Freezer Question

[Eric]

probably a bad thermostat - right from day 1 Eric

[BobK207]

I assume it was a frost free model?

If so sometimes they fail to defrost completely & you get continued buildup of frost (ice) on the coils. The fridge in my mom's garage (1966 Frigidarie) w/ a bottom freezer was getting progressly warmer over the last few months.

There was a small amount of frost in the freezer compartment so I decided to "defrost" manually by shutting it off. I also removed the lower aluminum panel in the freezer compartment to expose the coils, thye were packed solid with ice. I shop vac'd out the ice by melting with warm water.

I reassembled everything & it's been running fine since then (about a month).

Maybe you did an inadvertant defrost? YMMV

cheers Bob

[TURTLE]

This is Turtle.

I would have to be there to say for sure of anything but what you said and i read , it seems to me it would be the thermostat. It being a defrost timer, Defrost terminator, defrost Element, Compressor, and dirty condenser coil have been ruled out by what has been said here but not the thermostat.

TURTLE

[Wayne Boatwright]

We have a 16 cu.ft. Frigidaire frost-free upright freezer that was purchased about 4 years ago.

From the first day we plugged it in, the temperature has ranged from 0°F to

+5°F. The salesman recommended setting the control to it coldest setting, and it has always been set there.

In the past several months, the temperature has been creeping up to around

30°F, and we quit keeping items in it that required being frozen solid.

Last weekend when I opened the freezer to remove a few things, the temperature had risen to around 45°F. Most of the contents were at least partially frozen, so we transferred as much as we could to our refrigerator freezer. During this time the freezer door remained fully open. When we were finished, I spent a few minutes wiping down the interior and the inside of the door as the surfaces were all moist. Finally, we closed the door and our thoughts turned to replacing the freezer.

A few hours later I thought of something I had left in the freezer and went to retrieve it. Much to my surprise, the temperature had dropped to -10° F., where it has remained ever since. It had never reached this temperature before.

Note that the freezer has never been without power, nor has it ever been turned off. The temperature setting has remained at maximum.

I simply can't figure this out and I wonder if anyone here might have an explanation. Any ideas?

TIA

[Wayne Boatwright]

On Wed 07 Sep 2005 07:50:24p, Eric wrote in alt.home.repair:

Thanks, Eric. Now that you mentioned thermostat, I wonder if maybe it was just "stuck" somehow and is now working normally? It might be worth monitoring for a while to see if the temp begins to vary again. I had a similar freezer previously, and was always able to maintain -10°F. I had that freezer for over 12 years when I moved out of state and left it behind.

[Wayne Boatwright]

On Wed 07 Sep 2005 08:37:52p, BobK207 wrote in alt.home.repair:

Yes, it's a frost free unit.

I'm going to check it out closer now that you've brought this up.

[Wayne Boatwright]

On Wed 07 Sep 2005 09:08:08p, TURTLE wrote in alt.home.repair:

Thanks, Turtle. It does seem like the most likly suspect. I'll look further into it.

[h1ebs]

My 2 cents, If it is not frost free, I agree probably tstat. If it gets warm again unplug and take off electrical cover and look for a small square shaped component that has to wires going to it and a very thin metal wire, It actually has inert gas in it. This is the thermostat. put both wires together you are now bypassing the tstat. Make sure wires are secure and insulated from touching any metal parts of freezer or you may get a shock or blow breaker. If freezer keeps temp for a period of time you now know you need a thermostat. If it is frost free then there can be quite a few things causing the problem.

[Wayne Boatwright]

On Thu 08 Sep 2005 03:18:58p, h1ebs wrote in alt.home.repair:

Thank you. It is a frost free model, but I'm going to be checking out the thermostat further.