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Fridges, for the most part, are pretty sturdy appliances that only need a little bit of regular maintenance in order to last for years. However, fridges still contain tons of parts that can eventually stop working for one reason or another, particularly if you’re talking about a modern refrigerator with lots of high-tech components and features.
If your Frigidaire refrigerator fails to power up all of a sudden or after power outage, there could be a problem with the main control board. Other possible reasons could be something like a damaged power cord, a tripped circuit breaker, a broken compressor start relay, or a temperature thermostat.
In this article, we’ll be taking a look at the various issues that can mess with your fridge’s power and show you how you can deal with them.
Reasons Why Your Frigidaire Fridge Isn’t Running
As we’ve mentioned, your fridge can stop getting power for a number of reasons. It might be a simple wiring issue or the failure of a more complicated component of your fridge.
Some problems might not cut power to your whole Frigidaire fridge but can result in a certain part of the fridge (like the compressor start relay or the thermostat) to stop working.
When these key components fail, the entire operation of the fridge can be interrupted.
Let’s now discuss the various reasons your fridge might not be making power, which include:
Faulty Main Control Board
The control board is basically the brains of your fridge, and is responsible for controlling the compressor, the fridge fans, and other important parts.
Why It Fails:
Control boards can fail if they are exposed to excessive heat, moisture, or vibration. They also sometimes fail due to errors in the manufacturing process or been affected by power surges. Specifically, if the control board is exposed to a static discharge during assembly, this can severely shorten the life of the control board.
How to Fix It:
There’s no way to fix a broken control board, so if you’ve determined that this is the issue you’ll have to replace it.
Power Cord/Wiring Issues
Surely, your fridge’s power cord needs no explanation. The power cord is what connects your fridge to the power supply from your wall outlet. Without a functioning power cord, your fridge won’t run.
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Your fridge’s internals are also filled with a bunch of wiring, the purpose of which is of course to send electricity to all the parts of your fridge that need it.
Why It Fails:
Fridge power cords are usually pretty sturdy, but they can fail under the right circumstances. It’s possible for a power cord to become pinched between the fridge and another solid object, and this can sometimes cause damage to the cord.
Your cord can also become damaged if you remove the plug from the electrical socket incorrectly (for example, by pulling on the cord instead of pulling on the plug itself).
It’s also possible that some of the wiring inside your fridge has become frayed for one reason or another, which can also interrupt your fridge’s power supply.
How to Fix It:
If your fridge’s power cord has become damaged, the best thing to do is to have it replaced. A replacement power cord for a Frigidaire fridge will probably run you somewhere in the area of $50-60 if you buy one online.
If you’re confident enough to open up your refrigerator and check the wiring inside it, you should do that after inspecting your power cord. Look for any wires that appear frayed or broken. If the damage isn’t too bad, you may be able to repair the wires with some electrical tape.
Tripped Circuit Breaker
No doubt you’re also familiar with what a circuit breaker is, but if you aren’t, a circuit breaker is basically a resettable fuse that exists to prevent a connected electrical circuit from overloading.
Why It Fails:
If the circuit breaker connected to your fridge keeps getting tripped, it’s more than likely your fridge’s fault. Odds are that some component of your fridge is drawing too much power and causing the circuit breaker to kick in to prevent an overload.
Related: Circuit Breaker is ON But No Power To The Outlet?
How to Fix It:
This may take a bit of time, but one thing you can do is test some of the components in your fridge with a multimeter and see how much power they’re drawing. If you find that one of the parts in your fridge is drawing way more power than normal, you should have that part replaced.
In particular, you should test out the compressor, the defrost heater, the thermostat, and the fan, as these are the components of your fridge that generally tend to draw the most power.
Electrical Outlet Issues
You know what an electrical outlet is. You plug an electronic device into one of them, power runs from the outlet to your device, and the device works. Couldn’t be simpler.
Why It Fails:
Electrical outlets can fail for a few reasons. The wiring running to the outlet could be old and worn-out, there may be a bad connection to the outlet for another reason, or if your outlet is a ground fault circuit interrupter (GFCI) outlet then it’s possible that an electrical short has caused the outlet to cut its own power.
How to Fix It:
If you have a GFCI outlet, you can try resetting the outlet. First, though, check for damaged power cords or anything else that could have caused the outlet to shut off. If you find nothing wrong with your fridge itself, reset the outlet by pressing the “Reset” button.
For other issues with your outlet, we’d suggest that you reach out to an electrician to take a look at them, unless you’re already familiar with electrical work.
Faulty Compressor Start Relay
The compressor start relay is an electrical device that the compressor needs in order to run. The start relay works on kind of the same principle as a starter motor in a car; it gives the compressor a boost of power which it needs in order to start up.
No compressor relay means a compressor that won’t run.
Why It Fails:
The start relay might fail if it has been exposed to an electrical surge, which can partially melt the wires inside the relay. The same thing can happen if the compressor motor is malfunctioning and drawing excess voltage through the relay.
How to Fix It:
This is probably something you should call an electrician to handle if you aren’t experienced with this sort of thing, but if you are, replacing a bad start relay isn’t too hard.
You’ll have to open your fridge up to get at this part, but once you do, the start relay can be replaced but simply pulling out the old one and plugging in a new one.
Faulty Temperature Thermostat
Your fridge has a thermostat that monitors the temperature inside the fridge, as you might expect. When the thermostat senses that the temperature is getting a bit too high, it sends a signal to the compressor telling it to start up.
Why It Fails:
If your thermostat fails, this could be because the wiring or the connectors to the thermostat have become damaged, or because part of the contact assembly inside the thermostat has broken.
Fridge thermostats use a small tube filled with gas to detect changes in temperature. As the temperature inside the fridge shifts, the pressure inside the tube changes. The thermostat senses these pressure changes and tells the compressor to activate or deactivate. If this tube ends up leaking for some reason, the thermostat will stop working.
How to Fix It:
Replacing the thermostat is the only real way to fix this issue. Unless you’ve done this kind of repair before, you should probably get a fridge repair technician to handle this.
Faulty Compressor
The compressor in your fridge basically acts like a pump for the refrigerant inside. It increases the pressure of the refrigerant and forces it through the tubing of the system.
Why It Fails:
Compressors can fail because of a voltage surge, or because of too much/too little refrigerant in the system. Compressors are mechanical components with moving parts, so they can also fail simply due to age or wear and tear.
Related: How Do You Know If Refrigerator Compressor Is Bad?
How to Fix It:
Replacing a broken compressor is the only way to solve this issue. Because changing a compressor involves adding new refrigerant, this is something only a skilled technician can do.
Faulty Defrost Timer
Most modern fridges have defrosters intended to prevent frost from forming on certain parts of the fridge that need to remain frost-free. This defroster works on a timer which tells it when to turn on and off.
Why It Fails:
If there are faulty contacts inside the timer, this can prevent the defroster from turning on, which in turn will cause frost to build up inside the fridge. If this happens, certain components within the fridge can become clogged with frost and unable to work.
Related: Why is Fridge Compressor Running But Not Cooling?
How to Fix It:
Once again, the only real way to fix a defrost timer is to replace it with a new unit.
Conclusion
There are plenty of different reasons why your refrigerator might not be receiving power, and it can often be a challenge to determine what exactly has gone wrong. Unless you’re a seasoned appliance repair technician or have worked on your fridge before, we’d recommend leaving the job of fixing your fridge to the professionals.
