My refrigerator (Amana side-by-side, about 18 months old) stopped
cooling yesterday. Temp in fridge and freezer went to 60 degrees. The
compressor seems to be cycling normally. I vacuumed the coils, but
there was very little dust. Last night I shut it off and unplugged
it. This morning I plugged it in, turned it on, and it began cooling
normally. The freezer dropped close to zero. Then it stopped cooling
again, it's now back to 50 degrees. The compressor and fans still
appear to be working, cycling on and off normally.

The compressor and other sealed systems are covered under a 5-year
warranty, parts only. Maytag's service call charge is a flat $138. If
it's not the condenser, I'm way better off using local service (for
one thing, Maytag's first available appt is Friday). But if it's the
condenser, obviously I'll save money by having authorized warranty
service (Maytag has no independent shops in this area).

Any idea whether it's likely to be a sealed-system problem, which
would be covered under warranty? That would include the compressor,
condenser, evaporator, drier, and interconnecting tubing.


--

One of the lessons of history
is that nothing is often a good thing to do and a clever thing to say.

....Will Durant

It sounds like the evaporator coils are icing up. A cycling heater
melts the ice off the coils and evaporates the moisture, which is then
removed from the refrigerator.

If you remove a panel inside the fridge, you can find these coils and
see the ice on them. They are behind the freezer section.

Amana is a good name, made by Mennonites, iirc. Maytag too.

I had a similar problem with my new fridge and it was the timer which
operated the defroster.

In article ,
Steve wrote:

My refrigerator (Amana side-by-side, about 18 months old) stopped
cooling yesterday. Temp in fridge and freezer went to 60 degrees. The
compressor seems to be cycling normally. I vacuumed the coils, but
there was very little dust. Last night I shut it off and unplugged
it. This morning I plugged it in, turned it on, and it began cooling
normally. The freezer dropped close to zero. Then it stopped cooling
again, it's now back to 50 degrees. The compressor and fans still
appear to be working, cycling on and off normally.

Check the customer service section of http://www.amana.com to see if you
can find any troubleshooting tips there.

Shawn Hirn wrote:
My refrigerator (Amana side-by-side, about 18 months old) stopped
cooling yesterday. Temp in fridge and freezer went to 60 degrees. The
compressor seems to be cycling normally. I vacuumed the coils, but
there was very little dust. Last night I shut it off and unplugged
it. This morning I plugged it in, turned it on, and it began cooling
normally. The freezer dropped close to zero. Then it stopped cooling
again, it's now back to 50 degrees. The compressor and fans still
appear to be working, cycling on and off normally.

Check the customer service section of http://www.amana.com to see if you
can find any troubleshooting tips there.

Thanks Shawn, had already looked there and talked to Amana. In my
experience, there's much more useful info available here than from the
mfgs.


--

One of the lessons of history
is that nothing is often a good thing to do and a clever thing to say.

....Will Durant

Maytag owns the Amana brand, and if the appliances are made by
Mennonites, they're Mexican Mennonites.

Veni Vidivici wrote:

Amana is a good name, made by Mennonites, iirc. Maytag too.

Steve wrote:
My refrigerator (Amana side-by-side, about 18 months old) stopped
cooling yesterday. Temp in fridge and freezer went to 60 degrees. The
compressor seems to be cycling normally. I vacuumed the coils, but
there was very little dust. Last night I shut it off and unplugged
it. This morning I plugged it in, turned it on, and it began cooling
normally. The freezer dropped close to zero. Then it stopped cooling
again, it's now back to 50 degrees. The compressor and fans still
appear to be working, cycling on and off normally.

The compressor and other sealed systems are covered under a 5-year
warranty, parts only. Maytag's service call charge is a flat $138. If
it's not the condenser, I'm way better off using local service (for
one thing, Maytag's first available appt is Friday). But if it's the
condenser, obviously I'll save money by having authorized warranty
service (Maytag has no independent shops in this area).

Any idea whether it's likely to be a sealed-system problem, which
would be covered under warranty? That would include the compressor,
condenser, evaporator, drier, and interconnecting tubing.



My Amana did the same thing about one week after getting it. Can't
remeber exactly what it was, something to do with a evaporater timer
that didn't work causing the vent from the freezer to the fridge to ice
up. He replaced it and it went out about a month later, Also the meat
drawer slider broke, the door seal was comming off, and it was way
louder than the 20 year old Amana I was replacing. I hated the thing
and had the Appliance store take it away and replace it with a
Fisher&Paykel. The quality difference was astounding, and looks great.
Can barely hear the thing and has been flawless for the last year. But
it was also $500 more and smaller, although it seems to be a lot more
efficient using the space. Don't think I'll ever go with Amana again.

Ok, will watch out next time. Have a Maytag W&D. So far so good.

The Whirlpool Gold fridge went on the fritz when the defrost timer
stopped and it iced up. It was barely a year old.

We replaced the timer and something they called a "bi-metal" -- the
latter apparently being a temperature sensor.

American appliances are probably about like American politicians these
days --- not all that trustworthy.

You could hear a pin drop when the almighty Alan
addressed his adoring fans with these immortal words:

On Tue, 23 May 2006 08:41:01 -0500, Mike Berger
wrote:

Maytag owns the Amana brand, and if the appliances are made by
Mennonites, they're Mexican Mennonites.

Veni Vidivici wrote:

Amana is a good name, made by Mennonites, iirc. Maytag too.


And, someone else has bought Maytag -- a year or two ago. One of the
other big appliance manufacturers.

So, I don't know if there really is an Amana or a Maytag, any more,
except in the label put on the products. . . .



ironically, GE is now rated higher than most of the bigger names. GE
*used* to make great appliances and then they went through a period
where their appliances were only marginally better than
White-Westinghouse, which were about as bad you could get. Now
in the past 5 years, their quality has again gone back up. I read an
article that GE went six-sigma because their reputation and sales
had tanked..

Alan wrote:
Amana is a good name, made by Mennonites, iirc. Maytag too.

And, someone else has bought Maytag -- a year or two ago. One of the
other big appliance manufacturers.

Whirlpool, just a couple months ago.


--

When I do good, I feel good
When I do bad, I feel bad.
That is my religion.

....Abraham Lincoln