Refrigerator Repair Story

[Vtwin]

I've been around my step-fathers appliance business for over 40 years. What I've learned is, stick to the familiar brands known for producing appliances. Keep it simple, avoid the fancy features.

One thing that's changed over that time is that back then the mom and pop appliance stores around here all had service/parts departments. Now none of them do.

 

[Creeper]

Around 2010, I used a refrigerator repair company I found through Craig's List that had "good" reviews.
I won't do that again.

The woman that came said the company was in her late husband's name, but the she was licensed.

The problem I had was that the refrigerator portion was not cooling properly, and the freezer was too cold.

Her solution was to replace the heating coil and the heating sensor. It took her 3 hours. She said she wasn't used to working on that model of Amana refrigerator. She said she was going to charge me the standard rate for the repair, and not for the longer time it took her to do it.

But that didn't fix the problem.

What I ended up doing to fix the problem was to order, from the internet, a new replacement circuit board for the refrigerator. I was willing to risk $50 to try that solution. The retail for the board was $150. I found a nice YoutTube video that showed me step by step how to take out the old board and install the new one.

And so, that solved the issue.

If it was just the refrigerator compartment not cooling, then I would say that was exactly the problem I had and the guy replaced the heater, bi-metal sensor, another temperature sensor and some other parts. But the problem was obvious from the ice buildup around the cooling coils. And the ice was blocking the fan which made an audible noise. The fan had to be replaced too. But, my freezer functioned normally, until I had to unplug the entire unit to prevent a fire from the incorrect heater he installed.

On thing I discovered I think they should change is a way to shut off the refrigerator completely while keepimg the freezer working. That would have saved me some money on all the food in the freezer I had to throw out.

 

[Ranching]

3 weeks ago my Samsung refrigerator, which I bought about 7 years ago, stopped cooling in the fridge compartment, the freezer continued to freeze at -2 degrees.

To make a long story short, I had a repair guy come in and he replaced the defrost heater in the fridge along with 2 other parts. It cost me $750! But A new fridge would have cost about $2000 with sales tax and all the other crap.

But the next morning after it was "repaired", my wife smelled something burning in the fridge. So I opened it up as I had seen him do and I saw the heating unit he installed was the wrong size and was fit outside the metal shield that surrounds the cooling coils and defrosting unit. The heater was literally melting and burning the plastic lining of the fridge compartment! I went on Amazon, (where else) and found the correct parts and ordered them for under $100.

The idiot who did the repair could have burned my house down while my wife and I were sleeping! I called the company back and told them I want a refund for the parts he installed that were the incorrect parts. They are lucky there was no fire.

I should have just bought a new fridge. These things are designed to fail after 5 or 6 years. The repair people just rip you off and have no clue what they are doing.

We renovated out kitchen and laundry room about 7 years ago. We purchased all new appliances including over/stove, a wall over microwave unit, fridge, washer dryer and dishwasher. Every one of these appliances has malfunctioned over the last 2 years, except the dishwasher which came free with the Thermador stove. Every appliance has been repaired and every repair cost at least $500. These are not cheap appliances. They are all quality brands. The moral of the story is, buy regular brands that are lower priced. The expensive ones break just as quickly and cost more to repair. In fact, don't repair them. Buy new ones and expect to replace them in 6 years.

I bought an entire Samsung appliance set about 7 years ago...I've had issues with all of them. Several times....good thing I have a good home warranty....

 

[triplets_93]

If it was just the refrigerator compartment not cooling, then I would say that was exactly the problem I had and the guy replaced the heater, bi-metal sensor, another temperature sensor and some other parts. But the problem was obvious from the ice buildup around the cooling coils. And the ice was blocking the fan which made an audible noise. The fan had to be replaced too. But, my freezer functioned normally, until I had to unplug the entire unit to prevent a fire from the incorrect heater he installed.

On thing I discovered I think they should change is a way to shut off the refrigerator completely while keepimg the freezer working. That would have saved me some money on all the food in the freezer I had to throw out.

My problem was that the circuit board was not having the freezer defrost when it should. The ice would build up, and that blocked the cold air from circulating into the refrigerator, as so forth.

I found the codes to manually put the freezer into a defrost mode. Running that several times would fix thing for awhile. As a result of that problem, I now keep thermometers in the freezer and the refrigerator. I like to able to spot check the temp. there anytime I think it may not be as cols as I think it is. But it's always okay. Just me thinking otherwise for some reason..