I have a Hotpoint refrigerator that I bought from the previous home owner, it is now 6 years old. About a year ago, the motor went from humming to almost a clangy sound, at times. Now it won't run, period. I can leave the freezer door open for 20 minutes and it still will not run. Now every 2 weeks or so, I must unplug my fridge for a day to defrost the ice around the evaporator coil. I have been told by co-workers that it could be my thermostat, but that wouldn't explain the clangy noise I use to hear when it was running, would it? I don't want to have to invest in a new refigerator if at all possible. Am I in luck?
The fan in the freezer starts to run then shuts off repeatedly. If it does start and run it makes a howling sound like whoo-whoo-whoo. Is it the motor or some control?
Igoinsane67, If you are up to doing some tests I think you might be alright. One of your issues sounds like a defrost problem. The defrost heaters probably have failed. This is quite common on these models. The clunking you are hearing from the compresser is probably a broken valve spring and the valve hammers against the inside of the compresser when it shuts off. This is more annoying than trouble. Get youself a jumper wire with some alligator clips attached to the ends. On the back of the refer, under a metal panel there is a motherboard. In the lower left hand corner of the board you will see a 3 pronged blue harness. Here the board should be marked comp. Defr. Line. First test the compressor by taking the jumer wire and jump line to compresser. This will send 120 volts directly to the compresser and it should start and run. Unplug the refer first then attach the jumper and plug the refer back in for this test. Next test the heaters. Take the jumper and jump line to defr. This is sending 120 volts to the heaters. On the inside of the refer, remove the evaporator cover. The heater should be glowing. If not you probably have bad heaters. Your part number for the heater is WR51X10055. Again unplug the refer before jumping the terminals so you don't arch. You can leave the harness on but pulled down a little to get the clips on. Catriver..post back.
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Being the holidays and being hectic around here I haven't got a chance to try your solution. I'm hoping early this week I can. I'm sure I'll need to unplug the refer this week to defrost it.
After I unplugged the refrigerator and took off the back lower panel, I was cleaning the dust off with a vaccuum and noticed that the fan had dog hair wrapped around the stem. After I cleaned that off, everything started to work. I clean the coils on the bottom of the refrig but never thought about taking the back off. I would not have either unless I received your info. and I thank you very much.
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