EC 06 is the control losing a usable reading from the sensor fixed to the refrigerator's cooling coil — a different part from the one measuring the air the food sits in.
- What the control is watching
- The coil behind the back wall of the fresh-food compartment, whose temperature is how the control judges the refrigeration itself rather than the room it serves.
- What makes it register
- The same three failures as any sensor code: an open circuit, a short, or figures that refuse to hold still.
- Can you keep using it
- Often, for a while. The temperature on the display comes from a different sensor altogether, so the panel can look completely ordinary while this one is out of circuit.
The useful thing about this code is which of the two sensors it names. A built-in Sub-Zero measures the fresh-food side in two places — the air, and the coil that chills it — and only the first of those has a number on the display. Losing the second costs the control its view of how the refrigeration is performing without altering anything visible.
So the complaint that arrives with this one is rarely about food. It is about a light that has appeared for no apparent reason on a machine that seems to be behaving perfectly well.
The work follows the wire before it follows the part. A coil sensor lives somewhere cold and damp, moves every time the evaporator cover comes off, and gives up at its connection far more readily than in its element.
What we usually find
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SERVICE flashing on a cabinet whose two displayed temperatures are both exactly where they belong
The coil sensor itself, out of circuit. It has no slot on the panel, so nothing a reader can see changes and the flashing light is the whole symptom.
Defrost heater, thermostat or sensor $280–$640
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The code appearing within days of somebody taking the rear panel off to chase frost
A sensor knocked out of its clip, or a plug that was not pushed fully home on the way back. Nothing is broken; the connection is simply not made.
Quoted after the diagnosis
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A fresh-food side that cools unevenly while the compressor hardly rests
A coil sensor reading low. The control never sees the evaporator arrive where it wants it, so it goes on calling for cooling that has already been delivered.
Defrost heater, thermostat or sensor $280–$640
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
