Westinghouse 390l cyclic defrost

Hello Mike;

My name is Peter. I am a retired field service refrigeration technician.
I was hoping LG would stop manufacturing this type of design.
You need to stay away from bottom freezers, especially those manufactured by both LG & Samsung. Cosmetically they look nice. They are high maintenance and high failure.
You are probably good with tools and quite handy. But, what you are asking is a nightmare.
Here is the design flaw; there is a separate fan for the ice maker in your fresh food section door. Ice makers belong in the freezer. There are air ports that go to the enclosed housing on your door. This is where a separate fan in your freezer blows cooling air. When you open the fresh food section of your unit and close the door, you are forcing warm air down through these cooling ports into the ice maker fan. The fan builds up condensate and freezes.
The ice maker fan is located in the back of your freeze wall on the left hand side. You can not see it. There is a square mold that has 3 screws. The fan is behind this.
To access the fan, which normally does not need to be replaced; remove the bottom freezer door. The are two screws on outside of the rail system near the door. They are holding the door into slots. Remove the screws. Lift up pulling the door out of the slots. Set the door aside. In the back on the right hand side there is a small cover plate. On the back of the cover plate is your temperature sensor. Remover the cover plate 1 screw. Pop off the cover plate. Remove the sensor and attach a string to it for later recovery. This lead is short and after removing the back cover off you will need to recover it. You will not after unscrewing the retainer screws on the back cover to fully pull it off. The ice maker fan has short leads. You will need to struggle, after removing the 3 retaining screw on the cover plate, reaching behind to pull the fan out to disconnect the connector. The connector on this fan is very short.
Lets do it the easy way, chances are the fan motor is good. Using a hair dryer blow warm air down the ports from the port feeding the ice maker cooling air. Use the hair dryer on the freezer left hand wall. Better yet, unplug your unit for 24 hours.
Next time do not purchase a bottom freezer, Amada & Kitchen Aid are low maintenance. Kenmore & GE make some nice units if you get the right model.

It is usually right under the cover that houses the temperature controls

all it does is the evap fan blows cold air from the freezer into the fridge section and returns through the bottom air vent,so if there's ice there most likely one of the doors was left open,check the freezer for frozen water droplets on packages or on the walls and shelves of the machine,if you don't see that open the freezer door,if you don't hear the fan blowing you could have a bad evap fan motor.if the fan is blowing in the freezer from the bottom remove the second draw or bin and put your hand on the back inside wall of the freezer,if there's frost or like snow on the back wall you have a defrost problem,bad defrost thermostat,defrost heater,timer or board depending on what model you have,if the fan is blowing and you don't see any problems that i talked about you could have a bad damper,on some machines there's a damper door that opens and closes to let cold air into the fridge section,if it's bad it won't open and no cold air can blow in from the freezer,if you think the door was left open,remove anything that's in the way,in the freezer side and the fridge side,shut the machine down or unplug it and with a hair dryer melt out the ice,don't keep the heat in one place for to long,you can melt the vent if it's plastic or styrofoam,after you think it's melted out start the machine and put your hand up in the left hand corner in the fridge section and see if you can feel any cold air blowing in,there could be ice up there too,next time send the model number so i can look up your model,on a side by side you'll find the tag on the right hand side wall in the fridge up near the ceiling or on the ceiling near the light.hope this helps,if you have another fridge you could move the food and just shut the fridge down with the doors open and let it melt out on it's own overnight.good luck

Hi,

Check out these tips...they can help you figure out what is going wrong withyour refrigerator and why it is not cooling

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heatman101

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Replace the defrost heater and defrost thermostat in the freezer coils.

IT IS THE DEFROST THERMO STAT REMOVE REAR COVER AND MELT ICE IT IS ROUND SILVER PART

If you only had ice buildup in one section of the evaporator you have a weak/inefficient compressor.
You need a new compressor or a new refrigerator.

it sounds like the timer is going bad.... there is a timer that runs the fridge for 6 hrs. and defrosts for 20 mins. if the contacts are pitted ,it will run for shorted periods ..... this timer can be located anywhere from behind the unit where the compressor is to inside the regrigerator compartment ...

Popeyetto, The problem is the adaptive defrost contol unit in the upper right hand of the refrigerator. You will have to remove the fresh food control cover, and undo the screws holding up the housing which is holding the defrost control unit. Follow the instructions in replacing the defrost control its a simple unplug and plug back in with new. Reattach the housing, and the control scale, then control cover. Then go to freezer compartment take out shelves and baskets, remove the interior back wall plate lower portion.To do this you may need a hair dryer to defrost the ice which sometimes holds the back wall plate secure untill it is defrosted. Once it is removed you will see the cooling coils covered in ice build upplace towels down to catch and water as you melt the ice with the blow dryer. once defrosted reassmble and then enjoy your refrig once again.

OK, usually if you see an oily substance that you are sure is not from the fridge contents it's oil from the sealed system. When a leak in the sealed system happens the refrigerant gas leaks out and the lubricating oil also leaks out. I'm afraid you may be in this situation. As the refrigerant leaks out the cooling efficientcy drops off quickly and eventually there is no cooling at all. You would have to use a refrigerant leak detector "sniffer" to locate the leak and then have a certified company repair the unit. Sadly, the cost to do a compressor replacement and leak repair is 2/3's or more the cost of a new fridge...