"cybercat" wrote in message
om...
Here's the question: who should I call to repair this thing?

An authorized Whirlpool repair place, right?

I want to get a decent deal, not be overcharged.

It's a pretty new, fairly nice $1000 side-by-side, with icemaker and water
through the door, or I would just buy another one. It is no longer under
any sort of warranty that I know of.

Thanks for all and any help, you guys are great!

P.S. The AC is still working, yay!


Is it safe to assume you don't want any advice on how to fix it yourself.
That would naturally be the least expensive route costing only the part
price and maybe a generic repair manual (in most cases the parts list,
exploded view and schematic are in the owners manual or stuck to the back of
the unit or tucked into the bottom chassis or online at the Mfg website).
To bridge the few days it will take you to figure it out and acquire the
part, get a few blocks of dry ice and pack the freezer.

A first test might be to hotwire the compressor around the thermostat so
that it runs without the normal controls. If the freezer starts to cool
then it is not the cooling loop but one of the control mechanisms or
sensors. You would need a schematic to know how to do this.

If you want someone to repair it (and get it done ASAP) then you have to
have a little faith that the company you call is competent and honest. If
you want a specific recommendation for your actual location then try that
website www.angieslist.com or Google "contractor referals" for other
websites. My first questions to them would be "what does it cost to come
out and diagnose but not repair, do you do that? and "what if you can't fix
it today, I assume I pay only after it is finished?" and "do you charge
hourly, what is the rate?". Waiting for parts to come in can delay anybody
but you want a way to fire them if they just bumble around trial and error
without fixing it for days, you don't want to pay for that, you'll just want
to get another company at that point to finish the job right. (I threatened
that to some plumbers and that got some better supervisors on site quite
fast)