I replaced a bad motor on a five year old Whirlpool refrigerator. It was
a simple replacement, but it doesn't seem like a fan motor should last
only five years, especially when it's in the freezer and not getting hot.

The motor wasn't in stock at the local appliance parts place (who wanted
more than $60 to order it). I ordered it off of Amazon for $30.64 +
$5.28 shipping. It came in three days. Not a big deal since the owner
(mother-in-law) had a second identical refrigerator that was in a
downstairs in an empty in-law unit, so I just took that motor to use in
her fridge.

Now I'm wondering if I should buy a spare motor to have when the next
one goes out, since the two fridges were bought at the same time, and
now the fridge upstairs has the 5 year old motor.

On Oct 16, 10:46*am, SMS wrote:
I replaced a bad motor on a five year old Whirlpool refrigerator. It was
a simple replacement, but it doesn't seem like a fan motor should last
only five years, especially when it's in the freezer and not getting hot.

The motor wasn't in stock at the local appliance parts place (who wanted
more than $60 to order it). I ordered it off of Amazon for $30.64 +
$5.28 shipping. It came in three days. Not a big deal since the owner
(mother-in-law) had a second identical refrigerator that was in a
downstairs in an empty in-law unit, so I just took that motor to use in
her fridge.

Now I'm wondering if I should buy a spare motor to have when the next
one goes out, since the two fridges were bought at the same time, and
now the fridge upstairs has the 5 year old motor.

I had a freezer air circulating fan go out, but the freezer was 30
+years old at the time. Five years seems pretty short. Did you try
oiling the motor after you removed it from the freezer???

"SMS" wrote in message ...
I replaced a bad motor on a five year old Whirlpool refrigerator. It was a simple replacement, but it doesn't seem like
a fan motor should last only five years, especially when it's in the freezer and not getting hot.

The motor wasn't in stock at the local appliance parts place (who wanted more than $60 to order it). I ordered it off
of Amazon for $30.64 + $5.28 shipping. It came in three days. Not a big deal since the owner (mother-in-law) had a
second identical refrigerator that was in a downstairs in an empty in-law unit, so I just took that motor to use in
her fridge.

Now I'm wondering if I should buy a spare motor to have when the next one goes out, since the two fridges were bought
at the same time, and now the fridge upstairs has the 5 year old motor.

Hell yes buy couple somebody needs to support economy:

On 2012-10-16, SMS wrote:
I replaced a bad motor on a five year old Whirlpool refrigerator. It was
a simple replacement, but it doesn't seem like a fan motor should last
only five years, especially when it's in the freezer and not getting hot.

We recently replaced a fan motor in a 7 yr old Whirlpool. Near as I
can tell, Whirlpool no longer makes even a mediocre product. Her
nearly new GE, which the Whirlpool replaced, died in 5 yrs. My old GE
was over 25 yrs old before the evap motor needed replacement. Today's
appliances are all junk.

nb

--
Definition of objectivism:
"Eff you! I got mine."
http://www.nongmoproject.org/

On 16 Oct 2012 19:18:07 GMT, notbob wrote:

On 2012-10-16, SMS wrote:
I replaced a bad motor on a five year old Whirlpool refrigerator. It was
a simple replacement, but it doesn't seem like a fan motor should last
only five years, especially when it's in the freezer and not getting hot.

We recently replaced a fan motor in a 7 yr old Whirlpool. Near as I
can tell, Whirlpool no longer makes even a mediocre product. Her
nearly new GE, which the Whirlpool replaced, died in 5 yrs. My old GE
was over 25 yrs old before the evap motor needed replacement. Today's
appliances are all junk.


I had a 7 year old GE compressor fail a couple years ago.
Replaced it with another different GE. They're all made in Mexico I
think. I know the failed one was. But they're all "possible" junk.
It's silly to buy refrigerator parts to keep on hand.
It's mostly initial quality luck of the draw.
Not recommending this, but I bought a warranty for the GE washer my
wife had to have because there were so many early failures in the
reviews. People going for weeks with no machine, then failing again.
Figured the extra 3 bills for a 5 year immediate replacement warranty
was worth not going to the laundro-mat.
Of course the machine has worked perfectly past the warranty period.
That's okay. I figured the warranty cost into the total 5-year cost
and that's exactly what it cost over the first 5 years.
Never had to worry about it after I accepted the cost.

On Tue, 16 Oct 2012 08:46:30 -0700, SMS
wrote:

I replaced a bad motor on a five year old Whirlpool refrigerator. It was
a simple replacement, but it doesn't seem like a fan motor should last
only five years, especially when it's in the freezer and not getting hot.

The motor wasn't in stock at the local appliance parts place (who wanted
more than $60 to order it). I ordered it off of Amazon for $30.64 +
$5.28 shipping. It came in three days. Not a big deal since the owner
(mother-in-law) had a second identical refrigerator that was in a
downstairs in an empty in-law unit, so I just took that motor to use in
her fridge.

Now I'm wondering if I should buy a spare motor to have when the next
one goes out, since the two fridges were bought at the same time, and
now the fridge upstairs has the 5 year old motor.

Seldom do they fail in five years from my experience. Most will go
15+. I'd not buy a spare.

Of course, anything can happen and one can go out in a week.

On Oct 16, 5:49*pm, Ed Pawlowski wrote:
On Tue, 16 Oct 2012 08:46:30 -0700, SMS
wrote:

I replaced a bad motor on a five year old Whirlpool refrigerator. It was
a simple replacement, but it doesn't seem like a fan motor should last
only five years, especially when it's in the freezer and not getting hot..

The motor wasn't in stock at the local appliance parts place (who wanted
more than $60 to order it). I ordered it off of Amazon for $30.64 +
$5.28 shipping. It came in three days. Not a big deal since the owner
(mother-in-law) had a second identical refrigerator that was in a
downstairs in an empty in-law unit, so I just took that motor to use in
her fridge.

Now I'm wondering if I should buy a spare motor to have when the next
one goes out, since the two fridges were bought at the same time, and
now the fridge upstairs has the 5 year old motor.

Seldom do they fail in five years from my experience. *Most will go
15+. *I'd not buy a spare.

Of course, anything can happen and one can go out in a week.

new fridges are much more energy efficent and have a life expectancy
of around 8 years....

Normally evaporator fan motors last a lot longer than 5 years.

If it were me, I wouldn't bother with buying a spare in advance. It may take years before you need it, and by that time you'll have forgotten where you put it and need to buy another.

If it wuz me, I would just have a plan in place as to what you can do if one fridge craps out on you. Not all of the food you find inside a fridge needs to be refrigerated (eg. Jam, peanut butter). And, just eat as much of the perishables as possible while the fridge is on the blink.

On Tue, 16 Oct 2012 08:46:30 -0700, SMS
wrote:

I replaced a bad motor on a five year old Whirlpool refrigerator. It was
a simple replacement, but it doesn't seem like a fan motor should last
only five years, especially when it's in the freezer and not getting hot.

The motor wasn't in stock at the local appliance parts place (who wanted
more than $60 to order it). I ordered it off of Amazon for $30.64 +
$5.28 shipping. It came in three days. Not a big deal since the owner
(mother-in-law) had a second identical refrigerator that was in a
downstairs in an empty in-law unit, so I just took that motor to use in
her fridge.

Now I'm wondering if I should buy a spare motor to have when the next
one goes out, since the two fridges were bought at the same time, and
now the fridge upstairs has the 5 year old motor.

I had a Sears-Whrlpool-made fridge that was about 20 years old when I
noticed the air wasn't coming out the bottom. It took me weeks to
pull out the fridge to learn the problem. It was a mouse stuck in the
fan, a dried dead mouse. I just pushed out with something and I
expected the fridge would fail because of running too hot for weeks,
but it didn't. About 5 years ago, the same thing happened. Again it
ran without the fan spinning for weeks, and it was another dead dried
mouse.. And 3 years ago, when the fridge was 30 years old, the
thermostat failed. I replaced that with one from ebay, but the fan
motors are still fine and the fridge runs fine after 33 years, and has
no broken parts, except for the door gasket which is in place but has
a "cut" on the ouside, for part of the perimieter.

So what I tend to be saying is you don't need to replace that motor as
soon as it breaks, but otoh, I have an old well-made fridge and I hear
all the new ones are junk. I guess you could stop the fan for an hour
or two and use a remote thermometer to see how much the temperature of
the condensor coil increases.

Is my fan a legacy from when fridges would really overheat without
one?

(Of course I live alone so I don't use it as much as a family would.)

On 2012-10-17, micky wrote:

Is my fan a legacy from when fridges would really overheat without
one?

No, yer fan is a legacy from the era when appliances were made to last
30 yrs. I think mine was about 30 yrs old when I moved and had to
salvage it, but it still worked great. In its entire history, it had
only required 1 defroster fan and one defroster timer, about $50
total. I also knew of 4 other refrigerators jes like it in town that
were also still going strong, two on my block, alone. My mom has gone
through 2 new refrigrators in the last 15 yrs. Crap!!

nb

--
Definition of objectivism:
"Eff you! I got mine."
http://www.nongmoproject.org/

No, if the problem was that a mouse got caught in the fan, it was the condenser fan that wasn't working; not the evaporator fan. Most fridges don't have a condenser fan and rely on convection for cooling the compressed refrigerant. That's what that black tubing at the back of a typical fridge is all about. It's generally larger fridges like side-by-sides that have the condenser coil at the bottom of the fridge and a fan to blow air through that condenser coil. Smaller fridges typically have their condenser coil on the back of the fridge.

I expect that a condenser fan that's gone on the blink for whatever reason would affect the fridge's ability to keep food cold and frozen, but I've never heard of a fridge overheating and being ruined because of the condenser fan not working. I expect that appliance manufacturers test their fridges to make sure the condenser coil is large enough to allow for sufficient cooling even if the condenser fan isn't working.