Dead Fridge

[hrforever]

Over the past couple of months I've been scrounging parts to get into kegging but yesterday my $60 ebay fridge that's worked fine for three months suddenly decided it wanted to reach polar conditions so I turned it off. This morning, after turning it back on I discover the compressor or something is cactus as no refrigerant is circulating. java script:emoticon('',%20'smid_2')

Are there any fridge mechanics in Melbourne that can help as another fridge seems a waste. java script:emoticon(':unsure:',%20'smid_19')

 

[ausdb]

Over the past couple of months I've been scrounging parts to get into kegging but yesterday my $60 ebay fridge that's worked fine for three months suddenly decided it wanted to reach polar conditions so I turned it off. This morning, after turning it back on I discover the compressor or something is cactus as no refrigerant is circulating. java script:emoticon('',%20'smid_2')

Are there any fridge mechanics in Melbourne that can help as another fridge seems a waste. java script:emoticon(':unsure:',%20'smid_19')

When you say "reach polar conditions" do you mean get really cold and won't switch off? sounds like more of a thermostat problem then. Find a sparky mate or someone with electrical knowledge to work out whether power is getting to the compressor, if it did yesterday and it got too cold but wont today then highly unlikely the compressor has died.

 

[Keifer]

Buy a fridgemate from brissybrew and see if that controls it ok, it will confirm if its just the thermostat like ausdb suggested.

 

[hrforever]

Thanks for the input. The problem does not appear to be the thermostat but I have called in the professionals to rectify. Will cetainly be getting a fridge mate when I'm back up and running.

Happy brewing.

 

[TasChris]

I too have a fridge that wants to freeze everything, how ever fixed it with a fridgemate controller, just can't use the freezer part as the fridge spends more time off than on.

Chris

 

[DrewCarey82]

Quite possibly an internal gas leak. Most of those old fridges are as good as gold as long as not turned off, but when you do it leaks inside the fridge to the shithouse and lets all the gas out.

If this is the case which I reckon it is. Toss her!

 

[hrforever]

Well, the research is complete. Talk about being stiff. After talking to a couple of repairers I turned the fridge back on for half an hour. Compressor ran but no coldness.

Turned it off only to hear what sounded like leaking gas from behind the chiller plate on the inside of the fridge. Pulled it out a bit and looked behind only to find a scorch mark and a hole in the chiller plate.

Turns out the power 'flick' we had a couple of days before I noticed the fridge playing up had shorted out the cyclic defrost unit behind the chiller plate which in turn burnt the plate and the refrigerant leaked out. :blink:

End result, unrepairable.

Anyway, another ebay purchase and a surge protector will get me going again. Now for some taps and away I go.

Now for a drink. :beer:

 

[Andyd]

Hard luck Alcodave!

I must admit I'm starting to get sick of mucking around with fridges from ebay, both because they tend to be inefficient clunkers, and because there is a lot of watsed space where I can only get 1 fermenter into the fridge. Time to investigate building a cool room I think!

Andy