Just a little picture

March 04, 2013

Kenmore Refrigerator Model 795.78302-802 Stopped Working, or "Planned Obsolescence"

What a special Monday morning that was. The lights didn't work inside the fridge or freezer, the compressor was not running, and it was getting warm inside both, as if it were completely unplugged. Good thing my nice neighbors have a spare refrigerator in their garage.

It turns out a standard 15A 250V glass fuse on the printed circuit board (PCB) burned out. But, the fuse was soldered directly to the board. From what I gather, many people have been told they had to pay for an entirely new PCB ($150 to $200, plus a repair person's fee). Such a wholesale replacement is like replacing an entire lamp just because some terrible design makes it impossible to unscrew a dead bulb. Let's repeat that phrase: terrible design.

I cut the fuse off the board leaving two posts sticking out, soldered two wires to the posts using some eyelet connectors, and wired in an inline fuse holder that now hangs off the PCB. The new fuse can now be replaced any time. If I had been smarter, I might have piggy-backed a pair of fuse holders on top of the dead fuse somehow, thereby just leaving the dead fuse in place. In any case, the refrigerator has been working flawlessly since (it has been several weeks).

I suspect the fuse blew because the defrost circuit became overloaded from excess frost we let develop in the freezer. We will keep an eye on that more assiduously from now on.

Photos here.

Posted by Charles on March 4, 2013 01:24 PM






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