Refrigerator Start Relay

About 13 years ago, I picked up a Magic Chef MCWC50DBT 50-bottle wine cellar from Home Depot ($249). It’s worked more or less reliably ever since (June of 2018, I did have to put in a new main control board (and, as a result, swap the incandescent lighting module with an LED replacement), but a couple of days ago I started hearing a distinct “click” I’d never heard before, and as I monitored it day to day, I saw the temperature slowly rising.

A little bit of Google-fu lead me to check the start relay (mounted to the side of the compressor):

Sure enough, continuity was intermittent and occasionally when I shook it, I heard a light rattle inside. I found a replacement part (LG Electronics 6748C0004D 6748C-0004D Refrigerator Start Relay P6R8MD) on eBay (after verifying with the seller that it would work; the part number visible on the listing wasn’t an exact match for the piece I’d removed), and a couple of days later, installed it.

Works perfectly. Everything fired right up and within a few minutes we were back to proper wine storage temperature.

Used this opportunity to re-load my stash intelligently, with a plan (vs. ad hoc throwing in bottles as they’ve shown up); everything’s comfortably positioned, and now I have an inventory in a Google Sheets document, so I can find what I’m looking for. Not a bad Monday night project.

Next up: Swapping in a new ($8) movement, to fix the $20 clock / thermometer / hygrometer I have hanging on the bathroom wall. (It stopped keeping time after a couple of years.)

Edit: November 2023, the temperature started to creep up again. I was away from home and slammed with stuff through the Thanksgiving holiday, but now that I’m WFH a bit and things have generally quieted down, I hear it again: That click. Back to eBay, for a 2-pack of P6R8MD start relays this time.