[scissorfighter]

Hello everyone! This side-by-side fridge is just over 5 years old. A couple weeks ago we discovered a puddle of water on the floor, and found that the ice in the freezer was melting. That night everything had frozen again. Just like in this post:

http://forums.partselect.com/refrige...zes-11898.html

The symptoms are very much the same as that poster, with temps going up and down at random intervals in both the freezer and fridge. However, I have gathered some additional details here that I'm hoping someone will be able to interpret for me.

First, I should note that all lights and fans appear to be working correctly at all times. It's just that the cooling is not working right.

When the cooling is NOT working, there is a noticeable cycle of electronic buzzing noise that happens every 3 minutes and 15 seconds. It sounds like an electric component is trying to kick-off the cooling cycle but can't quite do it, similar to the sound of supplying power to an electric motor while holding the shaft so it can't turn. This sound lasts for 13 seconds, then clicks off. Then the cycle repeats indefinitely, until finally it actually starts working. I was able to capture audio recordings of this cycle so you can hear it for yourself. This clip is what it sounds like when it is NOT working:



Again, this sound repeats constantly, you can hear the unit clicking on, humming, then clicking off. Fortunately, while I was making the above recording, the unit also started working! So, the clip below is what it sounds like when that cycle kicks in correctly. As you can hear, the very start of the cycle is the same electronic "Starting up" click, but this time, the rest of the process continues normally:



From this point the fridge may continue running correctly for 2 hours or 2 days before it fails again and starts the "broken cycle" over again, at which point all the food warms up again.

Also, I measured the current draw on the electrical circuit during that repeating 3:15 failure cycle. When the fridge is "idle" (lights on, fans running, but no cooling,) the unit draws .24 A / 20 W. But when that electric hum kicks in for the next 13 seconds, the draw jumps up to 10.3 A / 930 W. You can notice the flicker in the lights throughout the house.

That's about it. Any help would be much appreciated.

Thanks!

[PS Staff - Sheila]

Can you resend your videos as they others would not play.

Here is a link to your fridge model FRS26R2AW5.

It sounds like the starter-Ptc is failing.

[scissorfighter]

Yes, here are the links to the audio files again. They are not videos, just mp3 sound files.

Not working:
http://www.mile213.com/refnotworking.mp3

Working correctly:
http://www.mile213.com/refworking.mp3

Thanks!

[PS Staff - Sheila]

Both of the new links that you have sent are still tell me that the file is either damaged or corrupt so they will not play.

If the clicking is coming from the compressor area it is likely the PTC.

[scissorfighter]

That's odd that the files won't play for you. Can someone else try listening to them and see what happens? I've tried from 4 different computers at work and home and the links and audio files work fine on all of them. Sheila, do you have a different computer you can try them on? What happens if you right-click on the link and try to save the file directly on your computer, then open in manually with Windows Media Player?

[denman]

Both opened and played for me

Computer automatically opened them using Quicktime

If saved, it saved as a .mpeg and played with Widows Media Player