On Wednesday, July 16, 2014 10:48:54 PM UTC-4, nestork wrote:
'Stormin Mormon[_10_ Wrote:

;3260495']

I'd be curious to hear from folks who had

refrigerant "freon" added to refrigerator.

what did it cost? I'm very possibly far too

cheap.





Stormin:



Here in Canada, refrigerants are treated like toxic waste. You have to

have a license to work on AC and refrigeration systems in order to buy

refrigerants, and even then you have to meticulously document what

happened to the refrigerants you removed from equipment. You can't just

buy a piercing valve and "fill er up" like you could in the 1980's. If

I have a refrigerant leak, the service tech would have to evacuate the

remaining refrigerant in the fridge, find the leak and fix it,

re-evacuate the refrigeration lines in the fridge, and then add new

refrigerant. The cost for labour is roughly $300 to $400, and any parts

(like a new compressor) would be on top of that. It makes more economic

sense to buy a new fridge.



Trader:

You're wondering why I want to bother seeing how the frost builds up on

the evaporator, and why I just don't chuck the fridge?



It's because I'm old enough to have been wrong in my assumptions more

than once, and I don't want to be wrong on this fridge cuz a new fridge

will cost me about $400. If I can see that the frost isn't forming

uniformly over the whole evaporator coil, then I know it's a weak

refrigerant charge, and I have no hesitation to salvage old parts from

the fridge and phone a metal salvage company to pick up that fridge.

However, I don't feel comfortable throwing the fridge away unless and

until I see how the frost accumulates on the evaporator coil.



Your free to satisfy your curiosity, but I don't see anything
probative to be gained by seeing the coils. You know the compressor
is running continuously, the internal fan is running and air is
coming out. You can feel or measure the temperature of the air coming out.

I don't think it's physically possible for that condition to
exist, without something being wrong with the refrigeration system
and the coils not getting cold. The only possible way might be for
the defrost heater to be stuck on, but you have access to it's wiring
and could disable it. If anyone has seen a fridge with the conditions
you have, where the coils were actually getting cold, I'd like to hear
what it was.......