EC 23 files two defrost faults as one reading: the coil went past its cut-out temperature, and no voltage came back down the feedback wire when the cycle started.
- What the control is watching
- The peak temperature of the defrost cycle and its electrical confirmation, and it speaks up when both go wrong within the same cycle.
- What makes it register
- An overheat and a silent feedback wire recorded together, rather than turning up on separate days as two ordinary codes.
- Can you keep using it
- Not for long. Two defrost faults at once usually means something recent has been disturbed, and the heater may be running outside the cycle meant to limit it.
Read as one thing this code looks alarming; read as two it is usually simpler than it looks. A cabinet does not ordinarily grow an overheat and a wiring fault independently on the same evening. When both arrive together, somebody has been in there.
So the order of testing is not the order of the code. Mounting first, because a thermistor or a heater put back half an inch out explains the heat. Terminals next, because the same hands were on them. The board last, and only once those two have come up clean.
Frost, oddly, is not the symptom to watch for here. Soft patches at the top of the freezer are.
What we usually find
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Both halves of the code showing on a cabinet that has been worked on within the last month or two
One episode of work rather than two separate failures. A cover refitted with the thermistor shifted and the feedback wire left off produces exactly this pair.
Defrost heater, thermostat or sensor $280–$640
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The pair appearing shortly after a replacement control board went into the cabinet
Two wires on the wrong terminals of the same connector. The blue one puts heat in outside the cycle; the grey and white one never reports the start.
Quoted after the diagnosis
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The code coming back once the wiring has been proved right from end to end
The control board, which is the last of the three answers and the one to reach slowly. Everything cheaper than it gets eliminated first.
Electronic control board $390–$970
Which of these it is gets settled at the visit, before a part is ordered — Sub-Zero Repair Pro Los Angeles, (310) 844-1973.
- Written by
- Yuki Tanabe
- Role
- Refrigeration technician — controls and sensors
- In the trade
- 18 years in the trade
