Freezer excessively on

One of the failure modes of the thermostats is "continuously on". Keep an eye on it to make sure it does stop occasionally ...

Yes it does stop occasionally. If the thermostat is failing wouldn't it get excessively cold?

I've just checked and it is at -15, not -18, and that figure is confirmed by a cheap infra-red thermometer. Does that indicate that it's struggling to get down to the right temperature?

Only if it's failed in the "continuously on" mode. But since the only other failure mode is "doesn't run at all", it seems unlikely to be the thermostat.

You haven't accidentally pressed a 'fast freeze'* button, have you?

At 20 years old it may have lost suffcient refridgerant through a tiny leak to now struggle. Or the compressor might just be worn out and not able to compress the gas well enough any more.

Yes I guess it doesn't owe me anything. I believe something can happen to the lubricant when it ages.

I'll see how it is tomorrow though when a slightly cooler day is forecast.

No. But after I defrosted last week I put the fast freeze button on and usually after 3-4 hrs the freezer would have been well cold, but it wasn't and it was running 100%. I turned the button off then.

That was my first hint that things weren't quite right.

lots some of the refrigerant.

ditch.

did you damage any of the pipes with a scraper?

If that was the case the temp would be much lower than -18C. It's 20 years old. It's f***ed.

- 15 is not acceptable. Sorry, it's f***ed.

He is only getting -15. Fast freeze would hit -30.

F***ed compressor. Ditch.

If he had done that he would not be getting -15. The freezer is nearly as old as me ...

It's shagged. Buy a new one.

Of course its also possible that some of the lagging is compromised making it harder work to keep it cold.

Old fridges do seem to suffer from this sort of thing, I suspect condensation or just break down of whatever material is or was used to insulate things. Brian

It may have lost it's refrigerant gas (or most of it.) Compressor gets hot because it relies on (now non-existant) gas to cool it.

I've wondered about that. I normally put a couple of saucepans of hot water in the freezer compartment then as the ice starts to melt I got my hands under it and pulled a whole lot of ice off. The only pipe that is exposed is a thin one I think to the thermostat. How can I check if it is damaged? If it is damaged wouldn't the performance just get worse?

In message , AnthonyL writes

Is it possible that you created a very small leak, and lost come coolant

- but it then 'healed up' when the freezer cooled down again?