Came across a stat that 90% of fridge compressor failures are actually just bad start relays

I was digging through some old trade journals I found in a box at a shop in Cleveland last spring. Thought it was just outdated stuff, but one article from 2019 had a chart showing how often start relays and capacitors get blamed as the compressor. So I started checking every no-cool call that way first. Has anyone else saved themselves a compressor swap by testing the relay before anything else?

2 comments

2 Comments

elizabeth_ramirez17d ago

Oh man, I've definitely been that guy who swapped a whole compressor just to watch the new one also not start. Idk why but those little start relays are like the gremlins of the fridge world, they always trick you into doing way more work than needed.

wright.jesse17d agoMost Upvoted

Exactly what I was gonna say, @elizabeth_ramirez. Those start relays and overloads fail all the time and it's such an easy thing to check first before you go dropping a bunch of cash on a new compressor. Take a multimeter and test the relay for continuity, it's literally a two minute job. I've had more than a few times where I pulled a bad relay, swapped in a new one for like ten bucks, and the fridge was running again no problem. Kinda makes you wonder why they don't just put better quality ones in from the factory, right? It's almost like they want you to pay for a whole new appliance instead of fixing the part that costs pocket change. But yeah, always start with the cheap stuff before you go tearing into the sealed system.