On Sat, 23 May 2009 11:54:35 -0400, Art Todesco
wrote:

I'm going to guess that there is
something wrong with the defrost cycle. I
had a similar problem where gradually
the freezer and fridge got warmer
and warmer. The Kitchen Aid authorized
no-nothing wanted to charge me
$1500 for a new compressor. I guess he
actually knew a lot .... how to
get $1500 from a sucker. BTW, this was
a built in unit. Anyway, he
basically looked at nothing. I noticed,
when he turn the unit back on, that
it was pouring out cold air in both
sides. It worked after that for almost 3
years, until it did it again. I
disassembled the covers in the freezer
and found
a solid chunk of ice. The defrost
heater was not on. I checked the heater
with an ohmmeter and it seemed ok. The
thermostat went from a closed
circuit to open as the ice melted away,
so it was probably good. Only one
component left in the defrost hardware,
the timer. I replaced it and never
had the problem again. And actually,
the unit worked better with the new
timer. I think the original was
defrosting way to often, where as the new
one did it based on actual compressor
run time. Of course, it hasn't been
more that about a year and I sold the
house, so guess I'll never know.

Speaking of fridge timers, we had a Crosley Shelv-a-dor refrigerator
boought around 1951 - 54 that had a defrost timer along with defrost
heaters.

My current fridge doesn't require me to do this but that one required
the owner to set the time, and then it would defrost at 3 in the
morning. Unfortunately, my mother didn't read the manual, or the label
next to the timer, and she kept setting it to the time she wanted it
to defrost. Since she never did this at 3 in the morning, it never
defrosted when she wanted it to.


(Had it as a second fridge from 60 to 66, when my mother moved)