LG Fridge fix DIY

On the 3rd of July, our LG bottom freezer refrigerator suddenly quit working. No lights, no happy chimes reminding you that nothing new will magically appear on the shelf if you continue to stare blankly into the fridge with the door open, nothing. Luckily, we've had the fridge almost three years, so LG was off the hook two years ago. Yes folks, a one year warranty is what $1500 bucks will get you!

Anyhow, I put my Googles on, turns out this magic shutoff wasn't just the fridge's 4th of July vacation, it is a real common problem with LG fridges. There is a fuse soldered to the circuit board on the back of the fridge that blows (no pun intended). If you call LG like I did, you give them all of your personal information, then they give you a phone number of a local service shop in return. Uhhhh... you needed more than my zip code for that why?? Then, the service shop tries to sell you a whole new circuit board for $150 plus install.

Don't be a sucker! Instead go to Radio Shack and spend $7 on a fuse holder, and a pack of 250 volt 9 amp fuses. (I bought 8 amp since they didn't have 9 amp in stock, works fine.) Take the circuit board out of the fridge, un-solder the old fuse, solder in the new fuse holder, put the new fuse in, and prepare to be amazed! Hello lights! Hello happy the-door-is-open-and-you're-wasting-my-time dingy noise! Hello 150 bucks still in my wallet!

Here are some pics, so you can see the DIY rig job; the new fuse holder is in the lower left corner:





















Here's a close up. You can see another fuse next to the one I replaced that is a ticking time bomb.... (The black case with the red wire is the fuse holder I installed in place of the factory fuse)