We have a 1960's LEC fridge (looks very retro, don't ask about the efficiency!). Earlier this week the cooling unit (icebox) started to defrost. It has been happening very slowly, and now a week later the fridge is noticably warmer and most ice in the icebox has melted. The cooling parts still feel cold to the touch, but not freezing.
The motor is still running (infact from what I can tell almost continuously). For this reason I think the thermostat is probably working. From my basic knowledge of fridges I would say that for some reason the coolant isn't circulating.
Could I be right? What else could be wrong and can it be fixed? I have tried googling for an answer and I have found lots of sites saying how a restored retro fridge can sell for £500, but no details of anyone who actually restores them. I assume if I called out an engineer they might just laugh at the age of the thing. I can't imagine anywhere would sell 40 year old parts.
Any help would be good. The old dear has chugged along for so long, and just when she's back in fashion she dies! Thanks!
Model number is LEC T13186/37. If anyone knows of a place/person who restores fridges please let me know. Best email is: groups at ten2one (removethis) co (andthis) uk
Sounds like it needs re-charging with refrigerant - and maybe a leak needs fixing.
It would be worth contacting one or two fridge repair engineers - particularly older ones! They'll probably enjoy the nostalgia! .
I would have thought that, if it's a compressor-type fridge, it ought to be possible to fit generic spare parts to keep it going - without their needing to be identical to the original parts.
On 26 Aug 2004 01:19:02 -0700, snipped-for-privacy@yahoo.co.uk (Justin Hughes) strung together this:
Probably just the refrigerant needs topping up and possibly a leak fixing. Some places will do this to an old fridge, whereabouts in the country are you?
You could get in touch with LEC Refrigeration who are based in Bognor Regis, I did a course there in the early nineties and they used to love getting information about their old models. Most of the enquiries they received about older fridges and freezers were to say that they were still working fine but the hinges had worn through. A good indication of longevity I think.
It sounds as if it has developed a leak somewhere. A pinhole leak can cause the refrigerant to leak out over a week or more. Leaks tend to occur on the evaporator plate or where pipes enter the fridge - look very carefully for small dark marks. If you find them it may be possible to repair them but your fridge almost certainly uses the now banned CFC12 refrigerant and no equally effective alternative exists so it is probably a candidate for the Eurofridgepile mountain I am afraid.
Definately worth trying this once. If there's a substantial leak, it will do the same again within another few weeks, in which case trying to repair the leak probably isn't worth it (can be difficult to find unless it's obvious like where the compressor vibration has caused a pipe to wear against something, and if it's due to corrosion, there are likely many more leaks just waiting behind it).
There is a label on the back which says which refridgerant to use, but it looks like a snail has eaten it at some point and is not particualrly readable! I will try and find an old engineer to fix it and also try contacting LEC.
Yes, just had an engineer out who confirmed that the fridge runs on Freon (R12), which in the 40 years since the fridge was made has been banned.
It's such a shame. Apart from using it as a very small cupboard I can see no use for it. Does anyone know of a museum who may want it?. I'm serious - They don't make such beautiful things any more... I can't stand to see it end up as landfill.
I dont suppose youd be allowed to hook its cooling circuit up to another scrap fridge as an R12 donor? I dont know if thats legal or not, but if it is it should be diyable. YOu'd need to find out first though. And understand the very basics of refrigeration, which is simple.
If youre a real enthusiast you could always transplant a whole cooling system, but a lot of work. Or put peltiers on it to cool it, that might be very doable. Or attach a separate small freezer onto the back of it, fan the cold air in through 2 holes in the rear.
Your best bet might be to get a modern fridge, like a shop damaged one, and transfer the compressor, capilliary and condenser to the old one.
I doubt the evaporator is too critical, it usually ends up caked in ice at some point anyway, but something on the evaporator return to filter out contaminants could well be necessary. It might even be possible to fit the new evaporator in the old fridge.
You'd need to get the refrigerant drawn off then maybe flush the old evaporator, and braze the new bits to the old fridge using ACR tube and inert gas inside the piping to prevent oxidation. Finally get it leak tested and recharged with the new refrigerant.
Taking it to a 'fridge man' for the emptying/flushing/leak testing/recharging and doing the rest yourself would keep the cost down. If you ask on
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they are usually quite helpful.
If you're really luck it could just be a blocked capilliary and a drop in replacement for R12 is available.
"raden" wrote | >If youre a real enthusiast you could always transplant a whole | >cooling system, but a lot of work. Or put peltiers on it to | >cool it, | The cost of putting enough peltier cells to actually make it cool | to the required temperature would far outstrip the cost of buying | a new fridge
That's true with repairing/restorign most "vintage" things. It kind of misses the point though.
I did consider this, but you would need to some how pump the Freon from one to the other. I can see it all going wrong! I would also need to fill whatever hole is causing the leak, and it's nothing obvious. We've never been near the icebox with a knife, honest!
Someone else suggested there are replacements for R12. Apparently there is nothing that works so efficiently, so putting a replacement in would result in a warm fridge. That's the crux of not being able to repair it. I have emailed LEC and hope for a miracle.
I am toying with the idea of converting it into a freezer. If anything they seem simpler than fridges. I assume the LEC box is insulated to the hilt, as we have been currently cooling it with freezer blocks and they take a good 12 hours to defrost.
I'm afraid to say that a new fridge is being ordered tonight. I still can't stand to throw the old LEC away, so it will go into storage until a use can be found!
If you had a quiet chat with the "right" refrigeration man, you might just find that he happens to have a bottle of R12 tucked away for emergencies.................. don`t ask me how I know, and NO, I`m not a fridge man. Not that I`d recommend such an approach, of course. Bob larder
the donor fridge has a compressor silly! The compressor output is fed to your machine.
Not at all. It may simply mean the compressor runs longer, or it may mean it doesnt get quite as cold as usual on a heatwave day. It doesnt mean it will run warm.
Hope they have an easy solution. be aware that being a large company they might not suggest a repair that would give it 80 or 90% the efficiency it originally had. This kind of project is usually better tackled by the backstreet boys IME, the kind of folk that know how to rig any old crate up, and dont care about manufacturers specs, just whether they can get it going ok.
There are 2 differences in complexity.
With freezers you need to warm up the door seal points so the door doesnt ice up and jam shut. Also you might need to warm the outer cabinet slightly to avoid a lot of condesation.
A freezer needs a lot more cooling coil area inside the machine. So dont bother trying to make it a freezer: its a fridge.
If you want to tackle this yourself you'll need to learn the very basics of refrigeration. Its very simple, but you'll need to know it. In fact I've probably covered most of it already in this thread.
The only other thing to understand is the cooling cycle. The compressor pumps/compresses the gas, which makes it hot. The hot compressed gas is cooled down by going thru the radiator on the back of the fridge. Now it meets the expansion nozzle or tube. At this point it expands again, getting real cold. Then its back to the compressor for another trip round the circuit.
If you fix it yourself you'd also need to know about lubrication and how to open/close the cooling circuit.
plain water would be a better temperature match, and you could freeze it in one container instead of numerous blocks. But either works.
Putting it at the top will give better coolth distribution than if its at the bottom.
A sealed sterilised water container is a much preferred to an open one, and you can either sterilise by boiling, or buy something already sealed and sterile like UHT milk cartons. Someone always says 'but milk would go off': it doesnt, its sealed and sterile. If you use a sealed gallon container, squeeze a little before doing up so theres expansion room. Like that it just takes moving one container a day to keep using it until youve got it fixed.
Probably any commercial fridge engineer could put a modern compressor system onto it, welding it to the old evaporator. If you dont mind paying for an afternoons work I would investigate that one, as it meets all your requirements in one. A used machine can donate - not an R12 one of course :)
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