KitchenAid Fridge Took A Dump

[New Englander]

4 hours ago, vtfireman85 said:

Bosch

Bosch heat pump and furnace here based on as much research I could find. 

[vtfireman85]

52 minutes ago, New Englander said:

Bosch heat pump and furnace here based on as much research I could find. 

Buy once, cry once. 

[1480x3]

20 hours ago, Rick G. said:

…..throwing out a feeler here to see if I can get lucky in case anyone here has been down this KitchenAid path before.

Our 11 year old KitchenAid fridge / freezer that we bought from brand new has quit cooling and freezing. Freezer on bottom, French doors fridge at top. 

I took the back lower access  panel off to get a look-see, because I am getting a clicking sound out of some gizmo mounted right next to the compressor. I presume this is some sort of relay / capacitor type of thing?

I am wondering if this relay thing may have failed, causing the compressor not to run? Either that, or maybe the compressor tied up and failed? 

I have unplugged the connections and removed this object from its mounting. I think I’m just going to take a chance and order this new part on-line and hope it gets the fridge running again.

If that idea doesn’t work, I think  I’m just going to say screw it and we’ll buy a whole new fridge. I did some reading on our model and age  of KitchenAid fridge. It says that at 11 years old, this model is now in the “twilight” of its expected service life. Ugh, so It sounds like it’s not worth sinking a lot of money in to.

So, anyone with a 10 year old KitchenAid fridge ever been down this road with theirs? Am I on the right track with thinking of replacing this small relay thing? I’m not sure it’s a capacitor, it’s all just a small square plastic encased part.

If that doesn’t fix it, I guess we’re buying a new fridge- I’m thinking another KitchenAid, or maybe Whirlpool. (I think Whirlpool makes the KitchenAids????) 

We’re limping along right now with our refrigerated stuff in a couple of big picnic cooler ice chests, and our terrific next door neighbors are also letting us use the fridge / freezer of their motorhome that they have parked at their place. Lucky there.

I thought about calling in an appliance repair service, but I called a couple places to check, and one place wants $105.00 for a service call, and the other wants $125.00 to come out. F’ing ludicrous! They both said  they would wave the service call fee if I agree to proceed with any repairs. They both told me if they check it and then deem the fridge is not worth repairing, the service call fee still applies.

Thanks for any knowledge to share or input. Rick. 

 

What does AI recommend, fix or replace ?

[JaredT]

You have one of two things wrong, a bad starting relay or compressor. Lorenzo was right the clicking is the cycling of the overload. The relay is usually a thermal disc on that vintage and it explodes inside the plastic housing when it goes bad. If you remove it and shake it, it rattles from all of the pieces inside. The overload attaches onto one of the pins, they rarely go bad. The start device(used to be a relay) slides onto two pins. If you change one i usually change both. The model number of the refrigerator will get you what you need, numbers off the compressor will not usually get you the correct parts, unfortunately.  If that doesnt work, its a bad compressor.

The new units from Whirlpool are now Chinese made, much to my displeasure. I have heard lots of people say Maytag is junk, buy a Whirlpool or vice versa, they roll down the same assembly line. Every brand, every manufacturer has a lemon product or product line every now and then. Stay away from Samsung, the product arent always all that bad, the company sucks to deal with. Frigidaire( Electrolux) has a terrible history with French door units also, their top mounts are excellent. LG units have had terrible history with compressor failures, but seem to have that figured out now.  I've replaced lots of Bosch dishwashers with Maytags and never had a customer with buyers remorse, take your pick.

Ive been in the appliance business since I was old enough to ride with Dad, likely 5, been doing this full time for over 25 years. We have sold a lot of the new Chinese built Whirlpools, some of their units were Chinese made for 5 or 6 years now and haven't given any trouble.  At least Whirlpool will somewhat take care of their customers, better than all other manufacturers. 

Feel free to PM me with any questions while working on it, I can even forward my phone number.

[JaredT]

Also, I feel R600 (butane) is way nicer to deal with than R134 as far as refrigerant goes.

[supermechanic]

I have been running Follett and SubZero.

 They work.

[JaredT]

I would agree with you, both of those brands are good, but both are out of the price range of our market. $5k and up refrigerators are leass than 2% of the market i would guess. Locally less than 1% of the market.

[dale560]

On 8/8/2026 at 6:06 PM, lorenzo said:

Well first off, the clicking sound your hearing is most likely the overload.

Its a small black round plastic part fastened to the compressor usually right next to the relay. it’s about the diameter of a nickel.  It will have a black wire from your common ( hot ) power lead going into it , and the wire coming out of it will go to the common terminal on your compressor .When the compressor either draws over current or gets too hot it will open its circuit. When that happens it makes that sound. 
If your compressor is stuck from an internal failure it will draw overcurrent and open the overload. Another thing that will cause it is  low-voltage . Another thing that will cause it is if your relay sticks in the start mode, it will draw over current on the start winding. Another thing that will cause that  click is if it gets too hot from a dirty condenser or a condenser fan that has went bad . You can bypass the overload just long enough to see if your compressor will run. Wait untill it has had time to cool off   if the compressor will run after bypassing your overload then chances  are you got lucky and that’s all you would need.  That rarely happens. Lay your hand on the compressor and chances are it is so hot You cannot touch it.
if you choose to go buy a relay buy the overload at the same time, they are gonna want the model number off the compressor and take the model number off the refrigerator also and go to a wholesale house that sells that brand. On the downside if you buy a new refrigerator, it’s probably  gonna have propane as the refrigerant.

You do not like propane as a refrigerant? I don’t deal with it but just don’t want it put in a mobile system without some type of identification.

[lorenzo]

31 minutes ago, dale560 said:

You do not like propane as a refrigerant? I don’t deal with it but just don’t want it put in a mobile system without some type of identification.

The whole refrigerant circus has gotten way out of hand. Seams as though theres a new, better, colder, cleaner, environment friendly bla bla bla every month. Now a service tech has to carry a dozen different kind of refrigerant in his truck and just when you think they settle in on a certain type for a certain machine they take it off the market and you either have to convert it or junk it. Example,   You have an R-22 AC system in your house . Its been running perfectly for years. 
now it needs something as simple as repairing a leak and recharging it with refrigerant, Sorry cant do it!  Now you need a new condensing unit, Sorry cant do it without replacing the A-Coil to match. Sometimes it even means replacing the copper line set . I remember three refrigerants was all you had to carry., R-12 for most medium temp machines,  R-22 for Airconditioner’s and some  old Dairy Queen ice cream machines  and R-502 for low temp. That was it.  I remember when one set of gauges was all you needed, not any more. Now a tech has to take special classes to be certified to use the new propane blended refrigerant.  It all a money grab. 
People are being forced into spending 6, 8, even as much as 10 thousand dollars to have Air conditioning when it could have once simply been repaired. Unfortunately, the tech gets blamed for the high repair cost When basically he is just a front man taking the beating.

 

[dale560]

15 minutes ago, lorenzo said:

The whole refrigerant circus has gotten way out of hand. Seams as though theres a new, better, colder, cleaner, environment friendly bla bla bla every month. Now a service tech has to carry a dozen different kind of refrigerant in his truck and just when you think they settle in on a certain type for a certain machine they take it off the market and you either have to convert it or junk it. Example,   You have an R-22 AC system in your house . Its been running perfectly for years. 
now it needs something as simple as repairing a leak and recharging it with refrigerant, Sorry cant do it!  Now you need a new condensing unit, Sorry cant do it without replacing the A-Coil to match. Sometimes it even means replacing the copper line set . I remember three refrigerants was all you had to carry., R-12 for most medium temp machines,  R-22 for Airconditioner’s and some  old Dairy Queen ice cream machines  and R-502 for low temp. That was it.  I remember when one set of gauges was all you needed, not any more. Now a tech has to take special classes to be certified to use the new propane blended refrigerant.  It all a money grab. 
People are being forced into spending 6, 8, even as much as 10 thousand dollars to have Air conditioning when it could have once simply been repaired. Unfortunately, the tech gets blamed for the high repair cost When basically he is just a front man taking the beating.

 

 A you buy recycled r22 yet? 

[Rick G.]

23 hours ago, JaredT said:

You have one of two things wrong, a bad starting relay or compressor. Lorenzo was right the clicking is the cycling of the overload. The relay is usually a thermal disc on that vintage and it explodes inside the plastic housing when it goes bad. If you remove it and shake it, it rattles from all of the pieces inside. The overload attaches onto one of the pins, they rarely go bad. The start device(used to be a relay) slides onto two pins. If you change one i usually change both. The model number of the refrigerator will get you what you need, numbers off the compressor will not usually get you the correct parts, unfortunately.  If that doesnt work, its a bad compressor.

The new units from Whirlpool are now Chinese made, much to my displeasure. I have heard lots of people say Maytag is junk, buy a Whirlpool or vice versa, they roll down the same assembly line. Every brand, every manufacturer has a lemon product or product line every now and then. Stay away from Samsung, the product arent always all that bad, the company sucks to deal with. Frigidaire( Electrolux) has a terrible history with French door units also, their top mounts are excellent. LG units have had terrible history with compressor failures, but seem to have that figured out now.  I've replaced lots of Bosch dishwashers with Maytags and never had a customer with buyers remorse, take your pick.

Ive been in the appliance business since I was old enough to ride with Dad, likely 5, been doing this full time for over 25 years. We have sold a lot of the new Chinese built Whirlpools, some of their units were Chinese made for 5 or 6 years now and haven't given any trouble.  At least Whirlpool will somewhat take care of their customers, better than all other manufacturers. 

Feel free to PM me with any questions while working on it, I can even forward my phone number.

Much appreciated thanks to all who have replied. Here’s an update.

And members lorenzo and JaredT have hit the nail on the head with info they furnished.

I now have our 11 year old KitchenAid fridge back up and running. It was indeed one of those two mated parts that went bad- that relay / run capacitor(?) combo that I had removed from down near the compressor per my original post here. I did indeed replace both of those- they piggyback / plug and play right together in my case.

On Saturday morning, I took my life in to my hands and ventured in to Austin via dreaded I-35 expressway to get to an appliance parts supply company there in town, my old parts in hand. Gawd dam I hate that I-35 through Austin every time I need to take it. My joke with my wife about I-35 in Austin is- That’s not an expressway- It’s 33% deathway (all too frequent fatalities), 33% parking lot (traffic jam standstills), 33% race track (excessive speeding), and only 1% expressway. F’ing idiots galore on that stretch. I can’t stand I-35. If any of y’all’s ever dare to venture down to Austin needing to use I-35, May God be with you ….. you have been warned. Maybe 2:00 or 3:00 in the morning may not be too bad…. I don’t know….

But, I digress….. sorry.

My original suspicion or guess that I had asked about / looking for confirmation worked out! Dumb luck? Or educated guess? But again also thanks to lorenzo and JaredT. A relatively cheap fix to get the KitchenAid up and running again. …..for how much longer? Who knows. Other than risking my life on I-35, and gasoline, the two parts cost me not quite $70.00. Cheaper than going out having to  buy a new $2,000.00+ fridge for now. But the next time this thing pukes out- the wife says it will be new fridge buying time. For better or worse. 

While I was working behind the fridge, I did also use my shop vac to vac up dust off of as much parts as I could reach- It wasn’t as bad as I feared it might be, but still surprising. If you haven’t been behind or under your fridges in a while, you might want to have a look and vacuum!

In closing, I guess I can understand what some of you said about the cost of those service calls. Up front, when they quote you their service call fee over the phone, it sounds expensive in the knee-jerk reaction of the moment. At first, one doesn’t initially take in to account the costs of running a business these days, and so it’s like sticker shock when they give you a quote on the phone. I’m glad I was able to dodge that service call bullet, at least this time around, and got it figured out without a service call.

I’ll post a couple pics below of the two parts I replaced, in case it helps others here. 

Again, thanks for all the response. Rick. 

 

[Rick G.]

Well crap. My pictures refuse to post. Is anyone going to fix this board for pictures? 

[JaredT]

Happy to hear it is up and running, that platform has a good history of making 15 years easily and going over 20 regularly. Ironically they just discontinued that platform in favor of Chinese models.🤬

[acem]

8 hours ago, Rick G. said:

Much appreciated thanks to all who have replied. Here’s an update.

And members lorenzo and JaredT have hit the nail on the head with info they furnished.

I now have our 11 year old KitchenAid fridge back up and running. It was indeed one of those two mated parts that went bad- that relay / run capacitor(?) combo that I had removed from down near the compressor per my original post here. I did indeed replace both of those- they piggyback / plug and play right together in my case.

On Saturday morning, I took my life in to my hands and ventured in to Austin via dreaded I-35 expressway to get to an appliance parts supply company there in town, my old parts in hand. Gawd dam I hate that I-35 through Austin every time I need to take it. My joke with my wife about I-35 in Austin is- That’s not an expressway- It’s 33% deathway (all too frequent fatalities), 33% parking lot (traffic jam standstills), 33% race track (excessive speeding), and only 1% expressway. F’ing idiots galore on that stretch. I can’t stand I-35. If any of y’all’s ever dare to venture down to Austin needing to use I-35, May God be with you ….. you have been warned. Maybe 2:00 or 3:00 in the morning may not be too bad…. I don’t know….

But, I digress….. sorry.

My original suspicion or guess that I had asked about / looking for confirmation worked out! Dumb luck? Or educated guess? But again also thanks to lorenzo and JaredT. A relatively cheap fix to get the KitchenAid up and running again. …..for how much longer? Who knows. Other than risking my life on I-35, and gasoline, the two parts cost me not quite $70.00. Cheaper than going out having to  buy a new $2,000.00+ fridge for now. But the next time this thing pukes out- the wife says it will be new fridge buying time. For better or worse. 

While I was working behind the fridge, I did also use my shop vac to vac up dust off of as much parts as I could reach- It wasn’t as bad as I feared it might be, but still surprising. If you haven’t been behind or under your fridges in a while, you might want to have a look and vacuum!

In closing, I guess I can understand what some of you said about the cost of those service calls. Up front, when they quote you their service call fee over the phone, it sounds expensive in the knee-jerk reaction of the moment. At first, one doesn’t initially take in to account the costs of running a business these days, and so it’s like sticker shock when they give you a quote on the phone. I’m glad I was able to dodge that service call bullet, at least this time around, and got it figured out without a service call.

I’ll post a couple pics below of the two parts I replaced, in case it helps others here. 

Again, thanks for all the response. Rick. 

 

It's been a while but I've been on I35 in Austin. Seems like it is a double decker highway?

Do people still drive 85+MPH all the time until they lock their brakes and stop???

I think it's safer driving in third world countries (and I have) than Texas urban interstates!!!

And I'm glad you got her going!

 

[arizonian]

21 hours ago, dale560 said:

 A you buy recycled r22 yet? 

I bit the bullet in 2019 and bought a jug of R22 for my house AC. IIRC, beginning of 2020 R22 would no longer be manufactured/sold. After I had repaired the leak that was my fault while rebuilding the mechanical room, my AC guy came out, evacuated the system and filled it with 11 some odd pounds. If needed, and the compressor lasts, I have more than enough for another refill. If the compressor dies, then I might look to replacing the system.

[mmi]

10 hours ago, Rick G. said:

If any of y’all’s ever dare to venture down to Austin needing to use I-35, May God be with you ….. you have been warned. Maybe 2:00 or 3:00 in the morn

I am 2000 + miles away. Was in a BBQ restaurant last month. At next table. Two foreigners/two "american"...assume gas workers of some type, white coat worker middle manager $100 + /hr.  Discussing eating around world (co $$$)  escargot caviar champagne ydayada ,BUGs, ANTS ,LIVE WORMS ,CHOCOLATE CRICKETS and MORE!!      ROW std PC fare.

Its then turns to office "commutes"......bingo Austin   leave at 6am to arrive 10 am or simply fly in red eye go direct to office,done by 5am sleep to 10 am back to airport quick.