That fridge compressor burnout that taught me a lesson about overload relays

I swapped a burned out compressor on a 3 year old Samsung last Tuesday, figured the relay was fine, and it arced out within 10 minutes. Turns out the relay gets brittle and loses contact after a hard failure, even if it tests okay. Anyone else just replace the whole start assembly now to save a callback?

2 comments

2 Comments

wilson.jesse13d ago

Learned this one the hard way myself a few years back. Used to think if the relay clicked in and showed continuity on the meter it was good to go. Then I had a similar thing happen, compressor was fine but the relay died within an hour. Now I always swap the whole start assembly, capacitor included. The heat from the burnout just wrecks the plastic and the internal contacts, even if they look fine. Saves me a callback and the customer gets a fresh start. Not worth gambling on a 5 dollar part when you're already done with the hard work.

claire_campbell12d ago

Yeah but I don't know man, swapping everything out when the part's still working feels like throwing money away. If the relay tests good and the compressor's not shorted I just clean the contacts and put it back. Half the time that burnout heat thing is overblown.