Amana Side-By-Side not cold enough


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Old 07-29-17, 06:04 AM
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Unhappy Amana Side-By-Side not cold enough

I have a 17 (?) year old Amana Side-By-Side. A week or three ago noticed freezer section not getting cold enough, lowest freezer temperature is about 14 degrees. I put in a new internal (evaporator) fan a few years ago, still working fine.
I cleaned everything up on coils, checked & cleaned-up the evaporator fan, compressor seems to be fine.

  • Compressor - appears to work ok
  • thermostat - appears to work ok
  • defrost thermostat - replaced yesterday
  • defrost timer - replaced yesterday
  • defrost heater - appears to work ok
  • evaporator fan - replaced in 2015 - appears to work ok
  • condenser fan - appears to work ok

After replacing the defrost timer and defrost thermostat, this refrig still does not get freezer section down lower than about 14 degrees.

Only thing I can think of is that the Compressor is low on R-134a ????
Anyone with other ideas before I go out and get a pair of piercing valves and put a set of gauges on it.

TIA -- Rick
 
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Old 07-29-17, 12:36 PM
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Welcome to the forums.

You'd normally replace the defrost parts if you had an icing problem.
If only part of the coil was frosted.... that would be a low refrigerant issue.

Is the compressor running continuously ?
That's also an indication of a low charge.

I don't provide information/instructions on charging.
 
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Old 07-29-17, 02:37 PM
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Coils were frosting from bottom up, but frost I saw was fairly uniform.
Compressor is not running continuously... or, is it?
It's pretty quiet, and I frankly haven't been monitoring it.
(I'm wondering how I'd do that accurately)

After running for about 20 hours with new parts, freezer section
now worked its way down to 10 degrees, maybe due to new defrost
timer - its adjustable, and set it to 9 hours, instead of the 8 hours
of the original timer; both use 20 minute defrost period.

No need for instructions on adding refrigerant, been there, done that.
But whether I want / need to is the question.

One odd thing I noted -that might be telling?- is that when I restarted
the refrigerator, after it had been off an hour while working on it, it ran
for a minute or two, then I put it into defrost mode (compressor off),
then cooling mode again (compressor on). Compressor made a little
complaint about restarting so soon, but then kicked over pretty easily.
Which ?maybe? indicates it's low on refrigerant?
.
 
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Old 07-29-17, 04:08 PM
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Compressor made a little complaint about restarting so soon, but then kicked over pretty easily.
That's normal. No indication of charge.

The defrost timer should be 8 (or 9) compressor running hours.
 
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Old 07-30-17, 01:21 PM
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Today freezer varying between 2-4 degrees, not as low as I'd like to see it,
but near what I'm told is optimum (Zero degrees F)
Was it modifying defrost timer time-ON that did the trick?
< shrug > Beats me, but if it starts going whack again,
will look to checking pressure and adding R-134 if pressure low.
 
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Old 08-03-17, 07:06 PM
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I added about 2 ounces of R134a to the system, and there's no change, temp in freezer pretty stable at roughly 14 F degrees.
What's left? - Partially plugged capillary tube is all I can think of, and I'm not equipped to deal with that.
 
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Old 08-03-17, 07:39 PM
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And the compressor is still running continuously ?
 
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Old 08-03-17, 08:03 PM
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Yes... Fan runs with the compressor, and I never hear it cycling.
What I've read says symptoms of plugged-up cap tube and low refrigerant, similar, -- (low) low-side pressure, poor cooling.
 
 

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