One call on Tuesday made me rethink my whole diagnostic approach

I mean, I used to jump straight to swapping the control board on any fridge that threw a code. But this week, a Kenmore from 2012 had an error that pointed to the main board, and it turned out to be a $14 thermistor reading 40 degrees off after I checked it with my Fluke 87. The board was fine, the wiring was fine, the compressor was fine. Has anyone else had a sensor throw a false code that sent them down the wrong path for a full morning?

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james6722d ago

Man, that thermistor thing hits close to home. Last month I had a Samsung that kept throwing a defrost error and I spent like three hours tracing the heater circuit, checking the bimetal, even pulled the evap cover off twice. Turns out the door switch was flaky, and when the door was closed just right it would short and kill power to the defrost sensor for a split second. Fridge was cold the whole time, so I never even thought to check the door. Had to wait for the customer's kid to come home and slam the door for me to finally catch it on my meter. Learned the hard way that codes are just a starting point, not a map.