refrigerator HELP
 

Our refrigerator died three days ago - it was very old. Fortunately, we had a "spare" refrigerator in the garage from when we moved that was fairly new yet was not being used. I plugged in the spare and IT WORKED!!

We used the spare one in the garage for three days (and it worked perfectly)until my brother-in-law could help me move it upstairs to the kitchen . Once we got it upstairs, we plugged it back in and it still worked. As we were putting all the food back in, it stopped running. The lights were still on and the breaker had not tripped - it just stopped running.

Any ideas before we start shopping?

Frigidaire FRS22ZRF

Buy a new fridge.

The new ones are better built and are WAY more energy efficient.

I recomend getting a fridge at Sears. But I may be a little bias, since I currently work at one :)

Definitely buy a new fridge. Fridges aren't the kind of thing you can check for viruses. Our microwave also died last week if it's any consolation and, in a similar manner to your fridge. It suddently stopped heating food but the interior light still worked and it still made the familiar microwave noise.

Yeah...buy a new fridge. Make sure it's energy efficient!

Here's how it played out.

1) Grancey researched on the internet about "moving refrigerators" and she discovered that very often the refrigerant oil will travel away from its "home" during the moving process and the compressor might overheat if you plug it in right away. Therefore, you should just let it sit for several hours before plugging it in to allow the refrigerant oil to drip back down into place. We did that, allowing it to sit overnight.

2) In the meantime we bought one of those little dorm fridges at Wal-Mart to put our stuff in until we can figure out if the problem fixes itself.

3) I plugged the fridge in this morning when I woke up and VOILA it kicked on and has been running perfectly all day. I'll take the dorm fridge to work this week and set it up there.


You guys really suck at handy-man advice, you know that? ;) :lol: :D :p

I was going to tell you about the letting it stand still for a while stuff, because my folks just bought new fridges and the delivery guy told us exactly that. But since you figured it out yourself, all I can do is stick out my tongue to the others. :p Nyah!

Yeah, I used to live in this apartement and my fridge had a bad leak. The management didnt want to replace it though. My brother came over and flipped it upside down for a while. Something about the refrigerent coolant running out to other places. He flipped it back over and Viola! It was officially broken, and I got a beautiful new fridge! It even had room in the doors for milk juggs=) I woulda mentioned it, but I didnt because I couldnt tell you all the technical mumbo jumbo.

In addition to the oil being allowed to resettle into the compressor sump, there's also the possibility that it "stopped working" because the auto-defrost timer said it was time to cycle. The AD timer shuts down the compressor and energizes a heating element to rid the freezer compartment of frost, then turns that element off and the compressor back on.

Convert the dorm fridge into a kegerator.

I would buy a new fridge with an extended warranty. My experience with refrigerators is that they work for years UNLESS you relocate them. It seems like all the new appliances are designed to work until the manufacters warranty runs out.

the oil in the compressor is pretty thick stuff, if your compressor cycled on when the oil was not there (due to the move) there could be some damage to the compressor, and its days may be numbered, lubrication and all. if it is an autodefrost issue, this seems strange?

Part of managing residential rentals means moving lots of refrigerators. Since the person at the receiving end rarely has the patience to leave them unplugged overnight, something you learn early is to keep them upright at all times. I even get paranoid if a short person grabs the handtruck. :)

If that frig is more then a few years old you should really get a new one anyway. save yourself money in the long run. The new refrigerators take a whole lot less energy to run then the ones made just a few years ago. So i still think you should just get a new one. But if thats not a option consider running a extension cord to your neighbors house to plug it in =)