Hundreds of thousands of people come to visit Vancouver each year for its green forests, blue and vast Pacific Ocean and most importantly beautiful summer weather and mild winters with little to no snow.

Unfortunately this winter in Vancouver beats all previous records when it comes to negative temperatures. With unusual weather come unusual appliance problems.

The following are couple of examples that we ran into in the last couple of weeks related to cold weather.

Garage fridges 

A customer called in complaining of a garage fridge not cooling or freezing properly and products in the freezer thawing. When technician arrived to customer’s home, fridge was found in the garage with freezer temperature of -5C and fresh food section of +1.

During inspection it was determined that compressor is not running although freezer temperature is too warm. After  double checking all the components and confirming they are not faulty it was determined that ambient temperature in the garage is too low and does not allow compressor to cycle on and off properly.

The reason compressor is not cycling properly in low ambient temperatures is because some fridges rely on device called cold control to control temperature of the fridge. Cold control uses gas inside capillary tube to expand and in turn close electrical contact to complete compressor circuit. Due to low ambient temperatures cold control is unable to properly cycle therefore causing compressor to stay off long than it should. For some models of fridges, manufacturers came up with garage kits. These kits are designed to provide additional heat to cold control via low wattage heater to convince cold control to turn on compressor and maintain proper temperature inside the fridge.

Within Tricity area of Coquitlam, Port Coquitlam and Port Moody as well as Pitt Meadows and Maple Ridge, Tricity Appliances Quality Service have a vast experience dealing with all sorts of refrigerators and freezers when they break down and in need of service or repair.

If you are experiencing problems with your refrigerator or freezer, do not hesitate to contact us by phone 778-488-0397 or email tricityqualityservice@gmail.com or visit our web site tricityquality.com

Washers

Refrigerators are not the only appliances affected by cold weather that we have experienced lately.

Customer called in complaining that his washing machine did not fill with water and showed an error message. When our technician arrived on site, customer advised that he removed the hoses from washing machine and checked the pressure.

Hot water was working ok, cold line was frozen at first but eventually started flowing normal.

Technician reconnected water supply hoses to washing machine and ran diagnostic test. During diagnostic test washer was not able to advance past first step of diagnostic cycle. During normal operation most modern front load washers close the door first then rotate the drum to determine load amount and only then start the fill cycle.

This particular unit did not rotate the drum during diagnostic cycle indicating a problem with motor control circuit, in this case motor control board is built into main control board.

Technician returned and installed main control board and performed diagnostic cycle once again. Once control board replaced washing machine went through all the steps of the diagnostic cycle and the repair was compete.

Although original problem was a frozen water line, electronics can be extremely sensitive and due to water line frozen, water valve has drawn to much current causing adverse reaction to the board.

With a vast choice of appliance repair companies available nowadays it is extremely important to choose a company for your appliance needs carefully.

At Tricity Appliances our technicians have experience and knowledge necessary to fix any problem with your  appliance and do so efficiently and safely.

For service of your gas appliance please fill out our service request form at tricityquality.com or call 778-488-0397