freezer - ice inside door

[abyars]

My friend gave me an older Montgomery Wards upright freezer model 46351.  It cools down fast but now that the outside humidity has increase making my garage even more humid I'm finding a great deal of ice on the inside, only at the top at the gasket.  It's all across the top and forming  an icicle inside.

Do I need a new door gasket?  I've searched and found what seems to be the gasket part but it's over $130, not sure I want to drop that into the old beast.

[J5*]

What’s the condition of the door gasket currently ?

is it not sealing ? Put a torch inside , close the door  ,can you see the light ?

In some cases the insulation can fail over time and you will get the same result 

any photos ? 

[abyars]

10 hours ago, J5* said:

What’s the condition of the door gasket currently ?

is it not sealing ? Put a torch inside , close the door  ,can you see the light ?

In some cases the insulation can fail over time and you will get the same result 

any photos ? 

I did the torch test and the gasket seems to seal.  The gasket looks to he in good shape.  After looking closer the entire too coils are icy, it’s just worse at the front.  Th other shelf coils have a flaky white layer of ice.

Do I have a cooling issue?

 I took some pictures but I’ll have to get to town and a computer to upload.

 

[abyars]

top of door

inside

 

[J5*]

Did you check the gasket all round the door?

to me it’s looking like insulation in the cabinet is failing which I have seen in the past on other brands

with that level of frost if you put your hand on the top of the freezer outside I could feel a definite cold spot identifying the insulation failure 

[abyars]

The gasket looks good all around the door.  I did fell around the top of the freezer and found a cool spot compared to the rest of the unit.  Looks like your spot on.  I never knew insulation could fail.  Looks like this one is trash and an energy hog.

[Bintiwangu]

 tThanks for this! I just replaced the gasket on one of a pair of freezers that are living outside in the hot wet South. Next time I will have this in mind too.

[J5*]

1 hour ago, abyars said:

I never knew insulation could fail.  Looks like this one is trash and an energy hog.

I wouldn’t go that far without testing energy consumption , but you are prob right 

 

definatley do an energy test with an energy meter as I have had 15 year old freezers using 3 times the power they should do 

the reason you have the problem is with the insulation failing then it’s a warm spot so all moisture in the freezer will condense on the warm spot 

 

the problem is that expanding foam can fail over time , you can also get a void area from when the cabinet was foamed which I have seen a few times over the years in the humid weather on doors and moisture was condensing on the outside which was quite bizarre to see the first time as this particular door had several moist areas and fortunately new doors solved the issue ,  it cabinet problems you can’t do anything  

Edited July 19, 2018 by J5*

[J5*]

On the plus side you didn’t waste money on a new door gasket  

[16345Ed]

I’d like to see the rest of those shelves for frost pattern too...

[Lighthouse]

If you zoom in on the third picture it appears that the bottom shelf has a good frost pattern but the frost gets heavier as you move towards the top.

[16345Ed]

9 minutes ago, Lighthouse said:

If you zoom in on the third picture it appears that the bottom shelf has a good frost pattern but the frost gets heavier as you move towards the top.

I see it now. Thanks 

I see a lot of bad frost patterns on those old evaporator shelf freezers. 

[abyars]

Thanks for everyone's help.  I'll start watching for an appliance sale.