On Thursday, July 17, 2014 10:35:46 AM UTC-4, Stormin Mormon wrote:
On 7/17/2014 10:28 AM, trader_4 wrote:

Based on the symptoms reported, I concur. Sure seems

a shame to scrap an otherwise good refrig because it

needs a couple ounces of refrigerant.





The problems are that if it does need refigerant, then:



A - there must be a leak somewhere that needs to be investigated/fixed

CY: Unless law changed, units having less than 50 pounds

refrigerant don't need to be repaired.


So, it doesn't have to be at least investigated? You just pump
in more refrigerant without determining what may be leaking, the
size of the leak? If you did that, put in some, charged $150 and
then 2 weeks later the fridge isn't working and the customer wants
their money back, then what?









B - Unless you have the skills, tools, supplies to do A, the cost of A,

or just getting a service guy in the door isn't

worth it when it's an old fridge and the OP says a replacement one

costs $400 new.

CY: That's maybe true for Canada, but I work a

bit cheaper in NY.



IDK what you charge in NY, but like others here, it's typically
min $100 to get an appliance service guy out. And that's before
any charges for adding refrigerant, etc.



Also factor in that a new refrigerator typically uses half the energy

that a 25 year old one does, which could save $75 - $100 a year, and

the choice becomes obvious.



CY: Who says his refrig is that old?

You're right, he hasn't said how old it is, I'm just guessing the age.
Even if it's just a few years old though, if a new one is just $400,
given the *mimimun* possible problem, the cost of a service call
to find out for sure what's wrong, etc, the economics here say to junk
it. The one thing that might change that would be if it's still under
warranty. Even then, if just the compressor is under warranty, not the
whole thing, it's probably still not worth it.