I’ve been called out to old North Charleston today to look at a Maytag standing freezer M# MZF34X16DWOO, you don’t see many of these anymore.

Not that it’s old, it’s just most people don’t keep a back up freezer anymore, so it’s kind of a pleasant experience. This one I suspect of ice buildup inside by the evaporator probably getting thick and causing the fan to hit it. Luckily on this one you can easily expose the back panels by just removing three Phillips head screws.

After removing the panel, I find that there is no ice build up whatsoever in the evaporator coil‘s. This could be because it was emptied and turned off overnight, giving the coils a chance to melt off any ice that might have accumulated.

To note, it is almost impossible to diagnose something that you can’t see in action. Appliance repair techs are not fortunetellers, I can’t tell you why an appliance is doing something weird, unless I can catch it in the act. However, I’m about to catch this one in the act!

Finding nothing irregular in the evaporator fan panel, I moved to the back of the machine and I discover a problem. This is a case of dark engineering, I’ll have more to say about what that is later. But in this case, The compressor is getting hot and cutting off, it’s at 1:45°, it’s worn completely out.

The issue is the engineers did not put a circulation fan on this unit! Which is unbelievable, I have never seen anything upright with the compressor on the back that did not have some sort of engineered system for cooling it.

Unfortunately, I have to break some bad news to my client, and I would advise you not to purchase this particular brand of upright freezer if you are looking for one.

Article by Brett Singleton – Owner at Appliance Repair Mt. Pleasant.