My 2001 Maytag Performa fridge has decided to give up it's job of cooling. The symptoms are:

The freezer is not freezing. It seems to be stuck at about +6 deg C. Also the main fridge compartment is up to about +10 deg C. I don't know if these are stable temperatures or just the temperatures that the (previously) frozen food is keeping it. I will have to throw most of the food out when I get time to look at it properly tonight. There is quite a lot of water emerging from the freezer compartment door.
The fan in the freezer compartment is running continuously. There is also a clicking noise coming from the lower rear of the fridge at intervals of about 2 - 3 minutes. It was always a quiet refrigerator so I can't tell if the compressor is operating since the noise of the freezer fan drowns out most other noise in the fridge. I do suspect that the clicking is some sort of compressor start switch though.
Any ideas what I should look for.

Thanks - Pete

The clicking you hear is from the staring componet on you compressor. Replace it with like componet or a 3-in-1 solid state unit. Try cleaning the condenser coils and condensing fan motor to reduce the temp in unit. If the compressor is not starting and not good air flow the temp in unit will be on warm side.

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Originally Posted by sherpet

My 2001 Maytag Performa fridge has decided to give up it's job of cooling. The symptoms are:

The freezer is not freezing. It seems to be stuck at about +6 deg C. Also the main fridge compartment is up to about +10 deg C. I don't know if these are stable temperatures or just the temperatures that the (previously) frozen food is keeping it. I will have to throw most of the food out when I get time to look at it properly tonight. There is quite a lot of water emerging from the freezer compartment door.
The fan in the freezer compartment is running continuously. There is also a clicking noise coming from the lower rear of the fridge at intervals of about 2 - 3 minutes. It was always a quiet refrigerator so I can't tell if the compressor is operating since the noise of the freezer fan drowns out most other noise in the fridge. I do suspect that the clicking is some sort of compressor start switch though.
Any ideas what I should look for.

Thanks - Pete

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I found the problem with my Maytag fridge. It was the PTC relay. Though I don't know why it is called a relay. It is simply a thermistor (resistor with a negative temperature coefficient). The thermistor disk was completely cracked up and disintegrating. I have ordered a new part but have temporarily fixed the problem using a thermistor that my son-in-law had in his parts box (he is an electronics technician). Does anyone know why this simple component is called a relay? Also does anyone know why it is there in the first place. All it does is shunt one coil of the compressor motor more and more as the temperature of the compressor housing goes up. The component starts at about 12 ohms and goes down to about 2-3 ohms as it heats up. Why would bypassing one motor coil reduce the temperature of the compressor? It has me and my son-in-law stumped.

I had the same problem, the fridge got warm, everything in the freezer melted, a clicking sound could be heard every few minutes, like the compressor starting and stopping after 20-30 seconds. Changed the overload relay(PTC relay). Working great now. Thanks.