Situation:
Bottom Freezer Whirlpool Fridge GX5FHDXVY010
The evaporator keeps freezing up solid, no ice on food or other stuff - no indication of warm air leak. It takes anywhere from a couple weeks to a couple months to freeze up solid.
Did a forced defrost cycle from the control panel, no indication of defrost.
Tore it apart and replaced the harness, which includes the defrost wiring and the coil temp sensor (a.k.a defrost thermostat I believe).
Still doesnt work. Even on forced defrost I can put my hand on the defroster and it doesnt warm up at all.
Checked defroster resistance - 35 ohms which is in the normal range.
What do I do now? Control board? I can't figure out where else in the system the problem would be.
Can you measure the freon on the unit? Any chance its low on gas?
I can't measure. It's possibly low, but the defrost isn't coming on so those problems would be unrelated no?
I realized after posting that putting my hand on it won't work because the freezer compartment has already warmed up so the thermostat will hold the circuit open. I buttoned everything back up and I'm waiting for it to cool.
I found the control board does have a diagnostic that can test if the defroster circuit is closed, but I just need to wait for it to get down in temp first.
ProDarwin said:
I found the control board does have a diagnostic that can test if the defroster circuit is closed, but I just need to wait for it to get down in temp first.
The board diagnostic indicates a closed circuit now. I hope that means it works!
wae
PowerDork
3/27/23 9:58 a.m.
My parents have this ridiculous fridge in their kitchen which will occasionally start making a noise from when the icing builds up to the point where it starts contacting the fan blades. Their solution is to turn the fridge off for a little while, let it melt, and then kick it back on. They've got little "ON" and "OFF" signs and timers and all sorts of stuff. It's been that way for at least 5 years, so it's not an elegant solution, nor is it really a "fix", but it is a potential workaround.
Slippery said:
Can you measure the freon on the unit? Any chance its low on gas?
+1 to this, unfortunately. Speaking from car experience, but the only time I've had an evaporator ice up like that is when the system was low on refrigerant. Good luck.
