Fridge diagnosis?

Factual Questions
1

We have a 10-year old Maytag frost-free side-by-side refrigerator (MSD2456GE). Its fate depends on your replies.

I don’t know if this crosses the correlation/causation boundary, but problems started after hurricane Sandy knocked out our power for a few days. We were away at the time, but when we got back the freezer compartment had developed an inch or so of frost. We took care of it, but the refrigerator compartment never completely cooled off. We put a thermometer in there, which never read below 42–45, even with its thermostat set to coldest. In the past, that setting should have had much of the fridge compartment freezing over.

Called Maytag; they sent a tech out. He removed the freezer compartment’s rear access panel and fond a lot of ice on the evaporator coils. He replaced the defrost heater timer for a mere(!) $350, and away he went.

But the temperatures in the fridge never dropped to where they should have (the freezer was fine). I took a look at the evaporator a few days later and some ice had built back up on it. I took a hairdryer to it and took away all the water.

We called the tech back. When he re-checked, there wasn’t much ice on the coils at the time (it was about a week since I’d defrosted them). He futzed and fiddled, and wants to charge us another $150. I wasn’t there, but his estimate (it’s a computerized receipt that’s not very verbose) says “ducts, supply/return” under labor, and “1 Kit SXS Warm” under parts.

It’s been another week or so, the fridge compartment is still warm, and there is now a large amount of ice built up on the coils.

Can anyone give us some insight into what is (or could be) going on in there? Is the power outage a red herring? What could possibly go wrong with ducts? Little spies crawling around inside? The fan inside the freezer compartment and in the rear of the refrigerator seem to be working, and we can feel a slight stream of air coming out of the vents in the fridge compartment. Could ice have built up in the ducts and all we need to do is clear everything out for a day and let it melt?

For various reasons, our confidence in the tech is fairly low, but that’s more intuitive than rational. Call him back anyway? Replace the fridge? We really don’t want to buy a new fridge at the moment—we’d much rather sink the money into the Straight Dope Home for Wayward Moderators.

2

Given the circumstances you have described my reactions are thus: the tech is poor / uncaring and should not be used again. If one visit doesn’t fix a problem the second should. No third tries.

You can do a fair amount of self troubleshooting on appliance repair boards. That’s a good place to try to figure out problems like this. I have done so myself in the past.

Consider buying used on Craigslist. Look for ads from people who are remodeling and want stuff for a new decor. I once bought a matching electric ceramic top range and dishwasher for $350 whose only problem was they were the wrong color for the new kitchen. Together they would have been $1100 new.

Good luck to you!

3

I know it will sound naive, but when I was a landlord I was taught by a very knowing fellow, that whenever I had a reported fridge problem that I should always unplug it, leave it for 24 hrs, and then plug it in again. If that doesn’t help then call for repair.
Something about channels getting frozen up and air not moving as it should, easiest fix, let it sit 24hrs so any and all frozen channels get cleared. When you plug it back it, voila, goes back to functioning perfectly.

I thought he was a little loopy, but every single time I did it, it worked. And I did it over 7 times.

Costs nothing, might be worth a try.

4

I think I have roughly the same model of fridge and did have the ice buildup problem once. Replaced the defrost thermostat myself (for much, much less than $350.00) and the problem mostly went away (although it’s never quite as cold in the fridge compartment as I’d like).

One thing I found out while doing my research is that there is a cold air return at the base of the fridge compartment (somewhere near the meat and veggie drawers). If something is blocking that return, then you won’t get good air flow and the fridge will be too warm.

5

Thanks. Any suggestion as to the better specialized boards? I’m a good Doper and never really stray from home, so can’t tell off-hand what has a good reputation and what is going to lead me to turning my fridge into a weapon of mass defrosting. I hear the name “4chan” a lot, surely they have a good section!

Poking about on parts sellers I’m seeing a few components that seem easy enough to install (though I’ve also done enough around the house to be wary of that idea!).

It sounds like the idea that ice built up in the ducts may have some merit. We’d thought about taking everything out but were hoping for an outside temperature drop (it’s been in the mid-fifties) to allow us to preserve a couple things.

6

Someone said something good about 4chan?
That’s a new one.

Never having a problem like this, I was thinking the same thing.
It’s sort of the old all purpose computer trick of rebooting.

Let it warm up to room temp, melt all the frost, and dry it out. Then see how it works.

Might want a cooler and a few bags of ice handy if you want to save things.

7

and melting the ice inside a fridge may take more than a day. it’s done when no more water comes out.