refridgerator repair question

[Tom Godley]

I have an Amana side by side cabinet depth refrigerator that is about 10 years old- it is acting a little strange. It has an electronic touch pad on the front outside of the unit --located on the strip between the doors. I believe it is just a modified (less depth) standard unit of the day that Amana slapped stainless panels on and added the controls to make it look special.


The unit seemed a little cold a few weeks ago but yesterday I noticed that the compressor was running more than I remember . Today the refrigerator section is not as cold as it should be and the compressor is still running.

Looking it over I could hear the fans running on both sides but no air was coming out on the fridge side. Taking the cover off of the inside fridge side vent I noticed what is obviously a door for allowing cold air in -- when I manually pushed on it and opened it plenty of cold air came out.

The control for this door looks to be a pin that extends from a cylinder when it is heated by a coil -- This coil is controlled by a small box sitting next to it (two wires) with an electronic thermostat. The coil is warm -- so I am thinking that the control is working but that this bimetal door motor (for lack of a better term) is stuck or broken.

Sorry for the long post -- but I am away Monday and most of Tuesday -- and as luck would have it many coming on Wednesday for T day and beyond. Always the way --two years ago my hot water heater went on Thanksgiving morning!!

Figured a would ask if any experts are lurking - anybody know how these things work?

[Ken Fitzgerald]

Tom,

Based on your descrition, the coil with the pin coming out of it is a solenoid or relay. Most solenoids, when power is applied to them, they will pull that pin further inside.

A solenoid works by passing current through the coil. This creates a magnetic field and pulls the shaft into the solenoid body. If the cylinder/solenoid coil is warm then current is passing through it and that's why it's warm.

Disconnect power to the refrigerator momentarily and see if you can gently pull the pin or shaft out slightly. Be gentle as you really don't want to pull it all the way out. What you are trying to do is determine if it is all the way in........or is it out and jammed due to corrosion...gunk....or rust.

With power applied you could also take a screwdriver and put it near the solenoid coil and see if you feel a magnetic attraction.

It wouldn't surprise me if the pin/shaft of the solenoid is bound up and not moving into the body and thus the door isn't moving.

[Ken Fitzgerald]

Tom,

It is possible that the solenoid pushes and pulls on that door.

It is also possible that the door is spring-loaded and the solenoid only pulls the door to the "other" position.

It sounds like the door is stuck.

[Tom Godley]

Ken -- the door does have a small spring attached to it -- it looks to be operating properly.

I do not believe that it is a solenoid -- as I am familiar with them -- at least the typical ones.


The pin I am speaking of is plastic -- and all it does is push on the door to open it. It is not attached to the door. The cylinder has what looks to be a heating coil around it -- maybe four times around. The coil gets hot when I put my hand to warm the thermostat and fool the control - so I think that the control must be working.

This thing looks to be designed to open and close slowly. The whole contraption is mostly plastic and looking at it you wonder how it lasted it this long. The door is very small about the size of the end of a pack of cigarettes

Back outside to my leaves :(

[Ken Fitzgerald]

Tom,

Based on this most recent description, I'll agree. There is probably a bimetal spring inside the coil looking device. As the coil is heated, the bi-metal spring expands and pushes the pin and moves the door.

[Tom Godley]

The darn door started to work and the fridge is much colder -- it still only opens about 1/3 of the way -- I think it must have been hanging up inside somehow as I did not do anything to the actual temp sensing portion of the unit.

For $60.00 I can order another one. To be on the safe side I think I will order it another part that is mentioned all over the place when I googled the model number. I'm sure this other part will fail next week if I do not replace it now!