Frigidaire FRS23W3W9 Side by Side - Repair?

Question

Lightening storm caused a power outage.

Now fans are on, lights are on, Temp controls set at 5 & 5 -

Fridge and Freezer not cooling

Freezer items completely defrosted

Repair Techs booked for a couple of days & house full of family guests and food!

Anyone able to advise me?

Answer 1

Here is something to try. Remove the toe plate on the bottom and look for your defrost control. It may be a button you can turn, or a hole with a screwdriver slot inside. Rotate this in the direction of the arrow, and see if it starts the compressor. If it does, you have toasted your defrost control, and need a new one. It will run for a couple of days before it will have to be defrosted, so you will have some time.

Answer 2

Unplug it,pull it out ,touch the top of the compressor and feel the temp of it.If it's real hot,it's cycling on the external overload.Leave it unplugged for an hour or so and retry.The hour won't hurt anything if it's not working anyway.

If the compressor is cold,it's not even attempting to start.Play with the cold control because it's stuck open.Good luck.

Answer 3

If the fans are running it is NOT the defrost timer or the thermostat. If either was stuck in defrost or the Tstat not closing the fans would be OFF.

Most likely you lost the start relay/overload on the compressor. This is not uncommon with a power outage. Low voltage when the power is going out can blow the relay or when it goes to restart too soon it can cause the overload to stick.

If the compressor is silent one or the other of those are out. But they are "basically" a one piece unit. I have at times been able to free up a stuck overload by pulling the relay off and tapping on it.

But if you can hear the compressor "hum and then click" which you did not mention, then it still could be the relay but it also could be the compressor. (that's when the compressor may be hot). Odds are about 10 to 1 it is the relay.  

I couldn't run the model number you gave but you can see the relay on a similar model here:

http://www.searspartsdirect.com/partsdir...

It is number 30 and it plugs on to the compressor and has a capacitor plugged on to it.

Good Luck.