Kenmore Refrigerator Not Cooling

[TechnicianBrian]

Model # 106.8678213, The complaint was the refrigerator section was getting warm while the freezer seemed OK. The unit had been unplugged for a couple days and when I turned the unit back on, the cooling system worked fine, but I did notice a lot of water in the condensate tray which lead me to a possible defrost problem. Removed the access panel to the defrost timer and found the timer motor was not running. So basically what happened was the unit stopped defrosting and eventually built up enough frost and ice on the evaporator to block the airflow to the refrigerator section. Once the power was removed, the unit defrosted by itself and left the water in the tray. I replaced the defrost timer so now it will defrost every 8 hours like it was designed to.


Refrigerator Defrost Timer Kit Part # 482493

[Repair-man]

Very nice, but finding water in the condensate pan does not indicate a defrost problem, rather the lack of water would be the sign. No defrost=no water




The water you saw was from unplugging the box, right?

[TechnicianBrian]

You are correct.  As I stated, the refer and been unplugged for a couple days allowing the ice and frost to melt.  It was the unusually large quantity of water in the condensate pan, and the not cooling complaint that lead me to the defrost system since the sealed system was working fine after plugging the unit back in. 

[Repair-man]

Thank you for clarifying!  This is also a good example of why folks should not unplug or turn off a refrigerator until a technician looks at it. Many of the original symptoms tend to get erased, such as frost, water, etc, and you have to start from scratch with a warm defrost terminator.