On Sunday, June 26, 2016 at 9:41:54 PM UTC-4, Chet Kincaid wrote:
TimR wrote:
Another vote for door seals. No way refrigerant is low if you're
maintaining the freezer at that temperature. Door seals on a unit
that old are almost guaranteed to be leaking.

Replacement is neither cheap nor easy, by the way.

Here's the countervaling point, however. Bad door seals would make the
machine work a lot harder. There should be lots of hot air coming off the
condenser (which is fan-cooled). In fact the condenser is barely warm at
all and the air coming off it barely any warmer than ambient air.

I dunno then.

Door seals would leak a small amount of air, so the amount of heat rejected would be small. But I don't picture a compressor running "just a little." It can't really run slow, can it? And yet without enough charge it shouldn't hold temperature at all, yet it does. A bad thermostat would result in it getting too cold, unless a massive air leak. So, I admit defeat.

When I had my main refrigerator repaired (it needed a new transfer unit between freezer and fridge section) the repair guy noticed the door seals were old. He taped them back together. He said the maintenance agreements never cover door seals, and it would cost about $200. He also said I could buy the seal and try to put it in myself, but it was a pain in the butt even for experienced repair techs, it just doesn't want to fit into the little slot.

I just replaced my small one (18 cu ft) in the basement. Holy crap, it was hard getting the old one out and up the stairs. The new one is much lighter.