Whirlpool Side by Side Fridge clicking

De_man

Hi

have an "american style" side by side fridge, when fridge door open for
a few minutes when door closed a clicking noise starts for approx 1minute.
freezer & fridge appearing to working okay otherwise

i'm assuming the problem is the relay to the compressor?

any thoughts

Thanks

Poor Uncle Tom

Has your fridge got one of those ice makers on the door?

De_man

Hi Tom
it has the ice maker, i've check it just incase it was the ice compartment

this is a weird one because temps in the fridge & freezer okay

it sounds as if the noise is coming from the bottom of the fridge but realistically it could be anywhere

but i'm going to recheck the ice compartment

De_man

Hi tom on your suggestion i rechecked the Ice / Water dispenser
on the door, checked everything on that door everything okay at first glance.

Except when i pressed the water dispenser, the clicking noise came back,
and the water came out of the dispenser in pulses with the clicking noise
in the background....opened the other door on the righthand side of the fridge clicking noise stopped:eek:

Took everything out of fridge right hand side, as water line is in a coil at the back of this compartment, still same. clicking noise when door closed none when door opened, water flowing freely!!!

To cut a long story short turned off the MCB to the fridge ( i have important appliances fridge, cooker etc on their own MCB's) and this has solved the problem no more clicking.

It'll be interesting to see if the problem comes back

Thanks again, you saved me a lot of time taking the fridge apart and everything else that entails:D

Poor Uncle Tom

I did nothing only ask a question.....:pac:

I'm glad it worked out for you, I did see something similar previously and it was something to do with pressure on the water feed line to the ice maker (not 100% sure, it may have been to the water dispensor) but it was an easy fix.

Mr Magners

Not trying to cause you any stress but my unit was doing the same thing last year with the clicking and the water flow pulsing. I got Whirlpool to call. Turned out it was the motherboard needed to be replaced.

Covered under warranty thankfully and no worries since. Seems to be not that unusual with the Whirlpool side by side units.

Anyway, hope it doesn't come to that for you.

De_man

clicking came back:eek::eek:

I definitely need to sort out the board:eek: i checked the price
of a new board we're talking about 170sterling no way am i paying for this

i came across the american style fridge freezer repair kit on ebay 15sterling
i basically replace the capacitors on the board

i'll order the kit do the repairs and report back

Mr Magners

Its obviously out of warranty?

De_man

yep we're in "new" home a few years now, definitely out of warranty

i think it's going to be easy to change out the capacitors, take me about an hour or so and save at least 200yoyo. but i'll wait and see if it works first

i'll report back in a week or so once i get my hands on the capacitors

Spicie

I had that clicking noise also, turned out that both boards had gone faulty, €500 to fix with whirlpool technician. I called & emailed whirlpool they told me the lifespan of the unit was 8 yrs, mine was 8yr old, technician told me to buy a new one. I was looking for advice on other makes and seen your comment about capacitors, whats the link as its worth a go.

You should be able to get the capacitors from somewhere like Maplins they have some shops in Ireland as well.

There was an issue with some cheap Chinese capacitors about 10 years ago, they failed prematurely, but unfortunately not discovered before being used by thousands of manufacturers in millions of products.

galway1973

repair kits for these are available from ukwhitegoods shop i think.

kilkenny31

Hate to restart an old thread but i have the same problem.

A few months back the fridge started clicking when using the water dispenser and would stop when the door was opened.
Gradually the clicking got worse and started happening without using the water dispenser.
Last week the electricity went and when it came back the freezer temp was flashing with these symbols -- i ordered a capacitor repair kit from white goods and replaced the capacitors today. When i turned on the fridge the display is the same.
The clicking is gone but the compressor is not cutting in and the fridge is not getting cold.

Any ideas guys?

Cheers!

galway1973

kilkenny31 wrote: »

Hate to restart an old thread but i have the same problem.

A few months back the fridge started clicking when using the water dispenser and would stop when the door was opened.
Gradually the clicking got worse and started happening without using the water dispenser.
Last week the electricity went and when it came back the freezer temp was flashing with these symbols -- i ordered a capacitor repair kit from white goods and replaced the capacitors today. When i turned on the fridge the display is the same.
The clicking is gone but the compressor is not cutting in and the fridge is not getting cold.

Any ideas guys?

Cheers!

Are all the connections back on Pcb ok

kilkenny31

galway1973 wrote: »

Are all the connections back on Pcb ok

Hi thanks for getting back to me, i was away for a few days so only read that now.
Yeah all the connections are back on ok, its strange because the clicking has stopped, the water dispenser is running ok ( doesn't come out in pulses any more) But the two dashes are over the freezer temp< this wasn't a problem before the electricity went ( the fridge temp is displaying ok) compressor is not cutting in at all. Only thing i can think of is that maybe when the electricity came back there was a surge or something. Or i damaged something when i was changing the capacitors. But im pretty sure the compressor stopped cutting in after the electricity went and came back.

Should i order another PCB? I just dont want to spend €140 on one, fit it and find out it hasn't sorted the problem and the PCB thats on it is fine.

galway1973

kilkenny31 wrote: »

Hi thanks for getting back to me, i was away for a few days so only read that now.
Yeah all the connections are back on ok, its strange because the clicking has stopped, the water dispenser is running ok ( doesn't come out in pulses any more) But the two dashes are over the freezer temp< this wasn't a problem before the electricity went ( the fridge temp is displaying ok) compressor is not cutting in at all. Only thing i can think of is that maybe when the electricity came back there was a surge or something. Or i damaged something when i was changing the capacitors. But im pretty sure the compressor stopped cutting in after the electricity went and came back.

Should i order another PCB? I just dont want to spend €140 on one, fit it and find out it hasn't sorted the problem and the PCB thats on it is fine.

Might be worth looking atat solders to make sure every thing is ok .failing that try ringing Emw.electronics in UK .they test and repair some appliance pcbs.they might be able to test.

The Red Ace

disconnect the compressor, stick a multi meter on the lead you have disconnected set at 240v, plug back in and if it reads ok the module is fine, its then a compressor thats faulty, check the resistance accross the three pins, if its open circuit you have a burn out, if ok check the thermal overload it may be o/c

kilkenny31

Ok guys, i disconnected the pcb again and had a look at the solders some of them weren't the best so cleaned around the main c1 capacitor and hooked it back up. The fridge worked perfectly as soon as i hooked it up the compressor kicked in. It worked great for the last 3 weeks. Today i was in the kitchen and the fridge started beeping and the compressor switched off and wont switch back on, so im guessing my soldering is the issue and i think i may have scratched the board when i was cleaning it.
Is there a way of repairing the board if i scratched some of the copper traces? Im guessing i may also have to redo my soldering!

galway1973

kilkenny31 wrote: »

Ok guys, i disconnected the pcb again and had a look at the solders some of them weren't the best so cleaned around the main c1 capacitor and hooked it back up. The fridge worked perfectly as soon as i hooked it up the compressor kicked in. It worked great for the last 3 weeks. Today i was in the kitchen and the fridge started beeping and the compressor switched off and wont switch back on, so im guessing my soldering is the issue and i think i may have scratched the board when i was cleaning it.
Is there a way of repairing the board if i scratched some of the copper traces? Im guessing i may also have to redo my soldering!

You can solder in jump wires

kilkenny31

galway1973 wrote: »

You can solder in jump wires

Thanks for your reply galway1973. Where would i get those? Do i just solder them directly to each end or do i follow the trace that is already there?

galway1973

kilkenny31 wrote: »

Thanks for your reply galway1973. Where would i get those? Do i just solder them directly to each end or do i follow the trace that is already there?

Maplins or they will have a conductive pen