My fridge died
 

I guess they don't make them like they used to.
I can't remember my parents ever replacing their refrigerator. As far as I know, it was there when I was born, moved with us in 1975, and was still there and working when my mother sold the house in 1988 and moved into a condo. So that's at least 26 years for that one.
She bought a new one when she moved to the condo, and that same fridge was there after she passed and I sold the condo in 2013. That's 25 years on that one.
I moved into my first house that I wasn't renting and living with roommates in 1991, bought a new fridge. I didn't sell that house right away when I moved into the new one, sold it in 2015, same fridge, still worked, the couple who bought the house wanted it so it went with the house, 24 years and still going strong.
I bought the latest one in late 2011, and it crapped out last night. So not even 7 years.

Now if some other appliance dies, you can usually go a few days without it, like a stove or microwave or washer or dryer, but a furnace or refrigerator, you pretty much have to have one.
It's actually cold enough here that I can move some stuff from the fridge to the garage, and maybe put some frozen stuff in the back garage, Or I can go buy a couple blocks of ice and turn it into an old fashioned ice box, I don't know what I'm going to do yet.

Looks like it's the main control board that died, looks like the fastest economical thing to do is buy a refurbished board online, overnight it, and then send my old board back as a core. It probably only has a bad cap on it, but I'm not any good at troubleshooting components, and with no Radio Shack I don't even know where I could get one in town. Of course if it's not the board, then what?

If you have a meter I'd check the power supply. "generally" you can find where the power supply connects to the main board and the proper voltage should be printed right next to the connector on the main board.

As far as the fridge part of things you may consider doing a 'test drive' or a 'poor man's rental' of a dorm/apartment fridge at your local home depot.

My folks' fancy Samsung French door fridge just died after six years. I got the same fridge two years ago and have already had to replace one of the cheapo plastic door flapper hinges. The one before it made it six years before the board died and it wasn't cost effective to try to find a new one, which could take weeks.

I just went through buying a new fridge. Luckily the old one sort of worked so it wasn't a rush. Reading through the reviews is worthless. 50% say every fridge is great, 50% say they are crap. It's a crapshoot these days. Bought the extended warranty so at least it will be fixed for 5 years.

Doesn't built in obsolescence make sense from a manufacturer's view point? It's been trending more in that direction for decades, so why should refrigerators be any different. My family had an "ice box" until 1950 when we got a Gibson refrigerator. I don't remember when my parents finally replaced it, but it was maybe toward the '80s. Having something last for a more or less determined period of time means more business for the company making it. There are some areas where competition has seemed to make a difference though. Cars are one big example.

Get on the Internet and you can probably figure out how to diagnose the problem. There's tons of information out there on appliance repairs.

What are the symptoms?

Last night, just as I was about to go to bed, I could hear a whirring like the ice maker was moving, then it stopped, but it cycled way faster than normal. I also noticed when the whirring stopped the light above the "water" button went off. A couple times when it cycled you could hear the compressor start, but it only ran a couple of seconds, so I'm pretty sure it's not the compressor motor or the start capacitor. I went downstairs and shut off the breaker for the fridge for about a minute, and then turned it on again. After that it didn't cycle anymore, but pressing any button on the display would result in the display lighting up in a checkered pattern. Googling that came back with the main board going out. If you open the door the light still goes on, at least that isn't computer controlled. Looks like full retail on the board is about $325, there's a couple places on the web and eBay who have refurbished boards for under $100. I think that's the way I'm going to go, just need to call or email Monday and make sure they really have a board in stock and will overnight it. Or I could go with standard shipping from the place in Ohio, they're only two days away typically and I don't think the Christmas rush is on yet, although Cyber Monday might screw that up.

Sounds like you're on it and probably don't need my input, but what the heck, if it was me I would order the board, and in the interim unplug everything that goes to the ice maker, any water dispenser, basically anything that doesn't have to be on to keep the food cold.
My thinking:
My 'fridge has a bunch of crap in the door, but the temp control is inside on the frame. I'm assuming the cooling system is old fashioned, without a computer between the the thermostat and the compressor relay. Just a guess, but some of the microprocessor controlled crap may be shutting the whole fridge down because some extraneous doohicky is on the fritz. Hence, I would unplug everything that goes to the ice maker, any water dispenser, basically anything that doesn't have to be on and see what happens.

Have a 20 yo Kitchenaid. Started making noise as compressor stopped. Called a local home appliance repair place. Charged me $35 total ro replace some rubber mounts on the comressor and it's all good. Calling them again if anything else happens!

Here are 3 links I used when our $4500 Jade gave us trouble I was also able to get the service manuals for it which told how to trouble shoot and what to test. We had a bunch of trouble with the automatic ice maker so I finally took it out and since we don't use lots of ice we use plastic trays.


For these links remove my model info and search using yours.

http://applianceguru.com/forum1/28526.html

http://www.repairclinic.com/PartDetail/Power-Supply-Board/67001360/1006153?modelNumber=RJRS4270D

http://www.appliancepartspros.com/09-ice-maker-parts-for-jade-rjrs4880d.html

FWIW, I have a 21 year old Kenmore that's still trucking along just fine. Knock on wood!

Good luck with your repair/replacement!

washer and dryers are crap now too.

we had our old WD for over yrs. my wife had a kids resale shop so EVERY piece of clothing she washed before it wen in the store. so add another 15 yrs to its life based on use.

the new one I bought her leaves white spots on our cloths, although they will wash out.
we have been told it is probably the motor leaking and is expensive.
I should have bought her another "cheap" set instead of buying something fancy and nice.

we just ordered a new set after about 5 yrs with this one.

new BOSCH dish washer. we don't think it does a very good job

We bought a washer and dryer from a scratch and dent place the day we moved into the current house 8.5 years ago. The total was $300 delivered and installed, and they have worked flawlessly since, no sign of giving up.

My folks have a newer set, the kind that are on pedestals, have lots of digital and computer parts, and they're always having problems. My mom said their clothes have all kinds of stains because the washer only uses one gallon per load and the detergent simply isn't designed for use with so little water. I don't know whether they use those soap pods or just pour the liquid in, but I don't like anything I hear about the newer designs, especially the cost to buy and maintain.

Fate did them a favor. I currently have a fancy Samsung French door fridge. The icemaker frosts over and I have to defrost with a hair dryer about every three weeks. It's like they designed it, tested it for a few days, and put it into production.

Avoid Samsung. Second worst thing that I ever bought. Mercedes Sprinter van broke down 8 time fridge 4 times.

My parents bought a Sears chest style deep freezer in 1964 when we were living in San Marcos, TX. It was moved with the family 14 times when my dad was transferred to different Air Force Bases. It lived outside in unheated heated storage rooms in Alabama for many years, and in my parents detached garage for decades.

They had a major ice storm, and one limb of a tree fell onto the power line coming to the house. The limb did not make a clean break on the wire, and at some point the neutral was energized. Every single thing plugged into the house current was fried, even things that were turned off, everything except that freezer. TVs started smoking, microwaves, ovens, alarm clocks, everything else was fried.

When mom died dad decided he was tired of bending over to get his ice cream or whatever out of the freezer. He gave it to a friend, and bought an upright deep freezer. It had been working fine for over 50 years. It may still be working. It was getting ugly. The rusty patches on the enamel finish were getting bigger. It was heavy as heck. Nope, they don't make em like they used to.

Those are the ones you see in the horror movies too where cut up bodies are put....great movie props! :p

We had a similar problem several years back. GE had a bad batch of control cards. Ours was "just outside" the S/N range and was out of Warranty. One of the reasons we're not buying GE appliances anymore.

As a temp fix, I emptied 2 large (big dorm sized, 1.7 Cu. Ft.) wine refrigerators and used those as our main refrigerator until I could get a replacement card.

For the Freezer, we have a top loading chest freezer. It is "dumb". Just a temp switch and compressor. Those last until the compressor dies. The "smarter" the refrigerator, the more likely it is to fail.

We now have 2 refrigerators, the second one being nominally for beer. If our main goes out, we're covered.

Our 2 year old whirlpool side by side with bottom drawer freezer, quit freezing last week... Refrigerator still worked, but ice was melting and dripping out of ice dispenser in the door... Stuff in the bottom drawer was thawing out.... Turkey went directly into the freezer of my beer fridge in the garage. I unplugged it for a minute.. then plugged it back in, and it started working again. Guessing a glitch or error in whatever computer controls the fan that circulates air to the freezer. Rebooting it cleared it. Wish you could still buy and old school simple refrigerator without all the bells and whistles.