Advice/guidance sought - troubleshooting 1956 Canadian Westinghouse refrigerator

My month of March was kind of a disaster all around. I took off on March 4th for a short vacation break with my Hubby to Mexico. We needed a Covid test to get back into Canada then and well, guess who failed... I was stranded another 10 days, isolating until I could finally return to Canada.

Naturally, while I was away I got a disturbing email from Hubby - "that old fridge of yours isn't working right". After a frantic series of messages, I narrowed it down to the 56 Canadian Westinghouse "Frost Free" I use as an overflow fridge in St-Liboire. The problem turned out to be that it was freezing everything. I instructed Chris to adjust the temperature to a warmer setting but that made no difference. I can't confirm if the refrigerator was running continuously but Hubby did manage to get it to shut off. And subsequently not restart. I finally took a half-assed look at it today, thinking the cold control was shot. However, when I extracted the control unit, it looked to be very much more complicated than I am experienced with. The 4 wires coming out of the control are throwing me. I suspect there's a relay tucked in there somehow and and I was not sure if there was a way to short the cold control switch to see if the compressor would still start.

It's a long shot but does anyone out there have some service/diagnostic information on one of these 'pushbutton defrost' Westys?

The Canadian model/style numbers may be very different from similar US models. Mine is a model PK-125 for whatever that's worth.

Photos... < > Photo 1 of 4 View Full Size


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Post# 1145967 4/7/2022 at 12:14 (749 days old) by turquoisedude (.)
Checkrate/Likes My month of March was kind of a disaster all around. I took off on March 4th for a short vacation break with my Hubby to Mexico. We needed a Covid test to get back into Canada then and well, guess who failed... I was stranded another 10 days, isolating until I could finally return to Canada. Naturally, while I was away I got a disturbing email from Hubby - "that old fridge of yours isn't working right". After a frantic series of messages, I narrowed it down to the 56 Canadian Westinghouse "Frost Free" I use as an overflow fridge in St-Liboire. The problem turned out to be that it was freezing everything. I instructed Chris to adjust the temperature to a warmer setting but that made no difference. I can't confirm if the refrigerator was running continuously but Hubby did manage to get it to shut off. And subsequently not restart. I finally took a half-assed look at it today, thinking the cold control was shot. However, when I extracted the control unit, it looked to be very much more complicated than I am experienced with. The 4 wires coming out of the control are throwing me. I suspect there's a relay tucked in there somehow and and I was not sure if there was a way to short the cold control switch to see if the compressor would still start. It's a long shot but does anyone out there have some service/diagnostic information on one of these 'pushbutton defrost' Westys? The Canadian model/style numbers may be very different from similar US models. Mine is a model PK-125 for whatever that's worth. Photos... < > Photo 1 of 4 View Full Size

Post# 1145974 , Reply# 1 4/7/2022 at 13:39 (749 days old) by turbokinetic (Northport, Alabama USA)
Checkrate/Likes I'm not sure how the pushbutton defrost mechanism works, however I do have info on the thermostat control. It contains the start-relay and the thermostat in one module. Is the pushbutton defrost part of the same thermostat control? In your picture it looks to be a separate switch. I will share a generic Westinghouse wiring diagram shortly which shows how the thermostat and start relay interact with the compressor, but it won't have the defrost circuit on it. View Full Size

Post# 1145975 , Reply# 2 4/7/2022 at 13:52 (749 days old) by turquoisedude (.)
Checkrate/Likes 1 *Thanks for jumping in!* Hi Dave, I was hoping you'd see this post... LOL The pushbutton defrost is a separate unit - it's in fact a countdown timer that activates a circuit to an electric heating unit in the freezer section (Not sure exactly how that is placed, though). I was afraid that there was a relay in that control - I had an older Canadian Westy (it was a model LH-8 I think) that had a similar setup and which also died due to a relay failure. I'm looking forward to seeing the generic wiring diagram - thank you very much!

Post# 1145976 , Reply# 3 4/7/2022 at 14:00 (749 days old) by turbokinetic (Northport, Alabama USA)
Checkrate/Likes 1 I edited the above post to include the diagram. If worst comes to worst - you can use an aftermarket thermostat; and also an external aftermarket start relay, such as a Supco RO81. The aftermarket start device, and aftermarket thermostat together will take the place of the Westinghouse control.

Post# 1146096 , Reply# 4 4/8/2022 at 23:17 (748 days old) by 114jwh (Vancouver)
Checkrate/Likes 2 Hey Paul - Hope you can get this working! I'm not sure though that it has a heating element in the freezer - I have an old Westinghouse with the push button defrost that looks similar to yours and mine is a hot gas defrost system. But maybe mine is a bit different. Anyways - good luck! Your persistence seems to always pay off.