Refrigerator relay

As a refrigerator is not an electronic device, this is the wrong group in which to ask the question. You DID ask it in a proper group

Next time you feel compelled to ask the same question multiple places, do it this way:

Dear JEFFM, Might I suggest you switch to decaffeinated coffee?

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Probably not.

Not necessarily.

It only starts the motor. After 10 seconds you need to open the switch again.

Is it the start relay or overload?

Could be a seized compressor cycling on the overload. Could be a bad start cap, could be anything.

That's for sure.

the compressor mabe at fault, that relay is there as a cutout for safety.

You still live in the 60s of the last century ?

No, it switches out the starting winding after the compressor runs.

Well, no relay I've known of has 2 wires. The device you talking about is most likely a semiconductor device, its resistance is somehow proportional to its body temperature. When the motor stops, no current goes thru it, its body temp = ambient, and its resistance is very low. When the motor attemps to start, the device conducts the current for the starter coil, but the starter current also makes the device hotter. As a result its resistance goes up high until an equilabrium state occurs where the resistance and temperatue stay, at this state the starter current's almost cut off

So, the device somehow works as a timer relay. You can't short the two wires together permanently but a few ms when the motor starts. As others posts, the problem may be the CAP or somewhere else. But you can test that device by reading its resistance with an ohm metter then slightly heat it with your zippo...

Could be a PTC. But I can conceive of a two wire relay also.