full" or there may be a leak in the sealed system and the system will therefore not run.

I would not change the pump. If it runs for 3-5 minutes and stops, it has to be a control. The control board runs the freeze cycle for the first 5 minutes. This prevent "Short Cycling" of the freeze cycle. The board looks at the float after the first 5 minutes for the proper water level but should not effect the pump. If the pump does not run in the wash mode, check out the "Power/ Wash" switch. I would start there before I go spending hundreds on pump motor or control board. You may be able to get by on a $20 fix! Do this and get back to me. We will get it going.

Good Luck

3 beeps. hoshizaki replacing txv