How To Replace A Refrigerator Compressor Start Relay (With Video!)

Is your refrigerator struggling to keep cool? A faulty compressor start relay could be the culprit, causing your food to spoil and your energy bill to spike. Before calling in an expensive repair technician, discover how you can tackle this issue yourself with ease—watch our step-by-step how-to video just below to get started.

Need a replacement compressor start relay for your refrigerator? Search below using your specific fridge model number to identify the exact part needed:

Your refrigerator is a complex network of components big and small all working hard to keep your food fresh. Sometimes, the failure of one small part can completely disrupt the whole system before you replace it. Take the compressor start relay – this small component plugs right into the side of your refrigerator’s compressor, giving it the electrical jump start it needs to run to keep the interior of your refrigerator cool. If that start relay fails because of an electrical surge or just because it’s worn out with age, your compressor won’t run, and your refrigerator won’t be able to keep cool.

Luckily, that small part is incredibly easy to fix, and doing it yourself is far more affordable than hiring a professional repair technician. With the right replacement part, a good guide, and a bit of care, you’ll have your refrigerator back in order in just a few minutes. Want to know how? Good! We’re walking you through it in today’s guide. Let’s get started.

Signs and Symptoms Of A Bad Relay On A Refrigerator

As with all electrical parts, a power surge or even just a long life spent kicking that compressor on can eventually cause a start relay to fail. Think you might have an issue with your refrigerator’s start relay? Let’s review some of the signs and symptoms of a bad compressor relay.

• The compressor never runs. As the name implies, the start relay helps the compressor to start up so that it can run. If you never hear the hum of the compressor running, this could be because the start relay has gone bad – a much cheaper fix than the compressor, itself.

• The refrigerator isn’t staying cool. If the start relay has failed and the compressor isn’t running, then your refrigerator won’t be able to keep cool. The temperature in both the fresh food and freezer compartments will gradually rise.
• You have power issues whenever the compressor kicks on. Do your lights dim when the compressor starts running? Does your fridge blow fuses frequently? This could be caused by a damaged start relay.
• The refrigerator is making frequent clicking noises. The start relay clicks when it activates, so if you’re hearing frequent clicking and no subsequent hum from the condenser, the start relay may be failing to provide adequate power to the compressor.
• When you shake the start relay, it rattles. This test requires that you do a bit of disassembly. Access the start relay as indicated in steps one through seven below, then give the relay a shake. If it rattles, it’s bad, and needs to be replaced. If it doesn’t rattle, then the problems you’re having are likely caused by another component.
• The relay has no connectivity. If you have a multimeter, you can test the relay for connectivity. Once again, follow steps one through seven to remove your fridge’s compressor start relay for testing. If it has none, it has failed, and needs to be replaced.

Finding The Right Replacement Part

To find a compatible replacement compressor relay, you’re going to need your refrigerator’s model number. You can find it on a sticker somewhere on the refrigerator itself. Check the following spots:

• On the exterior door or sides of the appliance
• Inside the door or on the door frame
• On the interior ceiling of the freezer or refrigerator compartment
• On the inside wall of either compartment
• On the fridge floor, beneath the crisper fresh food drawers
• Behind the kickplate at the bottom of the appliance

Got that number? Great! It’s time to get your part and perform the refrigerator repair. Type your model number to search AppliancePartsPros.com and you’ll be presented with a list of compatible components. Our search filters will help you to narrow things down to the exact piece you need, and once you order, you’ll have your new start relay in just a few days.

How To Replace A Compressor Start Relay

For this job, we replaced the compressor relay on a French door refrigerator manufactured by LG. Regardless of a refrigerator’s manufacturer or model, the compressor start relay is going to be in roughly the same spot – behind the rear access panel at the bottom of the refrigerator, mounted right onto the side of the compressor. Whether you’ve got a top-mounted freezer fridge from Whirlpool or an LG side-by-side, you should be able to use this guide to replace this component. However, if you do run up against any inconsistent steps, you can either consult your appliance manual for component diagrams or head on over to our YouTube channel to check out our other refrigerator tutorials – we may have one for your exact model!

Tools for the job

For a part that’s so vital to the refrigerator operating efficiently, this is an amazingly quick and easy job. And if you gather up the following items before you begin, it’ll go even faster.

• Towel, for laying down in the work area to catch any spilled water
• ½-inch wrench
• Phillips and flathead screwdrivers

Before you begin…

For safety, be sure to disconnect the refrigerator from power either at the wall outlet or circuit breaker. You’ll also want to shut off the water supply to the fridge before you start, as we’ll be disconnecting the water line temporarily to replace this part.

We’ll be working entirely on the back of the refrigerator, so you’ll need to pull it away from the wall to get started. It’s up to you whether or not to remove the contents of your refrigerator and freezer before you start anything. Clearing out your fridge will save you from potential messes made when you pull the refrigerator away from the wall, but since this is a quick job done with the doors closed, you probably don’t need to worry about any food spoilage.

Replacing a refrigerator compressor relay

1. Lay a towel down beneath the water line. Start by prepping your workspace: once the refrigerator is away from the wall, lay a towel down by the water line. Even with the supply of water temporarily shut off, you’ll likely still have some spill out when you disconnect it.
2. Disconnect the water line. The copper tube leading into the bottom of your refrigerator is the water line. It’s held in place by a nut, which can be loosened with a ½-inch wrench. Be aware that water will probably spill out once it’s off.
3. Remove the rear access panel. A Phillips screwdriver can be used to remove the mounting hardware holding it in place.
4. With the access panel off, now may be a good time to do a bit of cleaning. By cleaning up your refrigerator’s machine compartment, you’ll prolong the lifespan of its most vital (and expensive) components and make it run more efficiently – potentially lowering your utility bill in the process! Take care when cleaning this space out. You don’t want to damage anything, and the smaller copper tubes can be easy to accidentally kink or damage. Use a condenser brush, soft dry cloth, shop vac or vacuum cleaner to get the dust out.
5. Remove the compressor start relay cover. On the left side of the compressor, there should be a plastic cover held in place by a Phillips screw. The start relay can be found beneath this, so it’s time to remove it!
   1. Once the mounting screw is out, you’ll need to get the cover off. There may be a small opening toward the top of the cover. In some cases, you can get a flathead screwdriver into this opening to release the locking tab holding the cover in place.
   2. If this is not an option for you, try gripping the cover with your hand. Push down on the cover and then pull it away from the condenser to release it.
6. Disconnect the wires connected to the old compressor start relay. Make note of where each wire is connected before removing them. On our refrigerator, the blue wire was toward the front, and the pink toward the back. A flathead screwdriver can be used to pop them off if they’re on there tight.
7. Use your flathead screwdriver to pop the old relay off the mounting pins and remove it from the refrigerator.
8. Install the new compressor start relay. Line it up with the two pins on the compressor and push it into place. Next, connect the wires. They can be pushed into place by hand.
9. Reinstall the cover. First seat the two tabs in the back of the cover, then press the cover in. Once it’s set, the mounting screw can be reinstalled.
10. Put the rear access panel back on. Hook the locking tabs on the bottom of the panel onto the body, then swing the cover up into place and reinstall the mounting screws.
11. Reinstall the water line. You can hand tighten it first and then secure it with your ½-inch wrench.

Wrapping Up

You’re all done! Don’t forget to plug your refrigerator back in and turn the water supply back on. You’ll want to give the fridge some time to get back to the right temperature. Listen for the compressor to kick on and back off. If your compressor runs and the fridge cools off, you’re back in business.

Surprised by how easy (and affordable!) of a job that was? Imagine what else you can DIY! The next time you’re in the market for repair tips, video tutorials, or genuine OEM replacement parts, keep AppliancePartsPros.com in mind. With fast shipping and friendly, helpful staff, we’ll help you have your appliances back in working order in no time at all!

If you need any replacement parts for your appliances, you can enter your model number at AppliancePartsPros.com to locate and order them quickly. Most orders arrive in just two business days, and we have tons of great information in our repair help section and YouTube videos to help you troubleshoot.

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