Frigdaire Refrigerator Crazy Problem

[ryan111]

First off I have repaired this Frigidaire FRS26LF8CW1 refrigerator I it just mind boggled me so much I want an explanation.


The refrigerator wasn’t cooling and when I checked it the evaporator fan wasn’t running. So I check voltage on the fan (with it sill connected) and got 120V, bad fan correct. Wrong, I ordered the fan (I don’t stock many frigedaire parts) went back and installed the fan. Still will not run, so I got my meter back out and checked voltage sill 120V.

The compressor was running so that ruled out a house-wiring problem. This is a simple 120V fan with only two wires. I was also thinking that my meter may be going crazy so I tested it in the wall plug and got the same reading as when I put it on the fan.

So I took the fan out and directly plugged it into a wall plug and it ran like crazy. Looking at the wiring diagram the main board (adaptive defrost control) is the only thing it could be.

This gets even better. The older man that works for us (basically retired) with 40 years appliance repair experience said he didn’t believe me so he wanted to go with me when I put the main board on.

So when we went back just to prove I wasn’t crazy I put the fan in without replacing the main board. The fan didn’t move, so I check voltage across it and got over 250V. I had the meter on the 250V scale and it pegged the needle. At first I thought I had accidentally set the meter on ohms but that wasn’t the case. Again thinking my meter was crazy I tested voltage in a wall plug and got 120V. Mind you the motor isn’t even attempting to run.

Replaced the main board and the fan took off and the voltage across it is now 120V. This thing blew my mind. I though I knew something about appliance repair.

Has anyone seen thing heard of this or know what was going on. Obviously the main board was bad.


Evaporator Fan Motor Part # 5303918549





Control Board Part 5303918476

[AJ]

Interesting, can't say I have ever run into such a problem.

Anyone else seen this?

[ryan111]

Sometimes we just got to admit we got whipped lol. 

[theoldstoveguy]

Open neutral in circuit will do that, your meter will read voltage but when current draw actually goes through it will not run. You can read 120v 240v. I have seen it 5-6 times over 30 years. First one was a pain ! After that you apply a load to the circuit and confirm. Any fan would work to check it. I have seen wires crimped at the factory and meter would say continuity and voltage, but when load was applied it would not work. Seen on dryers,refrigerators and washers. All different manufacturers

[ryan111]

I have seen that a few times too but typically when it has a load the voltage will drop to 0 but...

The motor was pluged in when I was testing voltage and I was testing right across the motor terminals.

[whirlpooltech]

Can't say that I have ever run into anything like that.

[ryan111]

Well, I guess this answers what I was trying to figure out. I mainly wanted to know if this was a common thing for this model with this type of adaptive-defrost-control. I don’t work on Frigidaire as much as other models.

What got me the most was the fact that the voltage was so high when I went back the last time. I don’t even know how much voltage was there because it pegged the needle like it would if you had the meter set to 60V and put 120V across it and it was set on 250V scale. I wish I would have set it on 600V scale and tested it again. All I know is there was something weird going on with that board.

[RegUS_PatOff]

try a different meter...

and/or digital

[ryan111]

I don’t think there is anything wrong with my meter. I have been using it for two weeks since then and I have also check it out a few times just to be sure.

As long as I can still get an analog meter I will never use a digital meter regularly. I do keep a digital one on the truck because I like the use it to test low voltage things, especially DC voltage. Other than that I take my analog meter any day.