I've been noticing that our refrigerator has been running a lot lately, and it's been smelling kind of hot, like maybe the condenser fan wasn't working. So, today after church I pulled the fridge out of its cubby, crawled in behind it, removed the back cover, and vacuumed out all of the dust and debris that I could reach (this is something that everyone should do at least a couple times a year, actually). After vacuuming, I inspected it a little more closely. Everything seemed fine, so I put it back together, crawled out, and pushed it back into its place.

After a few hours of work at the office, I came home and checked it. It seemed hot again. So, I pulled it back out, crawled back behind it again, took the back panel off, and started inspecting again. That's when I saw it--the condenser fan was NOT running. So, I nudged it a bit, and it spun up and ran. However, the bearing is clearly bad, which I can tell from the sound:

Some might just go buy a new refrigerator, but the replacement fan is only $100 while a new refrigerator is $1000 or more. And, aside from the fact that I have to work in a tight space and I am not a contortionist, the repair is easy, as this video demonstrates:

So, I'll do the repair. I hope a local appliance store has the part; otherwise, it's a two day wait for it to be shipped here.

And yes, I will use an OE part!

I woke up at 3:00 AM today. Came out to the kitchen at about 4:00 AM. I checked and found that the fan motor had completely seized at some point overnight.