Whirlpool refrigerator stopped cooling: a fan motor that only ran when pushed

The call: a refrigerator that stopped cooling

A Whirlpool side-by-side had stopped cooling altogether. That complaint has several possible causes, from a stopped fan to a leak in the sealed system, so we started where the cold air is made: behind the back panel of the freezer.

The fan that only ran with a push

With the panel off, I turned the evaporator fan motor by hand. It started. A little later it stopped again on its own.

A healthy fan motor starts by itself the moment it gets power. One that needs a nudge and then quits is on its way out, and nudging it again won’t change that.

What the evaporator fan does

In a side-by-side, the evaporator coil and its fan sit behind the back panel of the freezer. The coil gets cold. The fan is what moves that cold: it pulls air through the coil and blows it into the freezer, and through a duct into the fresh-food side.

When the fan stops, the coil can still be cold, but the air around it barely moves. The fresh-food side warms up first, because its only cold air comes through that duct, and the freezer follows.

What the photos show

The first photo was taken on the kitchen floor. The white plastic fan housing is out of the freezer, with its yellow foam gasket, the fan blade and motor inside, and a wiring harness ending in a white plug. In my glove is a fan motor on its own harness, with a blue grommet partway along the wires and a plug at the end.

The photo at the top of this page shows that motor held up inside the freezer. The shelves and bins are out, and you can see the vents low on the back wall.

The repair

We defrosted the evaporator coil and replaced the fan motor. On this refrigerator the replacement comes as one assembly: the motor with its connector and a temperature sensor already attached. Once it was in, the refrigerator ran and cooled.

The coil gets defrosted before the panel goes back on because the fan sits right against it. Ice on the coil blocks the air the new fan has to move.

Two checks you can do before you call

First, listen for the fan. On many side-by-sides it stops whenever the freezer door is open. Find the door switch, the small plunger the door presses when it closes, and hold it in. You should hear the fan behind the back panel and feel air at the vents. If the refrigerator is running and the fan is silent, say so when you call. It saves time on the visit.

Second, look at the freezer’s back wall. A thick layer of frost on the panel, or frost packed around the vents, points to a coil that has iced over behind it. That sends us to the defrost system as well as the fan.

If you decide to open the panel yourself, unplug the refrigerator first, and don’t chip ice off the coil with anything sharp. The tubing is thin, and a puncture turns a fan repair into sealed-system work, like the KitchenAid evaporator we replaced after a leak. If the fan sounds fine, our guide to why a refrigerator stops cooling goes through the other causes.

Whirlpool refrigerator repair in Los Angeles

We repair Whirlpool refrigerators across the Westside, Hollywood and the San Fernando Valley. The $85 service call is credited toward the repair if you go ahead, and repairs carry a 30-day labor and 90-day parts warranty. CA BEAR registered (#A 50636). Book a refrigerator repair or call (213) 205-2055.