Whirlpool Refrigerator LED lights flickering

[slim jim]

Originally Posted by port443

Confirmed and solved.

My board had burnt-looking R15 with board lacquer damaged on top of it.
Board needs 320+ degrees Celsius of iron temperature to melt the lacquer.

Soldered 150 Ohm 1/2 W huge resistor in place of that bugger: there's a lot of space available around.

Looking at all discussion, it looks like a design mistake: the wattage of resistor was not calculated right.

I repaired mine this way also. My original R15 chip resistor was scorched but not blown. One end had broken free. The old resistor checked 135 ohms.

The light fade-on effect is absent, possibly because I used a 150 ohm resistor instead of 135.

Thanks port443.

[bluto]

Originally Posted by port443

Confirmed and solved.

Originally Posted by slim jim

I repaired mine this way also.

Thanks @port443 and @slim jim for posting your successes. I had the first post in the thread updated to include your posts to help future visitors coming here looking for a solution.

[karthur]

I had the same issue with the dim lights in the fridge and freezer. I was going to do the "log-on-Bob" fix but was able to find the WS10515058 board (the one in the fridge) for about $25 (new). My board had a burned R15 resistor and since I did not have any to use there, I just bought a new board. When I put the new board in, the lights were still dim. From what I had learned by reading this thread and looking at the schematic, I was able to find that the board in the freezer actually had a bad LED (this is what probably caused the board in the fridge to pop).
So I ordered a new board for the freezer also (WS10515057) for about $12. Installed it and the lights work perfectly now.

Question now is for how long will the new boards last. Thanks to everyone that posted here.

[cnbcf]

Originally Posted by karthur

I had the same issue with the dim lights in the fridge and freezer. I was going to do the "log-on-Bob" fix but was able to find the WS10515058 board (the one in the fridge) for about $25 (new). My board had a burned R15 resistor and since I did not have any to use there, I just bought a new board. When I put the new board in, the lights were still dim. From what I had learned by reading this thread and looking at the schematic, I was able to find that the board in the freezer actually had a bad LED (this is what probably caused the board in the fridge to pop).
So I ordered a new board for the freezer also (WS10515057) for about $12. Installed it and the lights work perfectly now.

Question now is for how long will the new boards last. Thanks to everyone that posted here.

Thank you so much for sharing this as I believe I've had exactly the same problem as you.

When my Whirlpool WRS322FDAB05 lights stopped working I found this thread and after pulling out the main fridge board at the top (W10515058) I noticed my R15 resistor was burned out so I brought it to a random electronics shop and paid them $20 to remove the burned out R15 resistor and solder a new 150 Ohm/0.5watt resistor onto the R15 spot. I brought that home and plugged it into my fridge and the LED's on that board worked but were super dim, can barely even see they are on. I found your post about the freezer LED board (W10515057) being burned out so tested out my freezer board by switching it up with the other W10515057 board in the bottom of the fridge and sure enough that freezer board LED's were completely dead. I ordered a new W10515057 on Amazon for $26 and just put it in my fridge so at least now all 3 LED light boards show very dim lights, so I assume this means the repair I did at the electronics shop of replacing the R15 resistor on the main board (W10515058) with that new 150 Ohm/0.5watt resistor didn't actually fix that board.

Before I buy a new W10515058 board on Amazon, can any of the pros here let me know if they think there's something wrong with the resistor fix I got the electronics shop to do, and if there's anything I should try first before buying a new W10515058 board?

Thanks so much to everyone who has contributed in this thread it has been so valuable!

[ron350]

I see that some one on ebay is selling a redesigned board for $40.

Makes me wonder what the pros here think about the redesigned board?

https://www.ebay.com/itm/35392907462...BlBMUKj_1MS7YQ

[redwire]

The original Whirlpool board goes berzerk if there is a bad LED, I think its CC fails. It should never have parts burning up, ever.

That independently redesigned board looks good for $40.
It's one way to give Whirlpool the FU over their super crappy refrigerator light power supply design, CapXon included.

Only possible disadvantages are maybe higher inrush current for the door switches and I'm not sure how good the regulation is or what it does with a dead LED in the string. Does it stay reasonable for output voltage or skyrocket?
I'd go with it if I had to replace one.

[cnbcf]

yeah I am still hesitant about any of the boards bought online.

I bought this W10515057 board to replace my LED burned out board from the freezer for CA$26.12 which arrived yesterday, I can only confirm that it does work, but no idea yet how long it will last: https://www.amazon.ca/Refrigerator-W...ls%2C84&sr=1-4

Since I think my soldering that new resistor onto my existing W10515058 main top fridge board didn't fix that board, I'm going to just order this 3 set from Amazon (two W10515057 boards and one W10515058) for CA$34.87 and will respond back in here on whether it works when it arrives in a week or so: https://www.amazon.com/W10515058-W10...ot_top?ie=UTF8

[lotas]

To be exact, then R15 - 1270 = 127Ω 1%.

[cnbcf]

Just quick update in case it helps anyone in future, I bought this 3 board set on Amazon for CA$52 and just replaced all 3 boards and all is working - https://www.amazon.ca/W10515058-W105.../dp/B0BFN9VRDG

These boards look a lot simpler than the originals, there's no dimming function but I don't know if I ever even noticed a dimming function on the originals, and they're very bright. Hopefully these last, will update here if they burn out.