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Hi there,
We came home to a defrosted fridge the other day. There was no obvious sign of distress except the temperature sliding towards room temperature on both the freezer and fridge side.
I unplugged it to reset, it came back up and started cooling. It was able to pull the temps down 5 degrees and then the temps stopped falling.
We replaced with a new unit today, but my goal is to repair this one and use as a second fridge in the garage.
I took it apart (rear cover off and motherboard cover off) and cleaned the evap coil assembly, and started it up again. Immediately the freezer began to cool (cold air coming out of vents). Compressor came one, evap coil fan came on (though I can't tell if the rpm is correct), evap coil gets warm. After about 30 min, the compressor is too hot to touch. I would guess than it will hit thermal protect and shut off soon.
The temps reported by the temp controls seem to be correct. Motherboard front has no signs of distress. No strange noises from compressor.
Any ideas as to what is wrong? I was thinking I would start with a new MB and temp controller, but with the compressor getting so hot, I'm not sure.
Thanks for any help in advance!
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Rank: Member
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Joined: 12/1/2008(UTC)
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Hello.
When the compressor gets too hot to touch, the issue is a sealed system restriction. The symptoms you describe are classic restriction symptoms. You see, inside the sealed system there is a constant circulation of freon during compressor operation. A "floater" in the system allows enough freon circulation to bring down the temperature at first, but the system stops up again as soon as the "floater" is picked up and circulated to a smaller part of the system that it can't pass through. As soon as this happens, freon cannot circulate and you get no chemical reaction that chases the heat out of the unit. (Note that this is not a freon loss. In the case of a freon loss there is no time when the unit cools at all).
In conclusion, depending on the model of the unit, it is an expensive enough repair that has to be completed by a freon certified technician, that it is normally not economically feasible to repair. (Especially if the unit has a lot of age to it).
I really dislike telling someone this, but I cannot in good conscience advise a repair on a unit that is worth less after the repair than the cost of the repair.
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Rank: Member
Groups: Registered
Joined: 3/21/2012(UTC)
Posts: 2
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Originally Posted by: Jerry / APP Team  Hello.
When the compressor gets too hot to touch, the issue is a sealed system restriction. The symptoms you describe are classic restriction symptoms. You see, inside the sealed system there is a constant circulation of freon during compressor operation. A "floater" in the system allows enough freon circulation to bring down the temperature at first, but the system stops up again as soon as the "floater" is picked up and circulated to a smaller part of the system that it can't pass through. As soon as this happens, freon cannot circulate and you get no chemical reaction that chases the heat out of the unit. (Note that this is not a freon loss. In the case of a freon loss there is no time when the unit cools at all).
In conclusion, depending on the model of the unit, it is an expensive enough repair that has to be completed by a freon certified technician, that it is normally not economically feasible to repair. (Especially if the unit has a lot of age to it).
I really dislike telling someone this, but I cannot in good conscience advise a repair on a unit that is worth less after the repair than the cost of the repair. Thank-you for the honest direction on this, and especially before I bought a bunch of parts. So this morning, the unit is back to the right temps and holding. No load inside, but seems encouraging. Could it be that the eval coils being totally clogged with dust could have been the original issue?
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Rank: Member
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Hello,
The condenser coils clogged with dust and lint contributes to no cool and overheated compressor situations. If they were completely clogged, this could have been your issue, but you said previously that after you cleaned them the unit stopped cooling again. This leads me to believe that there is still an issue inside the sealed system. At the cost of groceries, I would be hesitant to load the unit. I see no problem with using it for a garage unit with items in it that won't spoil if it warms up such as drinks. Remember with the unit in the garage, it will be tempting to put additional items in it, but you probably won't check on it often enough to save these items in the event a warm-up should reoccur.
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