Fridge "runs" constantly

DURING Summer time you will find fridges run longer. When the last time you had the condensor cleaned. Pull the fridge our and remove rear cover at the base. Make sure your fridge is unplugged. Use a brush and vacuum to clean the lint. watch for condensor motor and clean between coils.

FRIDGE COILS or door walls SEEM VERY HOT:

The condenser coils do get hot. They can even be to hot to comfortably touch and this is normal.

The refrigerator should not run constantly but shut off with each defrost cycle.

Running constantly and never cycling off can indicate a cooling problem.

One thing to try is to wait till it has been running a few minutes then open the door and turn your cycling thermostat towards the off position. It should cycle off before getting to the off position on the dial.

If it does not cycle off then it's not getting cold enough to satisfy the thermostat. This is likely the reason the refrigerator runs all the time.

A thermometer in a glass of water can be used to check the temperatures in the refrigerator section.

You can check that all fans are running.

the reason the outer side of the door seal area is getting hot is the compressor is over heating, probably the condenser fan motor to your compressor is bad.
It should be a little warm but not hot. they don't use heaters anymore ( some older models still use heaters) around the doors, instead they use the condenser coils to remove condensation and moister, you might want to check your condenser coils on the bottom or back of fridge to see if they need cleaning
If the condenser coils/condenser fan are all plugged up they need cleaning and/or the condenser may fail or has failed..

The ones that use an electric heater will have an "energy saver" switch that will turn it off.: God is the reason I give you free advice so God is good!



Refrigeration System Basics Chapter 1

CHECK THE CONDENSER COILS UNDER THE UNIT. THEY PROBABLY ARE DIRTY AND CANT REJECT THE HEAT.

Your fridge is cooled by the freezer, the thermostat is within the Fridge to tell it to shut off, you might have a bad fan or a build up of frost where the air is sent to the fridge, check where air goes to the fridge when it's running, if you don't feel air flow then something is up, best thing you can do is take everything out and allow the fridge to defrost, at leat 24hrs. then see what happens, if you don't feel air flow after the defrost then you fan is shot and you'll need to replace it.

Replace the fan. The strip has a freon line running behind it, and when it is hot, this tells us that you have a dirty condensor, bad condensor fan motor, bad evaporator fan motor, defrost problem, or a freon system problem. When you say your fan is barely moving, I am assuming this is your condensor fan motor, which sucks air through the hot freon lines in the condensor coils, and cools the freon off. If it is barely moving, it can't cool the freon. In some brands a slow moving condensor fan can be caused by a bad main control board. Good Luck, Appliance Specialists

The condensor fan motor is probably not running. The condensor fan keeps the compresor cooled, if the compresor gets to hot, it shuts down until it cools off and tuns back on, but will not keep temp. Heat exchange lines go in the panel between the doors to serve as a heater so the doors dont freeze shut, but when the compresor overheats, so do those lines. That would be why that panel gets so hot. Both problems will be resolved with a new condensor fan motor ( located by the compresor).

On A/C units, there is a low voltage line that leads to a contactor, which engages to close the high voltage circuit to the condensor unit. Over time, the accual contacts in the contactor can weld themselves together. Try shutting off your furnace breaker but leaving on the one for the outside condensor unit. If it still runs, your contactor probably needs replaced. Contact a licensed electrician or HVAC contractor and tell them you think your contactor is in need of replacement. Is a fairly simple and quick replace, but the contactor itself is not cheap.

Probably excessive ice in the condensor. Likely defrost thermostat or defrost heater problem.

What happens is excessive ice keeps airflow from the refrigerator part of the unit.

sounds like a bad thermostat,that tells unit when to kick on and off.

It's not too difficult to remove the ice maker. A few screws and the unit will unplug from the fridge. Then you can see why the bar is not turning it off. If it's really broken, check pcappliance.com for parts or a replacement unit. Meanwhile the fridge can keep on working, and you can use trays to make ice.