Do it Yourself: [DIY] For the Holidays, I got a burnt out fridge

20 December 2011

[DIY] For the Holidays, I got a burnt out fridge

This morning I noticed the stuff in the freezer had defrosted. I unplugged the fridge and re-plugged it back in. Turned up the thermo a bit.

This evening I noticed that the air blowing was slightly colder but everything was still defrosted and the air certainly wasn't chilly.

I took the back panel off to check for dust (I think I've dusted it out twice in 8 or so years) or anything abnormal. I did some dusting. The two odd things that I saw were a black streak on the outside of the drip tube and a green patch on one of the copper coils. Below the coil I could see a small green area on the floor of the fridge. I wasn't sure if there was a hole in the coil or if condensation was on it and rusted or something causing the green patch. I saw a small chunk of green on the coil and it broke of easily. Other than dusting that was the only thing I did. I put the cover back on.

A few minutes later I hear this weird crackling sound. It was sporadic. My initial thought was that the fan blade had been hitting something. Suddenly the crackling started to progress and smoke started coming out the back at the same time that I could see flashes or sparks through the slits in the back cardboard cover. I immediately unplugged it and it's still unplugged.

I have yet to do a lot of research. I did just read something about a relay (I thing that was the term) that gets clogged up with dust. This can be replaced. I also read that this type of reaction (smoke and such) could be the compressor gone bad. This fridge is about 8 years old.

Any thoughts on what this is? Should I try to plug it back in? Was this a complete coincidence that it fried at this point or did I move dust to a bad area or something that caused it...or maybe there was a hole in that coil where the green chip was?

Something a bit strange. A lot of the smoke literally hugged the floor as is moved along the floor and into other rooms.

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