Maytag Refrigerator Repair

Most no-cool calls aren't a dead compressor. Nine times out of ten it's the start relay (the little switch that kicks the compressor on), the condenser fan motor, or coils packed solid with dust. Arizona is hard on refrigerators. At 110 to 115 degrees the compressor barely gets a rest, and a unit in the garage is working in heat it was never built for.

Maytag fridges are built on Whirlpool platforms and act like it. Most models cool both sides from a single evaporator, the cold coil behind the freezer wall. So the first thing to check is airflow. If the fridge side is warm and the freezer is cold, look at the evaporator fan or a stuck damper (the little door that lets cold air into the fridge side), not the compressor. Both sides get their cold from the same place. The other common problem is defrost. When the defrost heater or timer fails, frost builds up on that coil until air can't get through. The fridge slowly warms up while the compressor runs nonstop. That looks a lot like a dying compressor and costs far less to fix. Here in Arizona, pay real attention to the condenser coils (the grille of tubes under or behind the fridge). Dust plus 110-degree air is what kills most of the compressors we see in Arizona garages.