Formerly Adam & Sam Brothers RepairKenmore · Inglewood to Kenlake Vista
Kenmore runs on Puget Sound Energy power, and after every big windstorm some refrigerators here come back on but never cool properly. We find out why, price the fix in writing and usually repair it on the first visit.
In the November 2024 bomb cyclone, Puget Sound Energy had more than 400,000 customers in the dark at once, and Kenmore, with its tall firs and lakeside neighborhoods, was squarely in that count. Over the following weeks, our calls from here took on a clear pattern. The fridge had power again, the lights inside worked, but the compressor clicked and quit, or the display showed a code, or the freezer had quietly turned into a block of ice that blocked the air path to the fresh-food side. Some of those fridges needed a part; a few only needed a complete defrost and a proper restart. Every big outage since has brought a smaller wave of the same calls.
None of that means a refrigerator is finished. Outages tend to expose parts that were already close to the end: a start relay with a few restarts left in it, a control board with a weak power supply, or a defrost system that could not handle a freezer full of meltwater. Adam and Sam send a technician from our Mountlake Terrace shop out SR 104 and along Bothell Way, a twelve-to-fifteen-minute drive off-peak, with the common relays, fans and defrost parts already aboard. The model number from the sticker and any error code, given when you call or typed into the booking form, make it more likely that the exact board is in the van too.
Kenmore's housing came in waves: post-war plats such as Inglewood in 1953 and Uplake in 1954, then steady suburban building through the 1960s, 1970s and 1980s. About a third of the homes date from 1980 to 1999. In Arrowhead, the Moorlands or Kenlake Vista, the house may be fifty years old, but the refrigerator is usually on its third or fourth generation, often a French-door or bottom-freezer model with an electronic board. That matters after an outage, because electronic controls are more sensitive to brownouts than the mechanical thermostats they replaced. Condo and apartment buildings, where about one Kenmore home in eight is found, add another twist: building power can come back in stages, so a fridge may ride through several flickers in a row before the supply settles.
And yes, we fix a fair number of Kenmore-brand refrigerators in Kenmore. The brand never built its own fridges; they came from other manufacturers, mostly Whirlpool, LG and Frigidaire, and the first three digits of the model number tell us which. A model starting with 106 is a Whirlpool design, 795 points to LG, and 253 to Frigidaire. Read us the tag inside the fresh-food section when you call and we will know which relays, fans and boards to bring.
Water is not much of a factor. Northshore Utility District supplies Kenmore with Seattle's Tolt River water, which runs soft, roughly 1.2 to 1.4 grains per gallon. When a valve or ice maker fails here, it is usually from age or from freezing during an outage, not from mineral scale. If your fridge has a water filter and you have been through a long outage, change it; water that sat in a warm filter is not something you want to drink.
Refrigerator repair in Kenmore starts at $265. Outage calls here usually come down to a start relay, a defrost heater, thermostat or control, or a control board, and the board sits at the upper end of that list. That is a starting price for our service area, not a quote. You see the exact amount in writing after the $85 diagnostic, and if you go ahead, the diagnostic is counted inside that amount. No distance charge applies to Kenmore.
Starting prices for the north Seattle area, 2026. The $85 diagnostic is included in any repair you approve, and the exact price is in the written estimate before work starts.
After a storm it is tempting to replace a refrigerator that will not restart, especially with spoiled food on the counter and an online sale in another tab. Most of the time that is not necessary. A board, relay or defrost repair costs a fraction of a new unit, takes one visit when the part is on the van, and leaves you with a fridge that fits the opening you already have. The exception is a fridge that has been struggling for years, with a compressor that runs constantly, rusting shelves or cracked liners, where the outage was simply the last push. For a basic model past fifteen years, we will usually say replacement is the better buy. For a ten-year-old French-door or a built-in, repair is nearly always the right call. Either way, you get a written price and our read on the unit before you decide.
Check the breaker for the kitchen circuit and make sure the outlet works with a lamp. Look at the temperature settings, because some models reset after an outage. If the display shows a code, write it down so you can read it to us. If the compressor clicks without running, unplug the fridge and call us rather than plugging it back in repeatedly.
If the power is flickering on and off, turning the fridge off at its control or unplugging it until the supply settles can spare the compressor and board some hard restarts. Plug it back in once, then leave it alone. Keep the doors closed; a full freezer holds its temperature far longer than a half-empty one.
Yes. Let us know about any entry codes, loading areas or parking rules when you book, and whether the owner or the manager approves the repair. The estimate goes in writing to the person who signs off, and the findings are explained to whoever lives there.
No. We charge no distance surcharge anywhere in our service area, and Kenmore is only twelve to fifteen minutes from the shop off-peak. You pay the $85 diagnostic, which disappears into the repair price if you go ahead, and nothing else until you say yes to a written estimate.
Yes. Sealed-system work, including compressor replacement and leak repair, is done in-house by our own technicians under EPA Section 608 rules. We recover the refrigerant, make the repair, pull a vacuum and recharge to the manufacturer's specification. We only recommend it when the refrigerator is worth that investment.
Talk to Adam & Sam
Kenmore fridge not recovering after an outage? Phone (425) 570-9520 with the error code or model sticker handy, or book online, add them to the form, and up to $18 drops off the repair. Approve the estimate and the $85 diagnostic is part of the price.
Refrigerator
Frigidaire cooling failures cluster around the start relay's click, defrost faults that ice the coil, stalled fans, and the garage-fridge physics problem.
Refrigerator
Kenmore fridges are built by Whirlpool (106), LG (795) or Frigidaire (253), and the prefix decides the diagnosis, including LG's linear compressor.
Refrigerator
KitchenAid refrigerators share Whirlpool engineering: evaporator fans, defrost systems and dampers lead the warm-fridge list, with dual-evaporator twists.
Schedule a repair
Send the basics and we call you back with an arrival window, most days the same morning.