Refrigerator Intermittent freeze/warm food

[Shira]

Hi all!

It's been a long time since I've been involved with refrigerators, but I have a case and was just hoping for a reality check from people who know things.

Our problem description is: 

Quote

 

" The refrigerator in the Caretaker house has been having problems for the last year. Where it freezes and thaws our food. I keep turning it down and that helped a little. Now it just keeps running"

"The problems are two-fold. The first is it keeps freezing our food and then being almost warm. We have been turning it down, but it will still sometimes get cold enough to freeze our food and then almost be warm.

The second is, it's getting louder and louder and making new noises. Its kind of mystifying while being more erratic.""

 

This is a single-evaporator, top-freezer fridge. 

When I came in I took temp readings and things seemed.. okay? 

Freezer ranged from -7 to 15 degrees
Fridge was at 42 
The customer told me they very quickly opened and shut the freezer 5 min before I got there. I forgot to check what level they had their settings at so I don't know if this info is even very helpful. Things weren't super overloaded or anything in either the fridge of freezer. 

Both fans were running, there were no obstructions in the air channel between fridge and freezer, and while they do have pets, the condenser coils weren't terrible when I cleaned them.

I tested the compressor amps on the black wire coming off it and that was 1.36

Compressor was hot to the touch at 133 degrees (tested with IR gun) and maybe was slowly rising but I'm not sure if it had leveled out or not. 

When I got in to look at the evaporator, it looked like it was on the tail end of a defrost cycle, with water in the pan, no ice buildup except a little at the outlet furthest from the heater. It looked normal.

I turned the cold control on and off and heard the click and stuff shut off at 0, but I'm not sure if this means it's actually working all the way or if it could be always on except when turned all the way to 0?
I also am not sure the best way to make sure that if the compressor is running all the time, it's not on it's way out and if the cold control did end up being a problem, that it would be worth replacing knowing the compressor wasn't healthy. The customer mentioned noises which I've heard as signs of bad compressor health?

So to summarize:
1. I think this could possibly be environmental/usage factors, but I want to rule out everything else.

2. Is there a way to get a definitive answer on whether the cold control is working properly?

3. Does the compressor amps sound normal? I found one comment that said it should be between 1.5 and 2 amps, so that would make this a bit low. Is there a way I can better test the compressor health?

 

[Shira]

I can't seem to edit the post. I wanted to clarify that part of the reason I'm uncertain about the amps on the compressor is because it seemed like it was just finishing defrosting when I got in there - wouldn't the compressor be off in a defrost cycle? 

[Vance R]

Usually mechanical defrost timer don't let defrost happen with the compressor running.  Possible but not likely.  Most likely it just came out of defrost. Amp draw of comp seems ok.  To confirm the thermostat is intermittent you need to catch it in the failure mode. Sometimes if it is not running you can tap on the knob to see if it will start the cooling cycle. 

[Shira]

12 hours ago, Vance R said:

Usually mechanical defrost timer don't let defrost happen with the compressor running.  Possible but not likely.  Most likely it just came out of defrost. Amp draw of comp seems ok.  To confirm the thermostat is intermittent you need to catch it in the failure mode. Sometimes if it is not running you can tap on the knob to see if it will start the cooling cycle. 

I was thinking to test the thermostat in ice water and somewhere warm (armpit? XD) to see if it turns off anywhere besides 0. I guess I don't know if partial failure where it is always on until it's at 0 is a thing?

 

Thank you for checking me on that compressor thing! That's very hopeful then that if there is something wrong with the thermostat that the compressor being fine it might still be worth fixing! 

[Shira]

"Hi all! 

To summarize my findings, I can't find anything wrong with the refrigerator in the caretaker house. 

Both fans are working, compressor is pulling what seems to me a healthy 1.51 amps*; defrost mode is clearly working with water visible at the end of the defrost drain pipe and it having just finished a defrost cycle the first time I came; there's no excessive frost buildup anywhere I can see; clear airways between fridge and freezer; and lastly the thermostat seems to be working as best as I can test it (not a lot of specs given for this one). 

 

I told Joe at this point we'd be looking for environmental factors- see if it works better now that we cleaned the coils (and upkeep that cleaning once or twice per year), pay attention if it happens on particularly hot or cold days, if it happens after someone leaves the door open for a long time or after they just went shopping and the freezer is particularly packed, etc. 

 

I will close the work order with a "monitor" close set for two or three months from now and we will check back in at that later date to see if the issue persists. We can reevaluate then. We do have another fridge of a similar size but not in the cleanest newest condition in storage, but maybe we'd just want to get something new and more efficient if the problem persists. Time will tell."

 

*I went back and tested that again and got this reading

 

 

 

Thanks Vance for your help!