Forcing the frig into a defrost cycle may not solve this problem long term. The old fridgs had a sliding door which bled cold air from the freezer into the fresh food compartment which you simply adjusted to keep your fresh food compartment at more or less the proper temperature. This simple manually operated sliding door has now been replaced by a motor actuated sliding door that is controlled by the fresh food compartment thermostat. On Whirlpool side by side fridges, the door has, for some reason, been designed so that the sliding door itself will shear or break if the door encounters an obstruction such as ice in the sliding track. Those geniuses designed it so that the door will always fail in the CLOSED position. This means that if this door breaks, the door letting cold air from the freezer into the fresh food compartment will stay closed and not permit any cold air to enter the fresh food compartment and all your food will spoil. The stupid fridge, will continue to run and run because the thermostat in the fresh food compartment will continually call for more cold air, which is just not available due to the broken door. Eventually, the freezer coils will completely ice up and you will see frost on the outside of the panels that cover the coils. If the door is broken, defrosting the freezer will NOT result in any cooling of the fresh food compartment because the door is closed. To check, use a mirror to see if the door is open. The door is typically on the upper back corner of the fresh food compartment on the freezer side. It will have louvers on it. Using a mirror and a flashlight, you should be able to see if the door is open. If it is closed, using a small screwdriver, you should be able to move it open (unless it's iced up). If you can easily move it open with the screwdriver, the door is definitely broken. At this point you have two alternatives. One is to replace the unit and be very careful about too frequent door openings and overloading the frig with food that is warmer than room temperature. These motor controlled units are not cheap. I should know having bought three of them before getting smarter. The other alternative is to attempt to rebuild and/or repair the sliding door assembly. Dis-assembly is accomplished by carefully cutting off the styrofoam front with a box cutter or something similar. This will expose the door and motor assembly. You can either try and glue another piece of plastic where the readily identifiable broken piece was, or attempt to fabricate a whole new door from a suitable piece of plastic. In any case, finish the job by applying lots of silicone lubricant to the door and door tracks to keep it from sticking again. Simply taping on the styrofoam front is good enough till the next time. I hope this helps you with your problem.
The newest defrost feature
in modern fridges is the electronic adaptive defrost control board. has one version..to
put this adaptive defrost style of fridge into defrost, short with a small
screwdriver between L1 and test on the adaptive defrost board, wait 3 seconds
and you should hear a "click" noise from the relay and the fridge will shut off
and go through a defrost cycle. .
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I too am having this problem. Have not shorted anything due to not having a meter. If a parts layout diagram is available, would like to see it if possible. Have one from another site ... but parts are not labeled. Thanks
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