The Virtual Repairman's Appliance Help

[bgkirkla]

I have a small Ewave refrigerator that seems to have locked up.
When I turn it on, you can hear the thermostat close the relay but the
compressor does not start, it just gets real hot.

We suspected it might be the motor start capacitor. It is rated as
a 10uF, 450V AC cap, but we measured it and it was only 5uF.
Could that be it? Do I need a new capacitor?

Any other ways to troubleshoot the cause?

Thanks,

Brian Kirkland

[Virtual Repairman]

If the compressor will not start, I always replace the start relay/overload first. It's OK to change the capacitor as well, but this should not prevent a start-up. If the compressor will not start with the new relay, the compressor is bad and you can throw the thing out the door. Ewave does not make any products that are worth investing more than $50 in.

[bgkirkla]

Thanks for the response.

I ordered a cap. Man those 10uF 450VAC motor start caps are hard to find.

I found the exact one, but I had to buy it from a Chinese site and they
required a minimum order of 1000 of them. I found a suitable motor
run cap at Jameco.

I will also pull the relay and see if I can find one.

Do you know of a good place to buy the start relay?

Also, this fridge was supposed to be an outside fridge to keep on my
back porch. Obviously, this cheap thing was not designed for outside use.
Can you recommend a good brand for a small outside fridge to keep
drinks in?

Thanks,

Brian

[Virtual Repairman]

Most American dealers are slow to carry parts for Ewave, LG and other Asian products, which is incentive enough for me never to buy one. The remedy that we use in the field is to purchase what is called a "3-in-1" hard-start kit. This is a capacitor, relay & overload all packed into one small cyclinder and it wires into place at the compressor. If this device will not start the unit, it is definitely dead. Every major appliance parts outlet carries these devices, and they are rated by compressor horsepower, not microfarads.

Just a heads up: don't use just any old refrigerator outside of a controlled environment. They must have a condenser fan motor capable of removing the excess heat load which is burdened upon them by placing them in a hot environment. Most of the small refrigerators that you find at Home Depot and Lowes are not capable of maintaining temperatures in an outdoor setting, mainly because they must run constantly just to keep the temperature. This in turn causes compressor failure after awhile. If you look carefully at the user manuals before you buy a product, it will tell you on the very first pages that the unit is not designed to operate above 80 degrees F. ambient temperature.