Fridge worry

[JohnP]

Normal fridge - not auto anything - chiller plate at rear - ice compartment in the top.

Yesterday there was a pool of water on the floor! Wife had recently put some shopping in it. Cleaned it up - poked out the drain hole. Motor was warm - thermostat would not call for the motor to run!

An hour later it was running again!

Thinking it through, could the motor have a thermal overload and it had been forced to work too hard?

Should I provide remedial training for my wife and affix a notise saying door must not relain open for more than 30 seconds?

[Brian Gaff (Sofa]

I really don't know I think fridges are ganging up on us, after me doing the suggested action of turning off with doors open for a long time and then starting it over, It seemed my water problem had gone, that is until yesterday morning when although the fridge was only 6 degrees, the puddle was back. In your case though with a drain hole could the tray its supposed to drain into be damaged cracked or rusty, depending on what its made off, you can usually feel it on top or over the muter by the looks of things. Its supposed to evaporate into the air harmlessly, not go on the floor. Obviously there will be condensation in any fridge, so the water has to go somewhere, in mine, unfortunately there is no drain hole. The self dehumidifying seems to rely on circulating air off through the same fan dehumidifier which does the freezer and of course that works fine, but the fridge suck out vent appears to not be sucking as much as the cold air in is blowing!

Bah humbug. I hate throwing away things that may simply need somebody to unscrew the right panel and clean out a pipe! Brian

[alan_m]

It may depend where the thermostat sensor is located. If fitted close to the chiller plate (as it is on my larder fridge) then the sensor may not see a rise in air temperature for, say, 5 minutes after a door has been left open as it also requires a previously cooled plate (still full of cold refrigerant) to also warm up. If the compressor was warm it may have just finished a cooling cycle and taken the chiller plate (and sensor) below the average operating temperature for the inside of the fridge so adjusting the thermostat would make no difference to starting the compressor again, especially if already set to a lower temperature setting.

You diagnosis of a blocked pipe causing the pool of water was probably the only problem.

[alan_m]

Didn't you say that at the back of the fridge or freezer there is a tube down to the compressor. It must come from somewhere inside of the unit and its purpose is to probably drain water so that the heat of the compressor evaporates it to atmosphere.

[Brian Gaff (Sofa]

Yes but you cannot tell where it goes. Its on the extreme right back into the corner of the tray. From other enquires I think it goes to somewhere behind the fan in the freezer, which is described as the de humidifier fan. The problem often is that the tube is blocked somewhere down its very long run, and eventually it overflows and tips its contents into the innards of the system, which probably ends up either seeping into the insulation, or into the fridge below it. Without a proper manual its hard to say other than that. I have the thermostat at normal, the temp in the fridge is around 5c and the freezer seems to be -15c, nominally. We are now waiting to see if it floods again. There is no drain in the fridge, three people have looked now. Brian

[JohnP]

I can't see where the thermostat sensor is located.