Wonky fridge

[John Laird]

My beer fridge is not entirely behaving itself. It is a small frost-free larder one, and had a new thermostat fitted earlier this summer.

The problem is that the cooling plate is gradually icing up from the bottom. Periodically, I have to shut it off, leave the door open, and allow the plate to warm sufficiently for me to knock the accumulated frost off with a blunt instrument. It does not seem to matter how low I set the stat, but the higher the setting, the worse the icing. I believe the stat is running the frost-free cycle, but there is no control for this. The stat probe is mounted fairly high on the plate, above all the icing, but I doubt if I could move it to make any difference. The door seal appears to be sound and I try to keep the fridge fairly well stocked (ahem).

Any clues ? I suspect I am just stuck with it until such time as I figure another browse through the small ads is worthwhile (it was 2nd hand). Still, it'd satisfy my curiosity to know what the cause of problem is, even if there is nothing I can do about it.

TIA

[Gavin Gillespie]

frost-free

stat, but

hand).

The fridge is either short of gas, (usually due to a very slight leak in the system).or the compressor is not pumping the gas properly. Not worth spending any money on it.

[Biscuit]

The outlet of the pipe should be hot when the pump is on. If not more likely the gas is low and / or escaped.

A re-gas costs about £50.

Had the same problem with a special pull out door type chiller. Had it re-gassed it twice, which lasted 6 years. But in the end, went out and bought a new chiller.

[N. Thornton]

Hi John

This has nothing to do with gas loss, I think the other posters may be confusing this with a non-frost-free one. Your frost free fridge is not doing its daily defrost cycle: either the defrost timer isnt working or the heating elements gone, so the timer runs thru the defrost routine but doesnt melt the ice. Not a tricky repair.

Regards, NT

[John Laird]

Hmm. As mentioned, the thermostat is a replacement for the original that had failed completely. My normally reliable spares man sold it to me, and it did look exactly like the one that came out. However, I see from the sole web page quoting this part number that it has no automatic defrost action. Curious, in that it did exactly match the old one. I'd assumed the frost-free action was simply a prolonged off cycle rather than active heating.

Oh well, I'll manage for a while yet. Thanks to everyone who responded.

[N. Thornton]

Normally the thermostat doesnt control the defrost action. Defrost cycles are controlled by a separate timer, at least for mechanically controlled units. The defrost cycle consists of switching off cooling and turning on a heating element on the cooling element. This ensures relatively quick defrosting. An unheated defrost cycle would take too long, resulting in overtemperature in the fridge. This heat cycle is why ff units get poorer energy ratings.

Regards, NT

[John Laird]

Thanks for the info. I see the sense in what you are saying.

[derek]

John, just been in Makro, they are selling beer fridges for £59 - £69

+vat.

DG