If your fridge dies...
 

...don't automatically think it's the compressor. Mine died the other day, an 8-year-old JennAir side-by-side. After doing a little searching on the web, I pulled the start relay off, shook it, and sure enough, it was a rattle. Ordered a new one from Sears, overload circuit too just to be sure, and $30 later, my fridge works fine again. took all of 3 minutes to replace both.

Can't imagine what a repair guy would have charged or even if I'd have ended up with a new compressor, etc.

the culprits
http://forums.pelicanparts.com/uploa...1205521542.jpg

Shaun,

In the very same boat here but with a different product.

I am in the middle of fixing my flight attendents big screen HD television. Mitsubishi televisions made about 3 years got a bad load of capacitors and they die. Green light on the front starts blinking and they refuse to turn on. The capacitors are overheating internally and bulge at the ends.

From the estimates I keep seeing, its about 100,000 television sets that are dead or dying and Mitsubishi is doing nothing. Well, they are not doing totally nothing, they are attempting to charge owners $900 to fix them.

Went on the internet and found various webpages to help. Went to Radio Shack and after $11 for a de-soldering iron and $4 bux worth of new upgraded capacitors, we are having fun.

It just blows me away that any company can have a product issue like this, then charge $900 for a $4 repair. BTW, it takes 20 minutes to get this circuit board out and the same to reinstall.

My refrigerator died and it was the cooling fan that blows air over the coil. New fan was less than $15. Good for another 15 years.

What model of Mitsubishi has this problem? I have a Mit 46" LCD.

Here is a fairly descent list but there may be more. These sets are 3-4 years old. The older ones seem to be ok (for now) and the newer ones are still covered by warranty.

WS-48513
WS-55513
WS-65513
WS-73513
WS-48613
WS-65613
WS-65713
WS-73713
WS-55813
WS-65813

http://www.chrisandnat.com/Projects/BlinkingTV/blink.htm

So, Shaun, you're saying your refridgerator is, *ahem* , RUNNING?:D Better go catch it!! HA HA HA!! *rim-shot*

Sorry, I couldn't help myself. Had to be done.

Nice fix, though! Good catch!SmileWavy

Shaun,

My washing machine has a leak, what time can you come over?

That's huge. I'll bet you saved a few hundred $$$.

I had a nice HVAC guy show me how to repair or replace common failure items on my furnace. That's saved two service visits so far.

Don, the week I've had, I couldn't catch it if I had rollerblades and a few cans of Red Bull in me, so thanks for the kudos, appreciate it. Did I mention it decided to die when I was in NY for 4 days at our sales show? Wasn't pretty opening up. Had 3 different buckets of chicken thighs marinating in BBQ, thai-ginger and some kind of jerk. they all had little white spots on them. :(

Scott, I'll be out in LA about 3 weeks. will bring my tools.:)

Sales show.
http://forums.pelicanparts.com/uploa...1205535128.jpg

http://forums.pelicanparts.com/uploa...1205535236.jpg

Over the years I have had several people give me their "bad" fridge. I have found that most were easily fixed with a new defrost timer, or a fan motor. Right now I still have 3 in my shop that work great, after about $15.00 in parts for each of them. Even have one of the super nice GE double door models with the ice and water through the door, and all that key-pad crap, it had a bad defrost timer.

Great place for appliance troubleshooting, and a place with troubleshooting and parts sales. No affiliation other than being a happy customer a handful of times over the last 10 years or so.

http://applianceaid.com/

http://www.a-1appliance.com/

I've fixed a couple of refridgerators, a drier, and a stove top, and I think the parts have always run between $3 and $50.

Shoot.....I still owe you pictures of the kids in the shirts.....


Funny thing about appliance repair - I find it an incredibly satisfying endeavor. Relatively low-tech, straight-forward and parts are usually pretty cheap and easy to come by.

However, when you have to repair the same thing more than twice....it gets old and you find yourself doing things like this:

http://forums.pelicanparts.com/uploa...1205536907.jpg

Thanks Shaun and Joe! I have now pulled my entertainment center away from the wall and am in the process of taking the back off of my 1.5 yr dead Sony 32". There's 8.5 years of dust back there!

Even if I can fix my T.V. - I'm still not going to subscribe to cable, but at least I can watch DVD's.

what did you fix it with, a nightstick?

Joe, that happended to my Mitsubishi a couple years ago, good thing it was under warranty..
Shaun, have you thought about parting out the fridgerator ?? LOL
T

My GDdamed Refer opens itelf everytime I walk by it. I keep telling it that I'm on a Buffet diet, but it just doesn't want to listen.

My Sony is dead. All the capacitors look OK. Bummer.

Another good site is applianceguru.com. Like pelican in the bbs format, you can search for free of pay $5/lifetime and ask questions. I got my dishwasher problem solved with one question. BTW, he also accepts paypal beer donations.

Flat end of an axe.

We'd bought another one, delivery guys called and scheduled the time to install. Went to finish a load of laundry, dryer quit again. I had an Office Space moment.

That's after I bent it back into shape with a prybar.

The compressor is one of the most reliable things on the refrig. These days, it is usually a control board. The cheap and "cheesy" old style fridges usually last forever. The newer ones with all sorts of computer controlled features are most likely to die.

Someone explain to me why I would buy a refrig with a TV mounted on the door.