 Trouble Diagnosing Problem, Fridge not cooling enough, freezer good Brand: Magic Chef Model Number: RB194P Age: 5 - 10 years
The other day I opened the refrigerator part, and it felt pretty warm in there. What I believe was actually occuring was there was JUST enough air flow getting in there to keep things somewhat cool, but the milk was not too cold (good indicator fluid of how cold it is since milk tastes like crap when it's not ice cold lol), and the shelving and general temp in the fridge felt warm to the feel. The food was still chillled.
Anyways, I took the fridge, turned it over, cleaned the heck out of it with compressed air. It was pretty dirty. Also I let it sit overnight, had some decent amount of water in the drain pan the next day, not TOO bad though.
So I've been suspecting maybe a defrost timer problem, not so much a block of ice in between the freezer and fridge. I can't seem to really narrow things down. The freezer section works wonderfully, but now I have the freezer turned all the way down to 2 (1-9, 9 is coldest) and the fridge part at about 4 (1-9 9 being coldest) and the fridge doesn't really stop working. I'm wondering if the defrost is always on or something, combating the compressor trying to cool the fridge? It seems like the fridge is almost always running except for when the timer tells it to go into defrost mode.
I just don't know which thing it could be. Right now it feels like the shelving and general temp in the fridge is cool, but I also have the freezer coldness turned to one of the warmer settings which allows most air to flow to the fridge, and yet the fridge seems like it's running too much.
Is anyone familiar with the model I have? RB194P. If anyone has the repair manual, could they send to me? I wanted to take a look at the evaporator fan,a nd there's a panel in the freezer which looks like it's held by 1 screw, but it won't come out afte rtaking the screw out. Maybe there's some clip in the freezer floor? I dont' see a way to take the freezer apart at all. I have the wire schematics on the back of the appliance, and that's it, nothing about repair or troubleshooting.
So currently, I have the defrost timer out of it. The part number is S-68233-2 (LR8376). I read I think on this site to check continuity/infinity between terminals with a multimeter.
I did the following:
With the defrost timer NOT CLICKED (not in defrost mode): Pins 1 and 4 give me continuity, the other combinations give me infinity. When i click the defrost timer to defrost mode, I get continuity from pins 1 and 2, and infinity everywhere else. Is this thing bad? Could it be telling the fridge to constantly stay in defrost, thereby fighting the cooling? Again, freezer works great.
ANy help would be great! I dont' want to go out spending money on parts at random when nothing is wrong with them.
One other thing I did before pulling the defrost timer, I kept turning down the fridge setting (meaning, lowering the number so it goes to a warmer setting), and around 1 or 2, the fridge would turn off. So it appears that the fridge is really struggling to get back up to beyond 3 or 4.
If looking at the defrost timer on the side that you can turn the timer, from left to right the pins are labeled 2, 1, 4, 3.
Other things to note are the condensor fan is running, evaporator fan is running, getting good air flow in the freezer...getting SOME air through the temperature control that usually runs down to the veggie drawers, but if anyone's familiar with this model, in the roof of the fridge part, in the middle, there's a little grate there that I would think air might come through, but nothing does. I never noticed before if air usually comes through that grate or not.
ANY! help would be appreciated. Anyone have the repair manual? I do'nt know how this damn thing comes apart.
Last edited by Firehawk734 : 07-16-2008 at 02:56 AM.
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