Amana Freezer Repair

Amana's name goes back to some of the first upright home freezers, and the recipe has stayed close to the original: thick insulation, a dependable compressor and a simple thermostat. Today's chest models are manual-defrost, with cooling coils buried in the cabinet walls. Uprights come in manual-defrost and frost-free versions, and the frost-free ones add a fan, an exposed evaporator and a set of defrost parts.

In Tampa, a lot of these freezers end up in the garage, and that is the first thing we ask about. A standard freezer is designed for a limited range of room temperatures, and a closed garage in July can climb past 100 degrees. The compressor then runs almost nonstop while the freezer still drifts warm. Unless the model is rated for garage use, the location itself may be part of the problem.

Inside the cabinet, the common failures are modest. The thermostat wears and stops cycling the compressor correctly. A failed start relay leaves the freezer silent except for a click every few minutes as the overload trips. On chest models, a torn or flattened lid gasket lets humid air in and ice builds quickly. Frost-free uprights can suffer the same defrost failures as a refrigerator, with frost choking the fan.

Close the lid on a sheet of paper; if it slides out easily, the gasket is weak. Defrost a chest freezer once the ice passes about a quarter inch. Before hurricane season, keep it full, because a packed chest freezer holds its temperature for many hours during an outage if the lid stays shut. When the power comes back, give it time to pull down before deciding it has failed.

Our diagnosis covers the thermostat, start relay, overload and compressor, and on frost-free uprights the defrost heater, sensor and fan. Thermostats, relays and gaskets are the repairs that clearly make sense. If the sealed system has leaked or the compressor will not run, we explain that honestly, because on a basic Amana chest freezer a sealed-system repair often costs more than buying a new freezer.