To help anyone diagnose their LG fridge problems, I’ll add my experience which I hope can at least help 1 person.
Fridge: LMXS30776S - French door, with 2 wide drawers
Purchased: Mar 22, 2016
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Ice Maker replaced: May 11, 2017 (repaired 1 year, 1 month, 20 days after purchase. Requested service Apr21)
^ This was reported just after their 1-year warranty expired, but they were nice enough to cover it under warranty. I recommend if you have ANY problems with your fridge just before the 1-year mark, give them a call (888 376 6825) and have someone come out and take a look.
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Fridge not cooling: reported problem on Aug 29, 2018 (2 yr, 5 mo, 7 days)
Symptoms: I first noticed our ice cream wasn’t very hard/solid a couple months before it calling in. I finally called after our water bottles didn’t seem that cold. It wasn’t room-temp warm, but just not as cold as before. My thermometer read about 50-54.
I had noticed that one of the fans started making noise but didn’t really pay too much attention to it. After I called, they created a case number and said it would be $125 just to dispatch a service person. Not wanting to pay that fee, I YouTubed/Googled/etc to see if I can find the problem and fix it myself (hence posting back to this thread which helped me). I decided to try and replace one of the fans inside the fridge - basically if you open the doors, it would be about belly-button height, straight ahead (part number: EAU61505014 ranging from ~$79 - $100). I replaced this myself to see if that would help with the cooling. It did fix the noise, but the fridge was still not cooling to spec. I called LG back to request service.
September 14, 2018 - service visit. I explained the problem and after a ~30 min evaluation, the tech said he wasn’t sure why it wasn’t cooling. Fans were blowing OK, temp gun into the vents seemed OK. We talked about the compressor and I asked how often these go bad and when they do, do they go from 100% to 0% or could it be intermittent or even run at 75% or 50%? He said they usually just fail, but given my situation, I thought it was a compressor issue so I asked if he could run the diagnostic app (I read about this online). So he removed the back panel to expose the PC board, and there’s was a green LED that was blinking (6 flashes, pause, repeat). At this point, he commented this is a compressor error code so he decided to replace it. If you’re having the non-cooling issue, first check for dust at the back/bottom. then remove the other panel and check the board. If you see the blinking green LED, it might be your compressor. Even though the compressor has a 7-year warranty, only the part is warrantied and the labor is not - which was a flat rate of $250. it’s a big job and he was here for a couple hours with a blow torch, freon canister, vacuum pump, etc.
So far, so good. We’re out $375 for the compressor and $110 for the fan, but the fridge seems to be back to normal. I wanted to scrap the fridge as I don’t want to have more problems later, but for now, we’ll see how long it’ll go until the next repair.
One thing to note, if your fridge goes down and you lose some/all of your food/condiments/ice cream, LG has a team to help cover food loss due to issues like these. Call this number: 800-243-0000 and they’ll start a claim process. You’ll need to send them a copy of your purchase receipt, so hopefully you have that.
Anyway, long story short, I’m never buying an LG fridge again, but for now, it’s working. Hopefully this can help others and let me know if you have any questions.
October 12, 2018: UPDATE
If you’re planning to file a food loss claim, I’d recommend documenting every step including phone call date/time, who you spoke to, what they said, etc. I can’t tell you how frustrating their team is, but easily the WORST customer support experience I’ve ever had to deal with.
39 Comments
our repairman said that somehow sulpher has destroyed the copper tubing. Refrig is less than 2 years old. Had this same thing happen to previous one. Would like to know how this happens?
by Kathy Gibbard
should mention that we live in dry Arizona ... repairman said they usually only see this in humid climates.
by Kathy Gibbard
Don't think it's anything to do with cooper tubing sounds like repairman has pull the wool over your eyes. If the copper tubbing had being destroyed then all the refrigerant would have escape and you would have no cooling whatsoever. Had similar problem we nearly throw the dam thing away only got it fixed lg gave me the contact details of agsrefrigeration.co.uk the freezer section had frosted over so little cold air was getting into the refrigerator also the baffle had iced up. Parts were replaced everything working has it should.
by michaeljohn
In response to Kathy Gibbard. I can tell you what the repairman meant and no he wasn't trying to pull a fast one. Likely your tubes are black from the sulphur. You might ask where the sulphur comes from. You sound like your house has Chinese Drywall just as mine did. This problem occurred from builders using cheap materials from China starting roughly around 2005-2006 and beyond. It eats copper and aluminum like I can't tell you. Aluminum doesn't show the damage as it does with copper. I know that places where there were building booms like SW Florida and Arizona experienced many Chinese Drywall issues. Hire a State certified building inspector and tell them of your suspicions and have the document their finding and you can photo what they find. The cost for me was $125.00 for the building inspector and I ended up using a saddle tap/Schrader valve and recharging my refrigerator with R134a with Stop Leak from my local auto parts store. The fridge lasted another 1.5 years. Good luck to you! You are going to need it!
by schedule
i have same symptom w/ our LG fridge as described but my repairman said its because we have a refrigerant leak in the sealed system. our home owners warranty doesnt cover leaks (i hear this is a $800 repair). per the manual , the 7-yr manufacturer warranty say's it only applies if we're the original purchaser of fridge and we're not, bought home w/ all appliances this yr. any suggestion?
by JayFamily
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