Refrigerator Evaporator Coil cool enough? Temp.
#1
08-29-08, 07:51 AM
Refrigerator Evaporator Coil cool enough? Temp.
I have a GE TFF24RTD side by side refrigerator that I bought used several months back. When I bought it, it would freeze water in the freezer but I knew it wasn't cold enough so I looked it over and discovered that the condenser fan wasn't running. When I got it home, I fixed that and all was well.
A month or two later, it built up some frost in the back/lower half of the freezer so I took the panel out and discovered the coil was covered with ice/frost. Obviously, the defrost wasn't doing it's job for some reason. I manually defrosted it and left it alone until I could get time to look into the defrost situation. I left the panels out with the fridge still plugged up the whole time so I knew the refridgerator side wouldn't get as cold since the evaporator fan wouldn't circulate right without that panel on.
I noticed it wasn't freezing anything anymore. Now, it still builds up ice on the evaporator coil but the temp in the freezer won't go below 55 degrees now.
If I measure the temp of the coil itself with a thermocouple, can somebody tell me what temp. is normal? I would like to make sure everything else is working right before I go to the expense and effort of trying to get the defrost working again for no reason.
The compressor is obviously working and I can hear it pumping, etc. Every now and then, I happen to be in the room to hear it click off or be turned off and click on again. I'm wondering if there's any in-between for compressors. I mean do they either work well enough or not at all or could it be partially broken and work well enough to build up that ice but not well enough to cool right?
It's obviously an old fridge and I have no doubt somebody's going to advise me to chunk it. The reason I want to try to make it work is that after I bought it(and it was working well). I repainted it, made new custom handles, a new faceplate for the ice/water dispenser, etc. Long story short, it looks like a brand new fridge.
Thanks in advance!
A month or two later, it built up some frost in the back/lower half of the freezer so I took the panel out and discovered the coil was covered with ice/frost. Obviously, the defrost wasn't doing it's job for some reason. I manually defrosted it and left it alone until I could get time to look into the defrost situation. I left the panels out with the fridge still plugged up the whole time so I knew the refridgerator side wouldn't get as cold since the evaporator fan wouldn't circulate right without that panel on.
I noticed it wasn't freezing anything anymore. Now, it still builds up ice on the evaporator coil but the temp in the freezer won't go below 55 degrees now.
If I measure the temp of the coil itself with a thermocouple, can somebody tell me what temp. is normal? I would like to make sure everything else is working right before I go to the expense and effort of trying to get the defrost working again for no reason.
The compressor is obviously working and I can hear it pumping, etc. Every now and then, I happen to be in the room to hear it click off or be turned off and click on again. I'm wondering if there's any in-between for compressors. I mean do they either work well enough or not at all or could it be partially broken and work well enough to build up that ice but not well enough to cool right?
It's obviously an old fridge and I have no doubt somebody's going to advise me to chunk it. The reason I want to try to make it work is that after I bought it(and it was working well). I repainted it, made new custom handles, a new faceplate for the ice/water dispenser, etc. Long story short, it looks like a brand new fridge.
Thanks in advance!
#2
08-29-08, 04:02 PM
If it is completely frosted over you still have a defrost problem.
How does the frost pattern look on the evaporator? Is it even all through the evaporator or does it look like the frost is not even? If you don't have a full frost pattern than chances are there is a low refrigerant charge or a compressor that isn't pumping properly. Both of which would mean a sealed system repair and it may not be worth fixing.
How does the frost pattern look on the evaporator? Is it even all through the evaporator or does it look like the frost is not even? If you don't have a full frost pattern than chances are there is a low refrigerant charge or a compressor that isn't pumping properly. Both of which would mean a sealed system repair and it may not be worth fixing.
#3
08-29-08, 06:01 PM
Originally Posted by gdoug
If it is completely frosted over you still have a defrost problem.
How does the frost pattern look on the evaporator? Is it even all through the evaporator or does it look like the frost is not even? If you don't have a full frost pattern than chances are there is a low refrigerant charge or a compressor that isn't pumping properly. Both of which would mean a sealed system repair and it may not be worth fixing.
How does the frost pattern look on the evaporator? Is it even all through the evaporator or does it look like the frost is not even? If you don't have a full frost pattern than chances are there is a low refrigerant charge or a compressor that isn't pumping properly. Both of which would mean a sealed system repair and it may not be worth fixing.
Instead of describing the frost/ice, I decided to just post a picture...
http://www.flickr.com/photos/46797468@N00/2810079764/
#5
08-29-08, 07:11 PM
If that is a big frost ball on the left side than it is likely there is a low refrigerant charge/leak or a compressor problem. Probably not worth fixing since it looks like an older unit that takes R-12 Freon.
