Warm fridge freezer

[Dave Liquorice]

Presumably that is a messy task with a frost free as it won't have the nice drainage channels and shoots to get the water into a container that frosty freezers have.

[Chris J Dixon]

As it obeys the laws of physics, a frost-free still causes frost to form on the cooling matrix. However, every 24 hours, or so, the compressor turns off, small heating element(s) warm up the matrix, and possibly the drainage route, and the water runs out to an evaporation dish on top of the compressor.

Nevertheless, if it has become seriously frosted (BTDT) then the capacity of the drainage system will probably be insufficient. If you haven't pulled the fridge out, then this will simply puddle out of sight, so it would be wise to watch what is happening.

Chris

[Mark]

Don't do that. Refridgerant may get where it's not supposed to go.

[John Rumm]

I think that would make the milk fall out of the door tray ;-)

(on a more practical level, this bugger is 6'5" tall and full of stuff!)

[NT]

All frost frees have a drain, they'd turn into a solid block of ice otherwise.

I dont know any fix that can be done while storing food in it, job 1 is to bin or eat it all.

NT

[Dave Liquorice]

Doh, of course! But as you say only for the small amount of frost on the chiller elements not a cubic foot of solid ice...

[Dave]

Does that apply to car air con? I had mine re-gassed late spring last year. Should I have scrapped it and bought another?

Dave

[js.b1]

Car HVAC can be of variable quality. With most HVAC it is important to run it regularly throughout the year so all the seals get lubricated - otherwise they dry out causing leaks. Some HVAC run regularly even in cooler months to dehumidify so improving demisting performance, but not all - check the manual.

Some HVAC have piping routes "optimised" for LHD/RHD, with the reverse imposing a less than optimal route (thermal degradation of hoses) and many extra joints for leaks.

A trap with recent cars is no "non-HVAC" option, that means if a compressor fails you can not just remove it and fit an idler pulley. It is just part of the spiralling maintenance cost, something to be aware of (along with a future much tougher 2yr MOT replacing the current 1yr MOT in the future, cue green tax opportunity re "Gordon leading the world in green policy" tax target).

[Tim Watts]

js.b1 wibbled on Tuesday 09 February 2010 19:09

Wot?

Any links?

[geoff]

Well, the reasoning I was given was, that with the exception of obvious holes e.g. a cracked joint or something, that it's normally a pinhole, where there's one, there's another behind it waiting to happen

[John Rumm]

I think we have the winner here...

I stuffed an endoscope through the fan to look at the heat exchanger. All I could see was ice!

So worked out how to get the next layer of back off and expose the HE. That was nicely encased in solid ice top bottom, and both sides. So basically no air flow through it at all. So half an hour with a hair-dryer later, some poking and prodding and we have a bucket of ice, and a now permeable HE. Reassembled, its already back down to -13 within an hour or so.

That just leaves the question of what caused it to freeze up in the first place. I shall have to go hunt the defrost timer in the daylight tomorrow. (still at least I know some more places it is not!)

Presumably the timer is a likely culprit, but is there also a heating element or does it just rely on the lack of cooling for a period to defrost the HE?

[Dave Liquorice]

Assuming that it's not failure of the existing pully bearing just disconnect the wiring for the clutch between the pully and compressor.

[John]

On the one I fixed the heater is a short tubular thing under the matrix. It could be that yours has merely got a bit overloaded and the 20min cycle every 8 hours isn't enough. However, search for the timer - it will be inside something that looks like a terminal box around the back. You can advance it with a screwdriver to the heating position.

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[John Rumm]

Thanks for those. I shall go search for it tomorrow...

(only problem now is, SWMBO quite fancies a new one anyway having got all geared up for it!)

[ARWadsworth]

You could still fix the old FF and use it as a beer fridge and put it in your workshop:-) The added bonus for the summer would be the ice cream bars in the freezer section.

Adam

[Mark]

They have a heater. Just lack of cooling would not melt the ice quickly enough.

[Mark]

I suggest you buy a normal freezer, rather than a frost free one. They're much more reliable as there is very little to go wrong.

[Man at B&Q]

You're at the top of a very slippery slope. Expect multiple expensive repairs (8 hours labour for one job on a VW Sharan) as each item in the chain fails. Car air-con is doomed from the start due to the corrosive nature of the CFC replacemnts (or so I was told by a reputable air con engineer).

MBQ

[fred]

You're as well checking but it's not necessarily a component failure, some of the defrost mechanisms are poorly designed, don't clear all the ice and it builds up over time. Overfilling results in poor airflow which also causes more icing up. See if you can get a multimeter on the defrost heater connections too.

I'm surprised you got anywhere with a hair drier, I've had to have a fan heater (on low) for a couple of hours to clear a frosted up Bosch (frozen food wrapped in a duvet).

Excellent design on the Bosch, you can't get the panels off if it's iced up and you can't get to the ice with the panels on, er . . .

[Invisible Man]

Is it in a heated room? It is probable a one compressor model. If the room is very cold the fridge will not need much cooling and the compressor will not run enough to keep the freezer properly cold.