5 Common Problems with Kenmore Refrigerators

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Sometimes, mysteries (and mysterious paradoxes) can be solved by taking a fresh look at your assumptions. If you hear, for example, that Kenmore makes good refrigerators and Kenmore makes bad refrigerators, you might question the assumption that Kenmore makes refrigerators at all. In fact, it does not actually manufacture fridges, but instead contracts with other manufacturers to manufacture them under its name. Models made for Kenmore/Sears by companies such as LG, Frigidaire/Electrolux, and Daewoo have particular problems. These problems include clogged drain hoses, failed evaporator fans, faulty water inlet valves, or failed compressors and coils.

On the other hand, if you have a Kenmore fridge made by Whirlpool, you may not experience many problems. If you do, that thermostat problem is likely easily diagnosed (and easily fixed). Consumer advocacy organizations suggest that Kenmore is a risky brand to buy refrigerators from, mostly because of quality control problems inherited from the original manufacturers or catastrophic and far-reaching problems like refrigerators made by LG (and even LG-branded fridges). Meanwhile, the Whirlpool-made Kenmore refrigerator is still considered a reliable buy.

While there are some common problems for Kenmore refrigerators to misbehave, diagnosing isn’t as easy as it seems. This is because water, mechanical failure and other things tend to flow downwards. One problem can cause many symptoms, and a small problem like a clogged drain pipe can turn into a more serious component-killing problem (or, worse, a leak that destroys hardwood floors).

The best thing about this problem—a refrigerator that tends to freeze food, or only occasionally cool properly—is that you can often fix it, temporarily, by giving your refrigerator a (controlled) smack. This works for the same reason you’d think: something is stuck, and unseating the fridge unsticks it (just don’t hit it so hard that you risk damaging the contents, the fridge, or your hand). What usually gets stuck is the temperature control thermostat, which senses the temperature in the cooling compartment and turns the refrigeration components on and off. This problem is most common in otherwise-excellent Whirlpool-manufactured Kenmore refrigerators with model numbers starting with 106. The best and only long-term solution is to replace the thermostat. fortunately, Kenmore Refrigerator Thermostat Replacement A relatively simple task.

You can further diagnose the problem with a multimeter, but if banging on it works for a while, you probably already have enough information. However, if the thermostat is not the main or only cause of your problem, it helps to rule out other possible causes of a refrigerator that freezes or runs intermittently. Assuming it’s not a new refrigerator, you didn’t just fill it up after grocery shopping, and you don’t keep your house unusually warm, the most likely non-thermostat cause of the fridge running too hot (and therefore cold) requires cleaning your condenser coils, which remove heat from the refrigerator. Sometimes, a unit whose back is too close to a wall can have the same problem for the same reason.

If you really want a reason to give your fridge a hum, try coming home on the weekend and finding that your Kenmore has kept your food cold but also kept your flooring wet and is now buckling faster than Ralph Nader in a Corvair. Refrigerators with incoming lines for water and ice dispensers sometimes leak for other reasons, but the most common cause of water leaks from all Kenmore models, especially Frigidaire/Electrolux-made models starting with the 253, is a clogged defrost drain line. These tubes can become clogged with foreign material such as dust, frozen water, or both. Often, the blockage begins with some sort of mysterious gunk that consolidates the ice until the drain is completely blocked and the water has to find another way to fulfill its obligations to gravity. It can also happen when the drain strap—a strip of metal that conducts heat to the drain tube to prevent freezing—stops working.

Depending on the layout of your fridge, these clogs can occur where the defrost meltwater exits the freezer or in the pipes outside the fridge that guide the water to the drain pan at the bottom of the refrigerator. Freezer-on-top models sometimes have components inside the top of the refrigerated compartment to handle defrost water, and these can become clogged.

A blocked drain can cause many problems besides leakage. It’s quite common, for example, for accumulated ice—the result of a leak—to interfere with airflow or even the operation of the evaporator fan, which can destroy the fan and cause all kinds of refrigerator cooling problems.

Predictably, other water-related problems are common for Kenmore refrigerators. In models with ice or water dispensers, it is always tempting to look for failures in the dispensing mechanisms and associated sensors. But repair professionals find Occam’s razor useful for removing all that noise, and it turns out that the most likely reason your fridge isn’t dispensing water or ice is that it’s not getting water in the first place. The indispensable (sorry!) kit for turning the water on and off includes a solenoid valve that can fail and, if your refrigerator spends any time in freezing conditions, it will fail completely. (They are almost universally made of plastic, and cold water expansion does not play well with plastic.)

There are three main reasons you may experience trouble with your water inlet valve. An electrical failure of the solenoid can, of course, prevent water from entering the refrigerator at all. The easiest way to test this is to bypass the control board and apply AC power directly to the solenoid. This is not unusual, but it is safer to use a multimeter to test the power coming to the solenoid and continuity within it. Another major cause, mechanical failure of the plastic solenoid housing will provide plenty of evidence in the form of water. And it’s also possible that the inlet valve itself is working properly, but not getting enough water pressure from the house to work properly (the threshold is usually around 20 psi).

The oddity of Kenmore refrigerators having a very cold freezer but a warm (or at least insufficiently cold) refrigerator compartment is common and a common occurrence in most refrigerators. Generally speaking, this problem is caused by airflow problems that prevent cold air from moving from the freezer compartment to the refrigerator compartment, as this is what the unit is designed to do. If a failed component causes this problem, it is usually the evaporator fan (often referred to as the fan motor when failing… the part that actually fails). And, as we’ve seen, this can have other causes, such as ice build-up from blocked drain pipes.

There are other possible causes of this problem, mostly related to airflow. The airway can be blocked by ice masses or by food that has arranged to block the vents. It can also be caused by sensor problems, frozen-over evaporator coils, gaskets and other door-sealing problems, and a failed damper control—the assembly that controls the direct airflow between the two compartments.

The real star of Kenmore refrigerator flameouts in recent years has been compressor failure in French door models with LG-made linear compressors. This faulty compressor stops working prematurely, and as a result the refrigerator does not cool at all. This may be accompanied by complete silence, a humming sound, or a dull click of the compressor’s start relay. It is also possible for the compressor to sound like it is running properly, but without ever producing any refrigerant.

There are some minor problems that can mimic compressor failure, but at a much lower cost to repair. This includes failure of the aforementioned start relay, which is a common problem with older Kenmore refrigerators. There are various Signs and symptoms of a bad start on a refrigeratorBut often the start relay will click intermittently without starting the compressor. Failure of the compressor’s overload protector may also cause the compressor to not run, or run only intermittently.

Some LG refrigerators, good as they are otherwise, share the same problem that you can’t afford to ignoreAnd the class action lawsuit awarded compensation to owners of LG fridges, but not owners of Kenmore refrigerators with failed LG compressors. A subsequent class action lawsuit against Sears and Transformerco, the owner of the Kenmore brand, cited a number of affected models priced between $2,000 and $3,700. The lawsuit does not say when the affected refrigerators were manufactured, but indicates that a full list of affected refrigerators will emerge during the discovery phase of the trial. LG first introduced linear compressor technology in 2001.