Intermittent cooling...

**brenfridge** · December 11th, 2011, 05:30 AM

Brand: Whirlpool

Age: 1-5 years

I know this has been brought up in other posts but I have tried everything (I could find) with no success....

So, here's the backstory/what's wrong: Mother-in-law's Whirlpool fridge (er2mhkxpl01) has started to cool/turn off intermittently. Will run fine for a time (sometimes a few days, sometimes only hours) then- urrgh- open the fridge and melted ice/warm milk! Unplug it for a minute, plug it back in and--- read last sentence again.

Here's what doesn't work: turning the temp control dial on/off...up/down, bumping/jiggling the compressor, swearing at it, calling it names, punching it, hitting it with my mother-in-law.

Here's what I have observed/done/tested...and found to be operational/not the problem: 1) tested the defrost thermostat (using multimeter tested resistance warm/then cold)...works, 2) tested the cold climate control/thermostat (resistance with multimeter off/infinity and on/0.00)...works, 3) tested the defrost timer (using multimeter resistance prongs 1-2/1-3, and observed it running when energized)....works, 4) no build-up on the coils and no leakage anywhere, 5) With fridge running/cooling I have turned the dial on the defrost timer to cycle to the "off/defrost" time..clicks off as it should...wait a while....and then it clicks back on as it should so I don't think it has anything to do with compressor (start relay, etc).

Any other things to check before I throw it in the neighbors pool under the cover of darkness. I guess the next time it turns off again I can check the timer to confirm that it is running...other than that I am at a loss.

Thanks in advance for your help!
Drew

***Jake*** · December 11th, 2011, 10:16 AM

Ok, so the refrigerator is turning off completely(no fans running, nothing, dead silent) when you notice this happening?

When it stops, what do you do to make it start again?

Possibly your cold control thermostat is acting up intermittently, which you won't see all the time when just testing for resistance on it.

Tap under the console in your refrigerator section and see if it comes on.

What I usually see if the contacts inside that cold control thermostat go bad and when you tap of the console or knob then the refrigerator comes back on again.

Here's the one for your model you can order here:
Manufacturer's Number: 2204605

**brenfridge** · December 11th, 2011, 10:51 AM

No signs of life other than the light...no sounds, no compressor, and no fan. Tried whacking the control when not running and got nothing. Connections are very clean and tight. Only thing that jump starts it is by unplugging it and the plugging it back in after a minute or two.

Thanks for your reply...any other thoughts????

***Jake*** · December 11th, 2011, 11:59 AM

Thats very strange, I'm stumped myself then, never ran into that issue your having.

Hopefully another tech. thats seen this happen can shed some light on this.

Jake

**brenfridge** · December 11th, 2011, 08:07 PM

Thanks....could it be a main-board issue. Does the Whirlpool even have one, I assume it does. The only thing there is that usually MB issues aren't intermittant. I know my crappy GE has needed 2 main-board replacements during its sad/pathetic life.

***Jake*** · December 11th, 2011, 10:19 PM

Nope, no control boards on this model.

Jake

**jeremyflint** · February 2nd, 2012, 07:42 AM

I am having a similar issue on my 10 year old Roper. Usually, I can jog it back on by turning the thermostat knob all the way down, then back to the normal setting (around 4 on a 1-5 scale).

This morning, that didn't work. So i unplugged it and plugged it back in a few times and it eventually turned back on.

Did you ever find a solution?

***Jake*** · February 2nd, 2012, 10:42 AM

Its likely the cold control thermostat on yours too, I change a lot of these for this issue.

Jake

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