Westinghouse BJ513V Questions & Answers

HI Sue B
Your beeping freezer issue sounds very frustrating. Occasionally, I had alarm/beeping issues with my freezer but all I did was adjust the temperature on the front panel (either up or down) and hit the reset and that usually fixed it. I sometimes had to do this a few times over the course of a few days but it only took a few seconds and that stopped the beeping. It appeared to me the beeping was just letting me know things were getting either too cold or too warm in the freezer and adjusting the temp. Of course the other issue would be the fridge was left open and that started the beep (like when I was loading it up after a trip to the grocery store). With that in mind, perhaps your freezer seal needs cleaning (use a warm slightly soapy damp soft cloth) or replacing? check for cracks or tears in the freezer seal around door - this is a relatively common problem and easy fix with a quick call to a freezer seal replacement company.
Good luck!
Cheers,
Maggie

Hi Evan. My similar BJ 515V has a circular lamp cover with a little push tab on the front. push that tab in gently and the lamp cover front drops down. The back of the cover has a couple of tangs which locate into a couple of holes at the back of the lamp recess. The globe is a normal screw in globe but a lowish wattage. Hope this helps.

Blinkybill here.
sorry i cannot help on this one, just a couple of suggestions.
Does the light work when you open the door and does it shut off when the door is shut.. Check at night when it is dark switch off the room lights and close the door slowly and try to look past the door seal to see the light coming from the fridge .Placing a pencil between the seal and the fridge frame might make it a bit easier to see.If it dosnt or the door is nearly closed when the light goes out could be the problem.

Thanks but I'm talking about the LED display fitted on the outside of the fridge door...any ideas there?

Hello, did you ever get this promblem worked out. I have the same fridge and same problem. It is driving us crazy, we press the button all the time to stop it, we have completely emptied the fridge and freezer and turned it off over night, on restarting it we thought problem solved (and that we were complete geniuses) however 5 hours later the beeping has started again, we are on day 3 of it. At present we can't afford 100's of $ to get someone out to look / fix it. I'm hoping for a DIY job. Any help / advice would be greatly appreciated. Thank you, Tracey

Hi Lisa
In my experience and reading of blogs the faults that can occur with these fridges the control box is most likely to be the problem. But it may also be the fridge fan or the thermocouple. The following just describes my personal opinion of how to diagnose and fix the control box problem. I am not a specialist.

First check that there is some (even a little) air blowing into the fridge compartment from the vents in the top of the fridge. If there is even a little air flow then the fan is working and the problem is most likely in the freezer section.
If the compressor is running 24h per day then it is probably the control box in the bottom rear of the fridge. Westinghouse PART NUMBER probably 808893501.
Order one from ebay [link removed] (probably half the price the repair man will charge).
To fix this temporarily while you are waiting for the part to arrive:
1. Switch off and unplug the fridge freezer.
2. Empty the freezer section and keep the fridge door closed.
3. Get a blunt knife and remove the two screw covers from the screw holes at the top rear of the freezer compartment.
4. Get a Philips screwdriver and remove the two screws revealed by the covers just removed.
5. Remove the freezer back panel by getting two blunt knives and levering it out with the knives in the upper vent of the back panel. If it doesn't come easily then don't force it and jump to 6 for 30 mins and then come back to 5. Once removed it should reveal the cooling pipes of the freezer covered in ice.
6. Get a hair dryer and use the lowest heat setting and blow hot air at the back of the freezer section until ALL the ice is melted. Do not use high heat.
7. Once the ice is removed, replace the freezer back panel, screws and covers. Plug in and reload the freezer.
You should be good for about 5 days. If you still don't have the part just repeat the process.
8. When the part has arrived, if you are handy you can replace it yourself or you can call the repair man. It will be an easy job for him so will probably only charge a callout fee.
Hope this helps.

Hello Andrew,
Have you checked to see if the fan is iced or seized up? switch off the fridge and see if you can spin the fan with your finger. If it spins easily you may have a problem with the fan itself the wiring or the control panel ( box at rear of fridge with wiring coming into and out of ). If it is not iced up and is hard to turn the fan will be seized up and will require a new one or the old one to be unseized and lubricated. In my case the fan was running but the freezer coils were iced up preventing cold air to be blown into the refrigerator compartment. this was due to a faulty control panel not putting the fridge into defrost mode. The heater, the defrost thermostat and wiring tested ok. A new control panel fixed the problem. I defrosted the freezer coils with a paint stripper gun but you could use a hair drier as well . with the coil free of ice the fridge would work ok until it iced up again ( 3- 4 days depending on the humidity) BE CAREFUL WATER AND ELECTRICITY DO NOT MIX Note the fan was working ok in my case. Note: when the fridge is in defrost mode the fan doesn't run.
Regards Blinkybill

Thanks blinkybill. The coils froze up bot not the fan. The fan spins easily when flicked with the finger but does not spin when power is on. Even after defrosting the unit and then turning it back on there is no cold air or any air coming into the fridge. Is it worth investing in a new control panel at this stage or should I try a process of elimination? Don't really want to call a sparky in and pay them for a 2 minute call out.

hello Andrew, blinky bill here
re the above reply I think that you need to check that the fan is OK electrically before you invest in a new control panel. At this stage you haven't eliminated the problem to a particular piece of equipment ie fan or control panel. i think that the fan has its own connection plug at the back of the fridge . turn the power off and disconnect the fan plug and check the continuity of the fan with a multimeter. you should get a resistance reading. If you are not ok with this maybe you can take the fan to an electrician to test . Otherwise get a service man to look at it. remember electricity can be LETHAL if you don't know what you are doing.

Sorry, I can't help with this one. Best bet would be to contact Westinghouse directly. Or put a wanted ad on Gumtree or a similar site and you might get lucky.