Fridge freezer woes

cactuscake

cactuscake

cactuscake

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Joined
22 Feb 2009
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512
Location
Bampton
I was having ongoing issues with the fridge freezer in my apartment not cooling sufficiently for weeks. Ambient temperature is pretty high - about 80f/27c most days of the summer because the A/C in my apartment is also a pile of poo.

After arguing with my landlord for a while that a normal fridge should be able to operate in temps up to 90f/32c he finally got a brand new fridge freezer. It was super frosty for all of about 5 days, everything frozen rock solid. Yesterday it totally defrosted itself, just like the last one and it won't refreeze! :mad: Left the A/C on all night long and managed to get the ambient down to 72f (my electric bill is going to rocket). Left 10lbs of dry ice in it and it disappeared completely overnight. Food going bad... Compressor is running 90% of the time. No frost on the evaporator coils at all. :confused:

Have tried unplugging and leaving for a while and then plugging back in to no avail. Even the mustard in the door shelf doesn't seem to be doing anything :eek:

Is there something else I could be doing/checking, or am I just unlucky enough to have another broken fridge freezer already?
 
Are you keeping enough of a gap at the back between it and the wall?

Also has it got enough room at the sides for air flow behind it?
 
^^^
That's what I was going to say.

Also, I don't mean to sound patronising, but are you sure you're closing it properly? Had this problem with my new fridge and turns out it needed a slight harder push than the old one!
 
There is a large gap all the way around, have even tried pulling it out and leaving in the middle of the kitchen floor for hours to no avail. Door seals are good - pinched a piece of paper between the door and the unit and there is resistance when sliding it back out all the way around.
It should be under warranty, but I don't want to call out a tech if it is something simple I can correct.
 
Is it near any cooking appliance? Used to sell kitchens and a lot of people but fridges next to ovens n stuff, and more often than not they'd come back and ask for a re-draw because the heat from the cooker was messing up the performance of the cooling appliances.
 
Did you wait 24hrs before switiching the new freezer on once you'd placed it where you wanted it?
 
Can you get to or see the compressor?

Flick some water on the copper pipes leading the compressor (obviously use some common sense when doing this) the smaller of the two would be the discharge, if you splash some water on this it should evaporate very quickly as this will be very hot, this would show if the compressor is pumping and that there is some refrigerant left in the system.
 
Thanks for all the suggestions everyone!

arknor said:
are you sure its level
Click to expand...
Checked with a spirit level, it is level.

BOBPegasus said:
(no fridge expert here)

Tried a different plug socket? Maybe the plug is faulty and not giving enough electricty?
Click to expand...
I've tried a different socket, but I'm pretty sure it is on the same circuit. I am wondering if this might be the problem. I have a volt meter kicking around somewhere, I'll see if I can find it and if it's strong enough to withstand house mains! :eek:

RJC said:
Can you get to or see the compressor?

Flick some water on the copper pipes leading the compressor (obviously use some common sense when doing this) the smaller of the two would be the discharge, if you splash some water on this it should evaporate very quickly as this will be very hot, this would show if the compressor is pumping and that there is some refrigerant left in the system.
Click to expand...

Unfortunately, unlike the previous fridge, this one's coils and compressor are hidden. It uses a fan to expel warm air. There isn't a way for me to access it without removing large chunks of the fridge itself or turning it upside down (which I don't want to do because then I have to wait 24 hours again to test). If it is a faulty compressor I'll get a tech to check for that.


As for the 24 hour rule (don't know why multi-quote didn't include that comment when I clicked on it) - We only waited about 8 hours before turning it on the first time. Could this really be the problem though? I mean, it worked for a few days really well... why would it make such a fuss now?
 
cactuscake said:
Thanks for all the suggestions everyone!

Unfortunately, unlike the previous fridge, this one's coils and compressor are hidden. It uses a fan to expel warm air. There isn't a way for me to access it without removing large chunks of the fridge itself or turning it upside down (which I don't want to do because then I have to wait 24 hours again to test). If it is a faulty compressor I'll get a tech to check for that.


As for the 24 hour rule (don't know why multi-quote didn't include that comment when I clicked on it) - We only waited about 8 hours before turning it on the first time. Could this really be the problem though? I mean, it worked for a few days really well... why would it make such a fuss now?
Click to expand...

You should have been ok with 8hrs, main reason is whilst the fridge is idle / not use you end up with liquid and vapour present at the same time, with the fridge on it's side the liquid could end up in a place when the compressor starts could slug liquid back, were leaving the fridge for 24 hrs ~ allows the liquid to migrate to a place were it won't course problem on start up.
 
Tech came last night, tested the voltage of our outlets, they are low, but not too low to run a fridge. Then he found oil/freon (or whatever it is they fill them with these days) had leaked out. It's under warranty so they'll repair or replace.

Third time's a charm right?
 
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