Bob
Ok, if you have no friends to tap on then lets work on this a
little differently. When you got this fridge/freezer home did you give
it an initial test drive to see if it had enough umph to get the job
done? Did it get real cold and hold it there for several days? It
needs to at least do that before considering it for this use. Then when
selecting your replacement thermostat are you choosing an external unit
that you hang on the outside of the unit and fish the probe into the
box or is it a hardwire componant thats installed inside the box
replacing the original and operates at "beverage temps" somewhere
around 31-45deg.F ? The external units are popular , easy to install,
yet may require some fiddling to find the "differential" of your set
temp vs. your actual operating temp. Many folks don't go the way of the
hardwire unit unless they feel at comfortable dismantling their fridge
and it's related internal parts. I know I had to find a local supply
house that sells only to wholesale licened profesionals and pretend I
was one of the same and picked up several items for mine. If you've
done all of this it "should" be operating at the temp you have
selected. When you troubleshoot these things it's important to
systematicly go through each link in the chain of things with ample
review time before you can sit down. Let us know.

OK! I think I found the problem!

What I have now is a mechanical thermostat. It is, I believe, a
thermostat manufactured for use in a refrigerator. It has a metal
tube, about 1/16" in diameter and 3 or 4 feet long which I have
snaked under the door gasket into the chect freezer. The thermostat
has 2 connectors on it connected to the the hot line of a power
cord with one connector going to the male plug end and one going
to the female receptacle end. It seems to operate proberly..


In that previous paragraph we identified your replacement as
an "external type". But the key here is you suggested you may be
placeing the probe into the "freezer section" not the fridge section!
You'll be doing your work in the fridge section so "thats" where probe
needs to go! Everything else seems fine. If this is the case then thats
all there is to it. Now I'm sure you already know this but we'll
mention it anyway. Set your "external thermostat" to your desired temp
while the one in the freezer/ fridge is set to it's max cold. Ok!

This, and the two preceding chest freezers operated fine as freezers
before adding the external thermostat. I tested that each could reach
well below 0F before use.

Good!

The previous two freezers were operated with a similar thermostat
installation, but the thermostat was not a refrigerator thermostat.
It had a 1.5F differential. Both of the previous freezers worked fine
for several months, set at around 40F. But after several months
to a year, I noticed that the freezer would be running full time
and not cooling very month.

This seems to be the nature of the beast. The mechanical versions
have a seemingly higher differential than the digital models. Find the
differance of your set vs. the actual operating temp. and make the
proper corrections when you set it.



Steve