desertsmitty
Premium Member
- Model Number
- KRFF707ESS01
- Brand
- KitchenAid
- Age
- 1-5 years
Hello,
I have the same issue that many of the people who have posted about this unit have with the refrigerator evap fan compartment freezing up and needing to be defrosted many times a year. I bought this unit new from Spencers Appliances and the problems started about 13 months after I bought it, without the extended warranty.
All of the diagnostic tests come back as passing or no errors, and I too set the system defrost to every 8 hours to hopefully assist with this issue. Unfortunately, I have learned to live with this and have gotten my breakdown and thaw process down to about 45 minutes from unplug to plug in.
After my most recent empty, defrost, and putback, I noticed that the freezer was only holding around 20 degrees in the bottom drawers, but some frozen drink pops on the top shelf were liquid. I have never had a real problem with the freezer before, but the ice maker did stop making Ice, and I chalked it up to being a horrendous piece of junk and started buying a bag of ice every couple of days.
After emptying the freezer and taking the shelf rails and back panel off, I noticed that the freezer evap fan does not function, the freezer cabinet lights do not come on, and the fan does not come on in diagnostic test 3 selection 4 which should have forced both the fridge and freezer fans to run. The fridge evap fan works and cools the fridge back down to 37, and with the cover off and no food in the freezer, it seems to be holding in the single digits, except when it goes into defrost mode when it goes up into the high 20's that I have seen when I am paying attention.
I noted the tube on the left side of the freezer, which runs up to the icemaker, and I am assuming that is why I am not getting ice. I also think I read that the freezer defrost cycle utilizes the evap fan to also help heat the fridge evaporator cavity just above the freezer.
The top and side LED lights in the fridge cabinet are dim when they do work, but the 2 lit up shelf lights work as designed.
I read someone else's post about a similar sounding problem with a KA fridge and their troubles checked all of my boxes, so I bought a new main control board in the hopes that it would solve all of my problems. Well, I am here still asking for help with this money pit, so as you can imagine, it did not work. Everything is cold and "working" in the sense that it can keep things cold for now, but the freezer fan is still not working, the cabinet lights in both the fridge and the freezer do not work, and the ice machine cavity is not receiving the blown air from below that it needs to cool the ice compartment for ice.
I will add a little bit more to my story and say that this KA fridge was purchased after my LG fridge went out after 2 years, and the 2 compressor unit was not able to be fixed due to a lack of parts. After replacing the fridge, I also replaced all of the appliances to match this KA piece of steel. Needless to say, I am a little bit frustrated.
I just ordered the aurora board to hopefully fix the LED problems, but I am so done throwing money at this thing that I am hoping someone on here might have some insight into my problem.
Thank you to all of the previous posters and to the helpers on here that have provided service bulletins, schematics, and fixes for the stubborn folks like me that don't want to pay someone to tell me that I bought a piece of junk.
I have the same issue that many of the people who have posted about this unit have with the refrigerator evap fan compartment freezing up and needing to be defrosted many times a year. I bought this unit new from Spencers Appliances and the problems started about 13 months after I bought it, without the extended warranty.
All of the diagnostic tests come back as passing or no errors, and I too set the system defrost to every 8 hours to hopefully assist with this issue. Unfortunately, I have learned to live with this and have gotten my breakdown and thaw process down to about 45 minutes from unplug to plug in.
After my most recent empty, defrost, and putback, I noticed that the freezer was only holding around 20 degrees in the bottom drawers, but some frozen drink pops on the top shelf were liquid. I have never had a real problem with the freezer before, but the ice maker did stop making Ice, and I chalked it up to being a horrendous piece of junk and started buying a bag of ice every couple of days.
After emptying the freezer and taking the shelf rails and back panel off, I noticed that the freezer evap fan does not function, the freezer cabinet lights do not come on, and the fan does not come on in diagnostic test 3 selection 4 which should have forced both the fridge and freezer fans to run. The fridge evap fan works and cools the fridge back down to 37, and with the cover off and no food in the freezer, it seems to be holding in the single digits, except when it goes into defrost mode when it goes up into the high 20's that I have seen when I am paying attention.
I noted the tube on the left side of the freezer, which runs up to the icemaker, and I am assuming that is why I am not getting ice. I also think I read that the freezer defrost cycle utilizes the evap fan to also help heat the fridge evaporator cavity just above the freezer.
The top and side LED lights in the fridge cabinet are dim when they do work, but the 2 lit up shelf lights work as designed.
I read someone else's post about a similar sounding problem with a KA fridge and their troubles checked all of my boxes, so I bought a new main control board in the hopes that it would solve all of my problems. Well, I am here still asking for help with this money pit, so as you can imagine, it did not work. Everything is cold and "working" in the sense that it can keep things cold for now, but the freezer fan is still not working, the cabinet lights in both the fridge and the freezer do not work, and the ice machine cavity is not receiving the blown air from below that it needs to cool the ice compartment for ice.
I will add a little bit more to my story and say that this KA fridge was purchased after my LG fridge went out after 2 years, and the 2 compressor unit was not able to be fixed due to a lack of parts. After replacing the fridge, I also replaced all of the appliances to match this KA piece of steel. Needless to say, I am a little bit frustrated.
I just ordered the aurora board to hopefully fix the LED problems, but I am so done throwing money at this thing that I am hoping someone on here might have some insight into my problem.
Thank you to all of the previous posters and to the helpers on here that have provided service bulletins, schematics, and fixes for the stubborn folks like me that don't want to pay someone to tell me that I bought a piece of junk.