Spent 6 hours diagnosing a fridge that just needed a $5 start relay

I pulled my hair out over a Samsung fridge that was cycling on and off randomly, checked every sensor and board before noticing a cracked start relay hiding behind the compressor. Has anyone else wasted a whole day on something this simple?

2 comments

Log in to join the discussion

Log In

2 Comments

sandra7152mo ago

Oh, you are not alone on this one. My old Whirlpool washer started acting up and I spent an entire Saturday checking the lid switch, the control board, even the drainage pump. Turned out to be a stuck button on the timer dial that cost maybe two dollars. Felt pretty silly standing there with a multimeter and a service manual. Always the little parts that get you.

6

johnson.ryan2mo ago

Oh, that sounds about right. Actually, I gotta say you were probably on the right track with checking the lid switch first, that is one of the most common things to go bad on those old Whirlpools. But here's the thing, that stuck button on the timer dial, that is actually kind of a known issue with certain model years. I think you might have the wrong year though, the early 2000s ones had a different timer assembly where the buttons are all individual switches, not like a single circuit board thing. So you were probably checking the wrong part of the machine if it was from around 2004. Still, two bucks ain't bad for a fix, beats shelling out for a whole new machine.

2