I'm not all that familiar with these motors, but they have been made without
starting capacitors for quite a long time. I don't remember how long it's
been since I've seen a household fridge with a starting cap, maybe in the
60s or 70s, and those would've been old models at the time.
Maybe exceptionally large household or commercial reefers still use starting
caps.

The relay and overload are the motor's control and protection devices.

One possible motor failure mode could be that the motor was in the run cycle
and a brief power disruption caused the motor to try to restart before the
relay had time to reset (these typically aren't electromagnetic relays lke
common ones with contacts actuated by a coil).
During these power-fail restarts, the winding can open if the overload
doesn't open the circuit in time.
I've seen these events happen a couple of times, and the unit just hummed
until the overload opened to protect the motor.

You're correct, in that many machine, utility or appliance motors do have
greater starting torque when fitted with a starting capacitor, but the
small, hermetically enclosed fridge motors in consumer fridges aren't the
same.

If the fault is within the motor enclosure or cooling/freon components, the
only practical option will probably be to replace the fridge.

--
Cheers,
WB
..............


"David Lesher" wrote in message
...

I'm helping a friend fix a fridge remotely. The compressor
tried but won't start.

I suggested he check continuity on the run and start windings, the
starting relay, and the starting cap. Ooops, it has none!

http://sendspace.com/file/emdg1e
http://sendspace.com/file/ckpnaw

It's been 20 years since I took Machines, but I got an A. [And the
fridge is not much younger...] But I don't recall any capacitor-less
single-phase AC motors with good starting torque.

What gives?


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