Blew a compressor last week on a 20 year old fridge in Tulsa

I got called out to a rental unit last Tuesday, the tenant said the freezer was sweating but nothing was actually frozen solid. Opened up the back panel and the run capacitor looked fine, but the compressor was hot to the touch and humming like crazy. Turns out the start relay was stuck closed, which cooked the windings over time. Replaced the relay and capacitor combo, but the compressor was already shot, so I had to quote them a new fridge instead of a repair. The landlord was pissed because he thought a $45 part would fix it, but I showed him the amp draw readings and he backed off. Has anyone else run into this where the relay fails silently and you can't catch it before the compressor dies?

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henry_palmer2425d ago

Fixing these little failures before they take down the whole unit comes down to catching the small clues early, like the freezer sweating. It reminds me of how my check engine light comes on for a loose gas cap but I wait, and then the whole alternator goes out a month later. We always wait until something fully breaks before we mess with it, whether it's a fridge or a car or even our own bodies. That silent relay is the same as that weird clicking sound in my truck, you hear it and think it's fine, then you're stuck on the side of the road. The landlord just saw a cheap part, but the real cost was all the months of that compressor working too hard.