Why has Water stopped running to the dispensers in side by side refridgerator/freezer?
This is a Frigidaire Appliance we got in 2003. Everything was working fine until two days ago when someone neglected to check the ice chute; it was stuck open all night from a cube. The next day almost everything in the fridge was frozen. The freezer was over frozen. That night, the tube going to the icemaker was frozen inside, so water was gushing in places it wasn’t supposed to and freezing over causing further problems. I turned the icemaker off, cut off the water supply, allowed the freezer to defrost, checked for ice in the fan and condensers. Everything seemed to be working fine afterwards, but now, the water will not run to the front dispenser, nor to the icemaker. The filter is OK. Water comes out of the filter housing. I can hear the solenoid when I activate the dispenser and when the icemaker is trying to get water, but there is none. The water was flowing fine before this incident. Other than replace that solenoid, what can I do? Thanks in advance!
Looking at your details I would guess this is what happened.
Simple explanation. The water likely froze in the dispenser…frozen water expands…the dispenser is not built to deal with frozen water/expansion. Something internal to the dispensing system burst/broke. The fact that you saw water gushing from places where you would not expect to see water would seem a sure sign something burst. As an example this is similar to homes in colder climates when their pipes freeze they burst to relieve the pressure from the expansion.
Now to figure out what is broken? It could be a seal, a hose, a valve, a collar, the pump, basically any part of the water dispensing system. I would focus on the areas where you observed the leaks.
First I would simply inspect as much of the system as I can looking for things that do not look right…obvious problems.
Next I would run the unit while inspecting. Run the unit and see if you can see any leakage. Leakage would obviously indicate a problem in that area.
If there are no leaks and water is not being dispensed that would indicate the water is not being pumped. The pump would also seem the most sensitive to freezing as there are likely seals and somewhat sensitive parts.
Verify that when you defrosted it was enough time to completely defrost. If anything is still frozen in the system it would not operate.
It could actually be multiple parts so do not be surprised if you find and fix something and then have additional problems.
I am not a refridgerator repair expert…"but I did stay at a Holiday Inn Express last night". I am an engineer and troubleshoot things for a living so just doing the research I think the above theory is sound.
If the above fails depending on your level of handiness you could either call an appliance repair place or try some specialized appliance repair message forums…you are much more likely to get a true appliance expert to give you an opinion. They may also have some other tests you can perform to narrow down the problem to a specific part.
Recommendations:
http://www.applianceguru.com/
http://www.applianceblog.com/mainforums/
http://forums.partselect.com/
Hope this helps…
Frigidaire Frigidaire 10000 BTU Through-The-Wall Air Conditioner
Sometimes they just need to be reinstalled. This trouble shooter is for GE but it is very similar to Frigidaire.
http://www.ehow.com/how_5931049_troubleshoot-ge-icemaker.html
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yes
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I got one of those fridge/freezers when I had my kitchen remodelled, and on a number of occasions it quit working, even when I gently warmed everything available with a carefully-positioned hairdryer. One engineer said ‘Look, lady, you’ve got to remember that this isn’t called an American fridge-freezer for nothing, and you know how much ice they consume, especially in the warmer states? So you should extract several bowls of ice from it each day whether you propose to use them or not.’ For a while that worked, but I have to admit that sitting somewhere on the list of ‘things to get round to doing’ is fixing the ruddy ice-dispenser, because it has indeed seized up and I can’t bear the thought of the disruption of getting it fixed yet.
I don’t know whether that’s your issue, but I thought I’d share it.
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Looking at your details I would guess this is what happened.
Simple explanation. The water likely froze in the dispenser…frozen water expands…the dispenser is not built to deal with frozen water/expansion. Something internal to the dispensing system burst/broke. The fact that you saw water gushing from places where you would not expect to see water would seem a sure sign something burst. As an example this is similar to homes in colder climates when their pipes freeze they burst to relieve the pressure from the expansion.
Now to figure out what is broken? It could be a seal, a hose, a valve, a collar, the pump, basically any part of the water dispensing system. I would focus on the areas where you observed the leaks.
First I would simply inspect as much of the system as I can looking for things that do not look right…obvious problems.
Next I would run the unit while inspecting. Run the unit and see if you can see any leakage. Leakage would obviously indicate a problem in that area.
If there are no leaks and water is not being dispensed that would indicate the water is not being pumped. The pump would also seem the most sensitive to freezing as there are likely seals and somewhat sensitive parts.
Verify that when you defrosted it was enough time to completely defrost. If anything is still frozen in the system it would not operate.
It could actually be multiple parts so do not be surprised if you find and fix something and then have additional problems.
I am not a refridgerator repair expert…"but I did stay at a Holiday Inn Express last night". I am an engineer and troubleshoot things for a living so just doing the research I think the above theory is sound.
If the above fails depending on your level of handiness you could either call an appliance repair place or try some specialized appliance repair message forums…you are much more likely to get a true appliance expert to give you an opinion. They may also have some other tests you can perform to narrow down the problem to a specific part.
Recommendations:
http://www.applianceguru.com/
http://forums.partselect.com/
Hope this helps…
References :