A trick from a 1980s fridge manual that actually worked on a modern unit

I was working on a newer Samsung fridge with a weird intermittent cooling problem, and the usual checks came up empty. I found an old paper manual for a 1980s GE model in a customer's garage, and it mentioned a trick to check the evaporator fan by listening for a specific hum after a power cycle. I mean, I tried it on the Samsung just for kicks, and it actually helped me pinpoint a failing fan motor controller. Has anyone else found that some of those old-school checks still apply to newer stuff?

3 comments

3 Comments

coleman.gray2d agoTop Commenter

Yeah, it's wild how the basic physics of the stuff inside never really changes. They just keep putting new, more complicated brains on top of the same old pumps and fans and coils. That old hum check is basically listening for the machine's version of a heartbeat, and a fridge from forty years ago has the same one. The real trick now is sorting the actual problem from the dozen error codes the computer might be guessing at. Those old manuals cut right to the chase because they had to.

casey6822d ago

Remember when you could just kick a vending machine?

the_sam2d ago

Totally, those old diagnostic tricks are gold. The basic parts still make the same sounds when they're sick or healthy. Sometimes you gotta ignore the new computer and just listen to the machine.