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Removing and installing a fridge


Theo

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Our fridge has recently become faulty.  It is a 230V larder fridge and the cooling is taking place over a smaller and smaller area of the back panel,  It's now down to about a 4" square and cannot maintain the temperature even though the motor is running all the time.  it's not very old (about 5 years, three of which were when we were living aboard)

 

I am wondering if we could have damaged it when we installed it, tipping it too far for it's health.  I knew at the time that you should leave it upright for 24 hours before switching it on but I thought that you could tip it to any orientation as long as you obeyed the 24 hour rule.

 

In preparation for buying a new one I have been Googling to see what the currect advice is.  I have see varying advice from "keep it upright at all time" though "Don't tip it more than 45 degrees from the vertical" to "you can lay it on it's back or side but don't switch it on until it has been set upright for as long as it was laid down."

 

Do we have a refrigeration engineer in the house that can give me clear advice?

 

Nick

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27 minutes ago, Theo said:

Our fridge has recently become faulty.  It is a 230V larder fridge and the cooling is taking place over a smaller and smaller area of the back panel,  It's now down to about a 4" square and cannot maintain the temperature even though the motor is running all the time.  it's not very old (about 5 years, three of which were when we were living aboard)

 

I am wondering if we could have damaged it when we installed it, tipping it too far for it's health.  I knew at the time that you should leave it upright for 24 hours before switching it on but I thought that you could tip it to any orientation as long as you obeyed the 24 hour rule.

 

In preparation for buying a new one I have been Googling to see what the currect advice is.  I have see varying advice from "keep it upright at all time" though "Don't tip it more than 45 degrees from the vertical" to "you can lay it on it's back or side but don't switch it on until it has been set upright for as long as it was laid down."

 

Do we have a refrigeration engineer in the house that can give me clear advice?

 

Nick

Sounds to me like the fridge has lost much of it’s gas.  It may be possible to regas rather than replace, but the leak would need to be fixed and as I found some fridges use butane with aluminium pipes and nobody wants to fix it, so had to replace.
In answer to your actual question - The coolant gas ‘contains’ lubricant which needs to be in the compressor, shake the fridge around or lie it on it’s side and the lubricant will run out of the compressor, so position the fridge and leave for 24hours before turning on.

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All correct. If you cannot find the leak and fix it its a waste of money to regas,  mains fridges are cheap anyway.

Let it stand for several hours after tipping it up, switch it on for a minute, then off.  wait 10 minutes and repeat, several times. Then leave it on to freeze down.

TD'

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When a fridge is laid down, the oil in the compressor can drain into the capillary tube.  If the fridge is then run, the oil will turn to wax in the capillary at low temperature.  This then produces a blockage which prevents any further refrigeration.  That is why the fridge should be stood upright but NOT RUN for 24 hrs, so any oil can return to the compressor by gravity BEFORE introducing low temperatures. Other advice is simply wrong.

However the symptoms you describe are nothing to do with that.  What you describe is the symptom of a loss of refrigerant gas, and therefore a leak.  It is absolutely not worth the cost of repair, and a new fridge is the only sensible remedy for today's domestic mains refrigerator.

I am an ex-refrigeration engineer.

  • Greenie 1
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1 hour ago, Theo said:

Our fridge has recently become faulty.  It is a 230V larder fridge and the cooling is taking place over a smaller and smaller area of the back panel,  It's now down to about a 4" square and cannot maintain the temperature even though the motor is running all the time.  it's not very old (about 5 years, three of which were when we were living aboard)

 

I am wondering if we could have damaged it when we installed it, tipping it too far for it's health.  I knew at the time that you should leave it upright for 24 hours before switching it on but I thought that you could tip it to any orientation as long as you obeyed the 24 hour rule.

 

In preparation for buying a new one I have been Googling to see what the currect advice is.  I have see varying advice from "keep it upright at all time" though "Don't tip it more than 45 degrees from the vertical" to "you can lay it on it's back or side but don't switch it on until it has been set upright for as long as it was laid down."

 

Do we have a refrigeration engineer in the house that can give me clear advice?

 

Nick

I have a lot of experience of buying fridges recently..... dont ask.

 

But on all the ones we ended up with the advice was.

 

If its been stored and transported upright. Leave it stand one hour.

 

If its been transported on its side (how can you know it hasn't?) Leave for four hours minimum, preferably 24 hours.

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Thanks all.  CWDF again proves itself as a superb fund of good advice.

 

N

Edited by Theo
Miskey
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Nearly all 12V boat fridges and freezers have Danfosss (SECOP) compressors- usually BD35 or BD 50.  There are a set of handy data sheets on the Danfoss website which have pretty pictures of the compressors and show which way they can and cannot be tilted, if that is essential. 

 

As a generalisation,  door face down is OK, everything else is not recommended.  As said above, it is all about the compressor oil getting into the discharge pipes.

 

 

N

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10 hours ago, Theo said:

Thanks BEngo.

 

Mine is a 230V fridge as will be the replacement.  Does that make a difference?

 

N

Probably.  The BD series are designed for 12/24 V not 230V. So your fridge will have something else than a BD. The works will be mechanically similar, but electrically different.

 

Look for the compressor label and then google for a data sheet on that would be my suggestion.

 

Or just keep everything upright.

 

 

N

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