My Maytag refrigerator is only a few years old. The freezer works great but
the refrigerator is at 55 degrees. Set to max cooling. I am not sure if
the fan in the freezer is working, otherwise seems normal. Anyone know of
some things I should check, I have a voltmeter. It is a MTB2156GE Maytag.
Thanks !

when I had this problem, it turned out to be the timer that controls the
self-defrost feature. mine was a month. ward refrigerator.

not sure exactly why, but the timer did not function correctly and did not
allow the fridge to cool, but freezer worked fine. apparently, the timer
activates some heating coils to defrost the fridge at certain periods of the
day.

I'm sure others can shed more light on why this occurred.

"Dave" wrote in message
om...
My Maytag refrigerator is only a few years old. The freezer works great but
the refrigerator is at 55 degrees. Set to max cooling. I am not sure if
the fan in the freezer is working, otherwise seems normal. Anyone know of
some things I should check, I have a voltmeter. It is a MTB2156GE Maytag.
Thanks !

I took the freezer fan out, disconnected it and measured 115 volts on both
leads (to ground), so it is not the fan. A schematic would be nice.


"stevie" wrote in message ...
when I had this problem, it turned out to be the timer that controls the
self-defrost feature. mine was a month. ward refrigerator.

not sure exactly why, but the timer did not function correctly and did not
allow the fridge to cool, but freezer worked fine. apparently, the timer
activates some heating coils to defrost the fridge at certain periods of
the
day.

I'm sure others can shed more light on why this occurred.

"Dave" wrote in message
om...
My Maytag refrigerator is only a few years old. The freezer works great
but
the refrigerator is at 55 degrees. Set to max cooling. I am not sure if
the fan in the freezer is working, otherwise seems normal. Anyone know of
some things I should check, I have a voltmeter. It is a MTB2156GE Maytag.
Thanks !

"When my refrigerator did this...."

The passage from the freezer to the refrigerator was iced up so air wasn't
getting through. Defrosting took care of it.

"Dave" wrote in message
m...
I took the freezer fan out, disconnected it and measured 115 volts on both
leads (to ground), so it is not the fan. A schematic would be nice.



OK, so you measured the voltage. That does not mean the fan is turning.
Does the fan turn when you put juice to it? That is the important part.
I've replaced these fans for just the reason you describe in three different
fridges. They have crappy little sleeve bearings that do not last forever.

Dave wrote:

My Maytag refrigerator is only a few years old. The freezer works great but
the refrigerator is at 55 degrees. Set to max cooling. I am not sure if
the fan in the freezer is working, otherwise seems normal. Anyone know of
some things I should check, I have a voltmeter. It is a MTB2156GE Maytag.
Thanks !


When this happened to us the solution was simple once SWMBO asked me to
look at it. She'd piled so much stuff into the (top) freezer that she
almost completely blocked the air openings at the front edge of the
bottom of the freezer compartment.

QED

Jeff

--
Jeffry Wisnia

(W1BSV + Brass Rat '57 EE)

"Truth exists; only falsehood has to be invented."

you're right. i remember now. had to melt ice, then it was fine.
"toller" wrote in message
...

"When my refrigerator did this...."

The passage from the freezer to the refrigerator was iced up so air wasn't
getting through. Defrosting took care of it.

Turn both control knobs to the middle of the range. You can create this
situation by cranking both knobs to max. Trust me on this, I've seen it
several times.

--

Christopher A. Young
Learn more about Jesus
www.lds.org
www.mormons.com


"Dave" wrote in message
om...
My Maytag refrigerator is only a few years old. The freezer works great but
the refrigerator is at 55 degrees. Set to max cooling. I am not sure if
the fan in the freezer is working, otherwise seems normal. Anyone know of
some things I should check, I have a voltmeter. It is a MTB2156GE Maytag.
Thanks !

Dave wrote:
I took the freezer fan out, disconnected it and measured 115 volts on both
leads (to ground), so it is not the fan. A schematic would be nice.

Hi,
Never test for power to ground. Measure across the 2 leads and if the
fan motor is getting 110-120 volts AC across the two wires and the fan
is not turning = new fan motor time.

MTB2156GE
That is part of the full model#.

http://www.repairclinic.com/referral.asp?R=153&N=894481
Motor, evaporator fan (Series 10)

http://www.repairclinic.com/referral.asp?R=153&N=949680
Motor, evaporator fan (w/wire lead)(Series 13)

jeff.
Appliance Repair Aid
http://www.applianceaid.com/

"Dave" wrote in message
om...
My Maytag refrigerator is only a few years old. The freezer works great
but
the refrigerator is at 55 degrees. Set to max cooling. I am not sure if
the fan in the freezer is working, otherwise seems normal. Anyone know of
some things I should check, I have a voltmeter. It is a MTB2156GE Maytag.
Thanks !

I have owned five Maytag refrigerators of the same model ( MTB2156GE
Maytag). Three out of the five refrigerators have had a failure of the
evaporator fan motor (freezer fan). The symptoms (freezer working and
refrigerator in the 50s) were the same in all three cases. Maytag has been
using different molded Panasonic evaporator fan motors in their top freezer
frost free refrigerators for a number of years and I have found out that
these motors have a very high failure rate. Upon a recommendation from Jeff
at http://www.applianceaid.com/ I replaced the evaporator fan motor with a
different model that has higher operating current and this solved the
problem in all three cases. The replacement motor requires that the plug be
replaced with crimp-on terminals. The following is a link to the
replacement motor that Jeff recommended.

http://www.repairclinic.com/0081.asp?RccPartID=778018

Stormin Mormon wrote:
Turn both control knobs to the middle of the range. You can create this
situation by cranking both knobs to max. Trust me on this, I've seen it
several times.



Yes, and I think the reason, at least on my Generous Electric top
freezer fridge, is that the controls on it work this way:

The "Refrigerator" temperature control knob adjusts a real thermostat
sensing the temperature in the refrigerator. This thermostat turns the
refrigeration compressor and air moving fan on and off, keeping the
refrigerator temperature at its set point.

The "Freezer" temperature control knob just moves a damper in the air
path coming down from the freezer. When you adjust it for a "colder
freezer" it just throttles back the cold air circulated through the
refrigerator.

Taken to the limits of absurdity, if that damper could completely block
off the air flow, the refrigerator would never get any cool air, so the
compressor would run continuously and the freezer would get as cold as
the erefrigeration system could make it be.

That blocking off is what happens when the air passage gets iced up,
producing the results the OP described. It can also occur as you say if
both controls are set to maximum cold and the "freezer" control damper
is a little too agressive about throttling the air flow.

Jeff

--
Jeffry Wisnia

(W1BSV + Brass Rat '57 EE)

"Truth exists; only falsehood has to be invented."

The guys at my parts house call them "generally expensive".
Your descrip is 100% agreement with my understanding of refrigerators.

--

Christopher A. Young
Learn more about Jesus
www.lds.org
www.mormons.com


"Jeff Wisnia" wrote in message
news Stormin Mormon wrote:
Turn both control knobs to the middle of the range. You can create this
situation by cranking both knobs to max. Trust me on this, I've seen it
several times.



Yes, and I think the reason, at least on my Generous Electric top
freezer fridge, is that the controls on it work this way:

The "Refrigerator" temperature control knob adjusts a real thermostat
sensing the temperature in the refrigerator. This thermostat turns the
refrigeration compressor and air moving fan on and off, keeping the
refrigerator temperature at its set point.

The "Freezer" temperature control knob just moves a damper in the air
path coming down from the freezer. When you adjust it for a "colder
freezer" it just throttles back the cold air circulated through the
refrigerator.

Taken to the limits of absurdity, if that damper could completely block
off the air flow, the refrigerator would never get any cool air, so the
compressor would run continuously and the freezer would get as cold as
the erefrigeration system could make it be.

That blocking off is what happens when the air passage gets iced up,
producing the results the OP described. It can also occur as you say if
both controls are set to maximum cold and the "freezer" control damper
is a little too agressive about throttling the air flow.

Jeff

--
Jeffry Wisnia

(W1BSV + Brass Rat '57 EE)

"Truth exists; only falsehood has to be invented."

Saw another one of them today. Woman with a refrigerated "sandwich table" in
a restaurant. Not cooling. Suction line frozen and coated with ice. I looked
into the box. The evaporator was a block of ice, and the thermostat was set
for zero F. Hmm. Well, that might explain it.

--

Christopher A. Young
Learn more about Jesus
www.lds.org
www.mormons.com


"Stormin Mormon" wrote in message
...
The guys at my parts house call them "generally expensive".
Your descrip is 100% agreement with my understanding of refrigerators.

--

Christopher A. Young
Learn more about Jesus
www.lds.org
www.mormons.com


"Jeff Wisnia" wrote in message
news Stormin Mormon wrote:
Turn both control knobs to the middle of the range. You can create this
situation by cranking both knobs to max. Trust me on this, I've seen it
several times.



Yes, and I think the reason, at least on my Generous Electric top
freezer fridge, is that the controls on it work this way:

The "Refrigerator" temperature control knob adjusts a real thermostat
sensing the temperature in the refrigerator. This thermostat turns the
refrigeration compressor and air moving fan on and off, keeping the
refrigerator temperature at its set point.

The "Freezer" temperature control knob just moves a damper in the air
path coming down from the freezer. When you adjust it for a "colder
freezer" it just throttles back the cold air circulated through the
refrigerator.

Taken to the limits of absurdity, if that damper could completely block
off the air flow, the refrigerator would never get any cool air, so the
compressor would run continuously and the freezer would get as cold as
the erefrigeration system could make it be.

That blocking off is what happens when the air passage gets iced up,
producing the results the OP described. It can also occur as you say if
both controls are set to maximum cold and the "freezer" control damper
is a little too agressive about throttling the air flow.

Jeff

--
Jeffry Wisnia

(W1BSV + Brass Rat '57 EE)

"Truth exists; only falsehood has to be invented."