On Sun, 26 Jun 2016 20:33:53 -0500, Chet Kincaid
wrote:

Micky wrote:
Why wouldn't there be. For that matter, I'm guessing you can tell
something just by seeing how hot the condensing coils are. Maybe
with your fingers or an IR thermometer.

Barely warm at all. Air coming off them (it's a fan-blown condenser) is
hardly any warmer than room air being drawn in.

Well I'm no authority, but that sounds like low freon or a bad
compressor. What are compressors like when they are bad? Do they
work at all? Do they make a different noise? I don't know.

A) if adding a little bit helps, why are you calling a repairman next?
Because you don't have a guage.

B) Are you sure you will put the valve where the repairman will accept
it? How did you come up with the location.

Other questions, Is it easier for the compressor to run when it's low
on freon, since it doenst have so much gas to compress? If it is
easier, does that lower the electricty used anywhere near as much as
the fridge cooling goes down. That is, now that it runs almost all
the time, are you using a lot more electricty than before, or only a
little? It would use the same amount if it weren't for overhead in
more than one place, so I don't know how much more it would be using
now. Will the Kill-a Watt meter work with something as big as a
fridge. If so, you could compare your fridge to a good one and see
how much electricity is being used extra.