FIXED Kitchenaid KRFF507ESS01 RC not Cooling but mysteriously is now

[smithcrew]

Model Number

KRFF507ESS01

Brand

KitchenAid

Age

1-5 years

Hello. I have been fighting a refrigerator side cooling problem for several weeks, and have read many many posts on this forum about this issue, so thanks to all who have contributed to the forum. I have replaced the main control board, did not help. Confirmed the FC and RC thermistors seem to be working (ice bath test for RC thermistor, self test for both from front panel, and ohm out from rear of fridge at connector J5 for both). Self test #4 passes. The RC evap coil will cool. I put a thermocouple on the FC evap air outlet during this test and the air is very cold at 20F or less. The coil has not had ice buildup that I have ever seen. I took the RC apart down to the evap fan also to check for ice and working fan. Fan is blowing fine. Every time the compressor shuts off and the system cycles on again, the RC evap seems to work fine. Once the RC hits the temp set point, the system seems to move to the FC and never gives back to the RC evap. If I power cycle the refrigerator (unplug or breaker), this starts over. RC evap works for first cycle and then does not seem to get the coolant back again. Freezer has worked throughout all of this. At one point, I tapped on the diverter valve to see if it was stuck in FC position with no effect.

UPDATE and delima. After not working for these couple of weeks, the RC is now working fine for the last 2-3 days. In this area where we live, service technician visits are difficult and take a week or so to schedule. I have one scheduled for a visit in three days and am wondering if I should cancel and see how our run of working refrigerator goes. I am concerned that the $200 cost of their trip out here is not going to help, especially now that the problem may be intermittent. I did cancel once already when I hoped the main control board that came in would have fixed it. Any advice would be appreciated.

 

[Jake]

Hi,

Sounds like possibly a sealed system problem. That should be covered under your sealed system warranty, for at least 5 years, check your owners manual warranty page to make sure.

What is the Realtime temperature that your freezer thermometer says it it?

If you don't have freezer thermometer you can get the RED Liquid or digital freezer thermometer. Walmart, Target sells them usually at about 10 dollars and they last a lifetime. The temperature needs to be 0 degrees F at all times in the freezer.

 

[smithcrew]

Thank you for the reply Jake. Warranty does say 5 years on sealed system for parts and labor, and parts for 10 years. I will keep my appointment with the technician. I actually saw the refrigerator warm up a bit this morning, to about 46F and likely rising. When I set the freezer to zero, it holds pretty close to that. I just looked and it is right on zero, even while the fridge is at 46F.

I am using a Taylor dial thermometer in both the fridge and the freezer. I also use an ohmmeter with thermocouple input for troubleshooting, so I can move the thermocouple where I want it. I placed it at the back of the freezer to make sure the space around the FC evap thermistor was reading similar to the thermometer I have at the front of the freezer, and they were in good agreement. I will post an update after the technician visit.

 

[Jake]

Your model has the 3-way valve( aka solenoid/valve assembly) in the sealed system, that might be the cause, yours uses this same one here:

FIXED - WRX988SIBM03 - Refrigerator not cooling, no ice, turns off intermittently

Hello, I'm trying to diagnose my refrigerator problems. Our first symptom was hollow ice cubes followed by no ice. We turned off ice maker because we rarely used it and wanted to delay any repair costs. Recently we tried using it again and within a few hours of turning on the ice maker the...

www.applianceblog.com

But should be under the sealed system warranty as well.

 

[smithcrew]

Technician is due tomorrow. Unit has been working flawlessly since last posting. Will post what they diagnose and hopefully fix. BTW, also had the side LEDs and freezer LED out and read through one of your previous posts that helped diagnose the freezer LED as the culprit. I shorted across it and the lights in the fridge came on. Ordered the new freezer LED.

 

[Jake]

Ok, sounds good, let us know how it goes.

 

[smithcrew]

Repairman paid us a visit. After hearing our testimony, he was very baffled. The company had sent him with an inverter for the compressor, but he thought that was likely not the case since the freezer has not had a problem throughout this ordeal. He ran some of the UI diagnostics that I had already run, and they showed all systems good.

He checked the current draw and it was nominal at 1.2 amps, so he felt the compressor was running nominal. Suffice to say, we paid him for the service call and have 90 days to get him back out on that same ticket if things go south on us again.

Everything seems to be working at this time. Fridge is 37F and the freezer is 0F. There is one more tidbit to mention if you have time. I asked him if he had the freezer LED in his truck, and if so, I would replace it and just send the one I ordered back when it gets here, or keep it as a backup.

He brought me what he had, and it was the RC type, not the FC type. I noticed when I ordered the FC LED, it was twice the cost of the FC, and I chalked it up to ruggedized for a freezer temperature, so more expensive. He said he uses the cheaper one in the freezers just fine. I had one of the RC type since I had already ordered one so I installed it and all lights working. Does this sound like a bad idea? They are all working now.

 

[Jake]

Repairman paid us a visit. After hearing our testimony, he was very baffled. The company had sent him with an inverter for the compressor, but he thought that was likely not the case since the freezer has not had a problem throughout this ordeal. He ran some of the UI diagnostics that I had already run, and they showed all systems good.

He checked the current draw and it was nominal at 1.2 amps, so he felt the compressor was running nominal. Suffice to say, we paid him for the service call and have 90 days to get him back out on that same ticket if things go south on us again.

Everything seems to be working at this time. Fridge is 37F and the freezer is 0F.

Ok, sounds good, thanks for the update.

There is one more tidbit to mention if you have time. I asked him if he had the freezer LED in his truck, and if so, I would replace it and just send the one I ordered back when it gets here, or keep it as a backup.

He brought me what he had, and it was the RC type, not the FC type. I noticed when I ordered the FC LED, it was twice the cost of the FC, and I chalked it up to ruggedized for a freezer temperature, so more expensive. He said he uses the cheaper one in the freezers just fine. I had one of the RC type since I had already ordered one so I installed it and all lights working. Does this sound like a bad idea? They are all working now.

Here's that OEM FREEZER LED light module for your model:
Led Light Board W10695459


Here's the parts diagram for the refrigerator section:
(click to enlarge)


#38 is the LED light module for the top left 2 and the side ones: W11462342

I don't know if you can use the #38 ones in the freezer, I've never tried that before myself, I always order and replace the freezer LED with the OEM one KitchenAid says to use and never had a problem.

So if its working as you have it now, then that's fine, but if it goes out again, I'd get the OEM freezer LED light.

 

[smithcrew]

It has been about a month now and the refrigerator has been fluctuating between 28 and 40, all the while with a 37 setpoint. Until yesterday, when it was back up to 50. We called the service company and since we are in the 90 day return window, they are coming out again. By yesterday evening it was back down to 40. The freezer is steady as she goes at -2 to 0. I am not really wanting to blow a bunch more time or money on this problem. It sounded to me during the last visit that they would try something and hope that would work, but they really were not sure what to try. I would be on the hook for the cost of all the tries. Curious if folks would continue trying to save this appliance. I really am not excited about dumping such a new fridge. Is this temperature behavior at all acceptable? I was thinking I could live with the 28-40 since I did not exceed 40, but 50 seems unacceptable.

 

[Jake]

Since your model uses a refrigerator evaporator to cool the refrigerator, I did locate a service bulletin dated March 2021 about what this problem could be, I'm attaching it below.

Start on Page 2 and Page 3 to see if the evaporator thermistor is the correct position. Lots of members here found it was in the wrong position and reset it to the correct position and it fixed this problem, that evaporator thermistor controls the defrost cycle, thus keeps the temperature consistent when in cooling mode.

IMPORTANT: thoroughly defrost the entire evaporator. Excessive frost and ice build-up could cause future service calls.
1. Check the RC Defrost Thermistor for proper operation and placement.
a. Check resistance of thermistor per tech sheet resistance table.
b. Check Thermistor Location; it should be located as shown in figure 1. The thermistor should be tight and in full contact with the suction tube directly coming out of the Evaporator. Do not damage the paint while installing.
c. If the thermistor has a metal clamp, you may need to use a pair of pliers to gently squeeze the clamp to ensure good contact with the tubing (See Figure 2). Be sure not to crimp the Thermistor while closing the gap.

Also on Page 3 to see if the refrigerator evaporator drain pan is BOWED in the middle.

--->The evaporator drain pan should be seated flat and not bowed upwards in the middle (SeeFigure 4). A bowed drain pan may prevent water from properly draining. Ensure proper alignment of the drain pan. If the pan is cracked or permanently deformed, it must be replaced with one of the pans in the kit.

Here's the refrigerator evaporator drain pan it says to order if yours is BOWED:

Whirlpool W11457241 Pan-Drip (AP6987431) - AppliancePartsPros.com

Pan-drip W11457241 / AP6987431 made by Whirlpool

click.linksynergy.com

And follow the instructions in this service bulletin, it does tell you how to remove it.

Let us know how it goes.

 

[smithcrew]

Canceled the appointment. Will check evap coil thermistor location. Fridge is back to 37 this am. Trying to think through this. If that thermistor is not attached well, it will show a warmer temperature to the system I would think. If the system sees the evap coil as warmer than expected, I would think it would do nothing and you would potentially get ice build up and fridge would warm up. That makes sense to me. What I am struggling with is why the fridge is dropping to 28 under these conditions.

Will post again after I dig into the evap thermistor.

 

[Jake]

Trying to think through this. If that thermistor is not attached well, it will show a warmer temperature to the system I would think.

No, your reading that wrong. It says if the thermistor is not attached in the proper place on the evaporator coil, that is the issue.

 

[smithcrew]

Possibly last update. I decided to let things go for a bit and we are fluctuating between 30ish and 37, for the most part. Our setpoint is 37, so still not really sure why we go colder than that, but would rather be colder than warmer. Thanks again for the help.

 

[Jake]

Ok, thanks for the update.

 

[smithcrew]

Another update. Continued large temperature swings but still cold enough until a few weeks ago the RC was not cooling again. Up to almost 50deg. Turns out the evap coil was completely iced over. Never noticed this before with this fridge. The FC was also about 10deg, with a setpoint of 0. I defrosted the ice on the RC evap coil, performed the defrost thermister rework per the previous bulletin that you sent me Jake, and changed the defrost cycle from auto to every 8 hrs. Since then, our fridge is rock solid at 37deg for several weeks now. Since I put the fridge on the 8 hour cycle for defrost, I am not sure if that thermister is even used, so not sure which of the two fixes are the fix, but am really happy with holding temperature like it is. If I get brave one day, I may put the defrost cycle back into auto mode and see how it goes. Glad I did not go with my first instinct which was to give up on this unit after yet another problem.

 

[george747]

I am having a similar issue with our KtchenAid and some of this post is venting so feel free to pass on reading. We use the house seasonally, 6 months a year so if you don't see issues in the first 6 months, you're out of luck. I didn't notice the issue until we came down the 2nd season and by this time the warranty was out. The old GE Profile was fine and a back-up in the garage so plenty of time to troubleshoot. Initially, after finding food was going bad , I installed manual thermometers and found the temp in 50s. did that for a while and then I finally saw the iced over condenser so I installed SmartThings motion sensors which have thermometers built in so I could track the temps live and remotely. The sensors provide 60 min, 24 hr and 30 day temp plots. The Freezer hovered around the set temp of 0F but the FC kept climbing daily. The RC (set to 37F) would vary but each time the daily average would be higher. I tried the forced defrost & 8hr defrost options, but no noticeable change. Each time I'd defrost it and start over, I'd get a couple of weeks before the RC freezing started again. I actually sent the plots to Whirlpool for some suggestions but never got a response. And BTY, I did all the checks available on the front panel and no failures. I haven't check voltages or sensor resistance. I did find I may have another problem in the wings after reading this forum. The sheathing around the door wiring is

Being out of the 12 month warranty, I called WP to see about the 2-5 sealed system warranty and they scheduled it. Out came the local WP tech. He looked up the Svc Policy (SP) mentioned in this thread, which said to change the dispenser board and, other than opening and closing the doors, he did nothing. I didn't know what was in the SP at the time but downloaded it from this forum after he left. The tech didn't even perform the prerequisites in the SP (check the sensor placement and evap fan) and obviously he didn't check the sealed system; he simply ordered the board. After reading the SP and seeing what wasn't done, I was a bit pissed. I called repair company and wanted to know why, if they went out to check the sealed system per the warranty, why didn't the tech do it. The officer mgr said the documentation indicated the sealed system was operating normally. I asked why the tech didn't perform the checks in the SP and I was told the tech did all that was required. We had a little chat and they gladly refunded the service call fee and I had them cancel the order.

So I bought the dispenser board and installed it, (10 min job) keeping my fingers crossed. Currently, I am out of state and I can see the RC temps are starting to climb again after 5 weeks There were no perishables inside so I had a neighbor turn it off.
Maybe just a coincidence, but the SP was dated the same month/year that I got the 'Coolng off' error message. Granted, it could have been a power spike, so I simply reset the refer and it went away. Or maybe it WAS telling me something. However, I wish I had called it in. Interestingly per the SP, the replacement circuit board simply makes the evap fan run longer, which sounds like a work-around for a design goof.

In any case, when we go there again in a few months, I'll start over. As I said, venting and frustrated.
Frustrated that a new, suppositively better quality, appliance has this issue;
frustrated that there appears to be a design flaw and the consumer has to pay for it;
frustrated that a factory trained tech didn't do their job;
frustrated that someone pencil-whipped the documentation;
and frustrated with Whirlpool ,who have emailed me twice, that they are looking into the issues and they'll get back with me - haven't.

Venting over. Miller time.