How to use a multimeter?

It's about time to put these freezer back together.
The new defrost heater has been installed and I just installed the new thermostat.
See:


My question has to do with the cable tie that is, apparently, used to hold some of those wires to the back side of the evaporator fan housing. A previous video I uploaded shows that tie. After watching that video, could you please tell me what I should aim to tie to the back of the evaporator fan housing given the picture above of what I'm working with.

Thank you!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jvEoRq-E5u0&t=1s

 

Looks like you have wirenuts inside that black tape.
They must point up so they don't fill with water and rot out.
You can use the tie to hold that splice in place.

 

The wire nuts seem like they are pretty well protected. There's a lot of electrical tape around them and there is silicone at each end of the tape. You can actually see the silicone at the left end of the tape in that picture above.

When you say up, I assume you mean that the wide end of the nuts should be facing up, not the narrow end. I'll try my best, but I'm not confident that I can get them all the way up given my configuration. We may have to content ourselves with on the side, facing up a little.

Where exactly should the cable tie go on the configuration of wires you see above? Precisely what should I wrap it around?

 

Tape does not make a waterproof connection or covering.
A little bit of silicone in the end of the wirenut after installation would be a better seal.

No...the wide end up would act like a funnel and hold the water.
You want the small/pointed end up so that the wirenut CAN'T fill with water.
I labeled your previous pic. Just tip that splice upwards.

 

Thanks PJ. I'll see what I come up with. I really see a clear way to make the splice point upwards seeing that, when you put the evaporator fan assembly back in, you can't work from behind it.

I was about to put silicone in the wire nuts but I chickened out; I felt like they were going to come off and I don't really have any more wire to work with. I saw a guy in one of the Youtube videos in the related thread use electrical tape and no silicone, so I thought I would be good. There's no going back at this point.

 

Use the tie to hold the splice up. That's what it's there for.

 

I put everything back together. I set the freezer to zero and the fridge to 36 at about 7:00 p.m. When I got up at 7:00 a.m. the following day, The freezer was at negative 5 and the fridge at 34. (This is according to the display on the front of the freezer). Also, when I got close to the freezer and opened the door. I smelled a burnt plastic smell.

Do these developments signal anything to you? E.g., that the fix was bad?

Edit: When I was stripping those wires, my guess is that a couple little pieces of stripped plastic got down into the evaporator or behind it. Not trying to say that's causing the smell but just wanted to put that out there. I did fish the screw out of that little drain hold with a magnet.

 

The temperature of the freezer and fridge are back to normal. (0 and 35). Perhaps it was just going through some kind of cycle? The smell is not as noticeable as it was earlier.

EDIT: How long until I know the job was successful? In other words, assuming what I did didn't work, how long will it take the evaporator to freeze up and stop cooling?

 

The smell is more than likely the oil coating on the defrost element. It will fade quickly.
It could take from one week to several weeks for the evap to freeze up.
It all depends on much humid air passes thru the coil.

 

The fridge/freezer still seems to be working okay. But when I open then close the freezer door, I am hearing a sound of water draining. Any idea what's going on?

EDIT: I had never heard such a sound until I did my repairs.

 

The sound is the water dripping during the defrost cycle. It runs down the coil as it melts and drops into the drip pan. It follows a hose down and then drips into the drain pan under the fridge where the heat evaporates the water out of the pan.

 

OK. That makes sense. I think this thing is working--at least for now. I can't thank you enough for sticking with me and teaching me something new.

I did buy some temperature thermometers for the fridge and freezer. I set it to 0/36. If the thermometers are correct, it seems about 2 to 4 degrees higher than that, depending on the side.

So I'm just doing to turn the temperature down a couple of degrees.

I will post an update after a couple of months.

Regards.

 

It's always going to vary a few degrees based on location.
2° to 4° is ok for the freezer.

 

Actually. I've been checking my thermometers regularly. 2 in fridge, 2 in freezer. The fridge is pretty constantly between 36 F and 40 F.

The freezer has a much wider range from like - 6 F to 9 F.

My guess is that, when the defrost heater kicks on, it gets a lot hotter in the freezer and it does not start to cool down until a certain point.

My food seems frozen, so I'm not worried right now. I may turn it down a couple of degrees, to play it safe.

 

The more load (things) in the freezer.... the more stable the temp will be especially during defrost.

 

I see. I hardly have anything in there. Just a bag of frozen fish.

I don't even have ice in the ice maker.

 

It went out again this afternoon.. I opened the freezer door and the light was off and the temperature was way up--and rising.

That the light went out makes me think its not the defroster and is some kind of electrical problem. Remember, the last defroster was dead and it was evident that the new one we put in was coming on. Also, the light is out, which to me indicates something beyond a defrost issue.

I going to break down and get a new fridge. But just curious as to what you think the latest problem might be.

At least I can say I "fixed" my fridge for three weeks . . .

 

Okay, bizarrely, I just opened the freezer. The light was back on and it was starting to cool back down. It had gotten up to around 30 degrees F when the light was off. Now it's back down under 10 and seems to be on its way back down.

What did I do? The only thing I did was to flip the breaker off and on. I waited for about 15 minutes and opened it back up and that's when I noticed what I wrote above.



EDIT: Light is still on and it's back to 0 degrees F. Just hoping somehow, someway, you can make sense of these events.

 

It almost sounds like the light is going out in defrost mode.
That would be unusual but the interior fan does goes off when in defrost.