Spent 3 hours chasing a bad capacitor on a fridge compressor start relay

I had a Whirlpool fridge that kept clicking every 30 seconds and finally broke down and replaced the start relay assembly. Turned out the capacitor was fine, but the spade connector had a hairline crack that only showed up under load. Anyone else ever waste a whole afternoon on something that simple?

2 comments

2 Comments

robertgreen28d ago

That phrase "hairline crack that only showed up under load" - did you find it with a multimeter or just by swapping parts?

wyatt5227d ago

Oh man, that brings back memories. I had a similar issue once with an old refrigerator compressor that would run fine for hours then just quit. I spent weeks swapping parts before I figured it out. What finally worked for me was something simple. I got out a magnifying glass and a bright flashlight and just slowly looked over the whole control board, especially around the solder joints. Found a tiny crack near a relay pin that I had missed three times before. A quick dab of solder fixed it right up. So if you ask me, and I know this sounds old school, sometimes the best tool is just your eyes and a good light. @robertgreen, you might try that before you swap too many parts.