I have a Friedrich 40 Pt. dehumidifier. It is just over 2 years old. I
believe it is made in China by LG. I only use it 6 months out of the year.
Lately it hasn't been removing much moisture from the air, even though the
compressor still runs. It used to remove half a bucket's worth a day, and
now I'm lucky if I see 1.5 inches of water on bottom of bucket per day.
This is with the unit on a timer to run continuously 1.25 hours and then off
for 45 minutes (and repeated over and over again throughout the day).
Reason I've been using a timer, is because this unit's dehumidistat kept
cycling it on and off for every two minutes due to the way they design it.

I removed the front cover and coils look clean. Filter is clean. Seems
that the bottom part of coil has tendency to freeze up if running
continuously for say an hour. This didn't seem to happen in the past.
Wondering if this unit has been leaking freon. I'm noticing that the bottom
of the inside of the bucket is turning an orange color. Is the oil that
gets mixed in with freon orange in color or is the orange substance
something else?

This unit has a 5 year warranty on just the "sealed refrigerant system" I'm
considering bringing it in for repair before the unit becomes totally
useless. The warranty covers parts and labor but not "diagnostics". If the
diagnostics are less than $75 I suppose this is worth fixing. I only paid
around $150 including tax.

J.

" wrote in message
news:KYTji.376$Y_3.29@trnddc04...
I have a Friedrich 40 Pt. dehumidifier. It is just over 2 years old. I
believe it is made in China by LG. I only use it 6 months out of the year.
Lately it hasn't been removing much moisture from the air, even though the
compressor still runs. It used to remove half a bucket's worth a day, and
now I'm lucky if I see 1.5 inches of water on bottom of bucket per day.
This is with the unit on a timer to run continuously 1.25 hours and then
off for 45 minutes (and repeated over and over again throughout the day).
Reason I've been using a timer, is because this unit's dehumidistat kept
cycling it on and off for every two minutes due to the way they design it.

I removed the front cover and coils look clean. Filter is clean. Seems
that the bottom part of coil has tendency to freeze up if running
continuously for say an hour. This didn't seem to happen in the past.
Wondering if this unit has been leaking freon. I'm noticing that the
bottom of the inside of the bucket is turning an orange color. Is the
oil that gets mixed in with freon orange in color or is the orange
substance something else?

This unit has a 5 year warranty on just the "sealed refrigerant system"
I'm considering bringing it in for repair before the unit becomes totally
useless. The warranty covers parts and labor but not "diagnostics". If
the diagnostics are less than $75 I suppose this is worth fixing. I only
paid around $150 including tax.

It might have leaked some of its refrigerant. Your take on the economics
are good. The 5 year warranty is mostly useless, based on the initial cost
and replacement cost.

On Sat, 07 Jul 2007 21:54:50 GMT, "
wrote:

I have a Friedrich 40 Pt. dehumidifier. It is just over 2 years old. I
believe it is made in China by LG. I only use it 6 months out of the year.
Lately it hasn't been removing much moisture from the air, even though the
compressor still runs. It used to remove half a bucket's worth a day, and
now I'm lucky if I see 1.5 inches of water on bottom of bucket per day.
This is with the unit on a timer to run continuously 1.25 hours and then off
for 45 minutes (and repeated over and over again throughout the day).

This indicates a lack of cooling.

Reason I've been using a timer, is because this unit's dehumidistat kept
cycling it on and off for every two minutes due to the way they design it.

I removed the front cover and coils look clean. Filter is clean. Seems
that the bottom part of coil has tendency to freeze up if running
continuously for say an hour. This didn't seem to happen in the past.

Freezing up usually indicates a lack of refrigerant.

Wondering if this unit has been leaking freon. I'm noticing that the bottom
of the inside of the bucket is turning an orange color. Is the oil that
gets mixed in with freon orange in color or is the orange substance
something else?

This unit has a 5 year warranty on just the "sealed refrigerant system" I'm
considering bringing it in for repair before the unit becomes totally
useless. The warranty covers parts and labor but not "diagnostics". If the
diagnostics are less than $75 I suppose this is worth fixing. I only paid
around $150 including tax.

J.

Take it in and see whether it's worth the cost for a repair that may
only last 2 years (probably no better than the original).

John

John writes:

On Sat, 07 Jul 2007 21:54:50 GMT, "
wrote:

I have a Friedrich 40 Pt. dehumidifier. It is just over 2 years old. I
believe it is made in China by LG. I only use it 6 months out of the year.
Lately it hasn't been removing much moisture from the air, even though the
compressor still runs. It used to remove half a bucket's worth a day, and
now I'm lucky if I see 1.5 inches of water on bottom of bucket per day.
This is with the unit on a timer to run continuously 1.25 hours and then off
for 45 minutes (and repeated over and over again throughout the day).

This indicates a lack of cooling.

Reason I've been using a timer, is because this unit's dehumidistat kept
cycling it on and off for every two minutes due to the way they design it.

I removed the front cover and coils look clean. Filter is clean. Seems
that the bottom part of coil has tendency to freeze up if running
continuously for say an hour. This didn't seem to happen in the past.

Freezing up usually indicates a lack of refrigerant.

Wondering if this unit has been leaking freon. I'm noticing that the bottom
of the inside of the bucket is turning an orange color. Is the oil that
gets mixed in with freon orange in color or is the orange substance
something else?

This unit has a 5 year warranty on just the "sealed refrigerant system" I'm
considering bringing it in for repair before the unit becomes totally
useless. The warranty covers parts and labor but not "diagnostics". If the
diagnostics are less than $75 I suppose this is worth fixing. I only paid
around $150 including tax.

J.

Take it in and see whether it's worth the cost for a repair that may
only last 2 years (probably no better than the original).

The unit should have been hermetically sealed. If it went bad in 2 years,
there probably has been a leak since it was built. So, if they do refill
it without finding the leak, will fail again in 2 years. A competent
refrigeration service place should be able to find the leak.

--- sam | Sci.Electronics.Repair FAQ: http://www.repairfaq.org/
Repair | Main Table of Contents: http://www.repairfaq.org/REPAIR/
+Lasers | Sam's Laser FAQ: http://www.repairfaq.org/sam/lasersam.htm
| Mirror Sites: http://www.repairfaq.org/REPAIR/F_mirror.html

Important: Anything sent to the email address in the message header above is
ignored unless my full name AND either lasers or electronics is included in the
subject line. Or, you can contact me via the Feedback Form in the FAQs.

I'll find out about getting this repaired. If I need a new one, is there a
better band that hopefully isn't made by LG?

BTW, do you think the orange colored substance I'm finding at bottom of the
water bucket is from the oil that was mixed in with the freon, or do you
think that is something else? Other than that I'm not seeing any oil
anywhere.

Thanks,

J.


Take it in and see whether it's worth the cost for a repair that may
only last 2 years (probably no better than the original).

The unit should have been hermetically sealed. If it went bad in 2 years,
there probably has been a leak since it was built. So, if they do refill
it without finding the leak, will fail again in 2 years. A competent
refrigeration service place should be able to find the leak.

--- sam | Sci.Electronics.Repair FAQ: http://www.repairfaq.org/
Repair | Main Table of Contents: http://www.repairfaq.org/REPAIR/
+Lasers | Sam's Laser FAQ: http://www.repairfaq.org/sam/lasersam.htm
| Mirror Sites: http://www.repairfaq.org/REPAIR/F_mirror.html

Important: Anything sent to the email address in the message header above
is
ignored unless my full name AND either lasers or electronics is included
in the
subject line. Or, you can contact me via the Feedback Form in the FAQs.

Meat Plow wrote:

On Sun, 08 Jul 2007 01:05:14 +0000, wrote:

I'll find out about getting this repaired. If I need a new one, is there a
better band that hopefully isn't made by LG?

Good luck. We bought a Sears - cough, cough, looks identical to LG units
- dehumidifier two summer seasons ago. The highest capacity (translates:
most expensive) model Sears carried. It broke within six months - fan
went dead. That got replaced under warranty. 15 months after purchase it
died again. This time the fan still works! But there is zero output. And
it now makes so much noise you can hear it two floors up from the
basement.

Oh, and one of the "press in place" casters fell off. Can they possibly
make them any cheaper?

Sears could give a rat's arse about the problem. After numerous calls to
various customer service departments they all came up with the same
solution: Pay this time to get it fixed for the second time in 15
months, or please go buy another Sears unit to replace it. Otherwise, go
stuff yourself.

Died twice in fifteen months. Ya think we're gonnna throw repair money
at it? The bench charge alone is 45 bucks, even if we decide to not get
it repaired.

I don't know what to buy because no matter what brand name plate is on
the units they all look the same as if they are coming from the same
factory. GE, LG, Sears, Samsung - they all look like clones of each
other. We wanted to upgrade our still functioning 20 year old unit to
something with higher capacity. Bad idea, I guess.

BTW, do you think the orange colored substance I'm finding at bottom of the
water bucket is from the oil that was mixed in with the freon, or do you
think that is something else? Other than that I'm not seeing any oil
anywhere.

Thanks,

Hey at least you get "orange stuff." We got nuttin at all.

LG warranty = 5 years.

Better read that again:

1 year - entire unit.
5 years - compressor only.

Rick

I don't know what to buy because no matter what brand name plate is on
the units they all look the same as if they are coming from the same
factory. GE, LG, Sears, Samsung - they all look like clones of each
other. We wanted to upgrade our still functioning 20 year old unit to
something with higher capacity. Bad idea, I guess.



In most cases they do. Brand names are irrelevant these days, it's no
indication of who actually made the stuff. It's very common for one overseas
company to own half a dozen or more once well known US brand names and slap
them all on the same junky unit for sale in different stores.

Hi!

Good luck. We bought a Sears - cough, cough, looks identical to LG units
- dehumidifier two summer seasons ago.

Wow...that's pretty bad reliability. Even with things getting cheaper and
somewhat less well made, the reliability of a sealed refrigeration system
should not be that bad.

We wanted to upgrade our still functioning 20 year old unit to
something with higher capacity. Bad idea, I guess.

I've got a ~30 year old Sears Coldspot dehumidifier (looks to have been
built by Whirlpool) that's still going strong. It's even been under water a
few times in basement floods. The only repair it has needed to date is a new
fan motor about ten years ago, which Sears could still get. The switch that
shuts it off when full has failed, and so did the neon light that comes on
when it is full, but I can easily remember to empty it every few days.

William

William R. Walsh wrote:

Hi!

Good luck. We bought a Sears - cough, cough, looks identical to LG units
- dehumidifier two summer seasons ago.

Wow...that's pretty bad reliability. Even with things getting cheaper and
somewhat less well made, the reliability of a sealed refrigeration system
should not be that bad.

In it's present state, the thing seems to have had a nervous breakdown.
We have seen no idication of compressor leakage, like the OP's concern.
But this is one of those "fully electronic" disasters with touch pad
controls. And, in theory, an electronic hygrometer of some sort that is
supposed to control the whole process. The fan switches on, the fan
switches off, the compressor starts banging away, the fan turns on, the
compressor shuts off, the fan keeps running... And for all that
"effort" it's condensing zero moisture. What it does at this point, and
when it decides to do it, seems to have no sense of reason at all. And
I'm certain if they determined that the electronic control touch pad is
at fault that it will cost more to replace that single part than the
$175.00 we paid for it.

Exasperating.

Rick

"William R. Walsh" m writes:

Hi!

Good luck. We bought a Sears - cough, cough, looks identical to LG units
- dehumidifier two summer seasons ago.

Wow...that's pretty bad reliability. Even with things getting cheaper and
somewhat less well made, the reliability of a sealed refrigeration system
should not be that bad.

We wanted to upgrade our still functioning 20 year old unit to
something with higher capacity. Bad idea, I guess.

I've got a ~30 year old Sears Coldspot dehumidifier (looks to have been
built by Whirlpool) that's still going strong. It's even been under water a
few times in basement floods. The only repair it has needed to date is a new
fan motor about ten years ago, which Sears could still get. The switch that
shuts it off when full has failed, and so did the neon light that comes on
when it is full, but I can easily remember to empty it every few days.

Similar model here, purchased at garage sale for $5, about 20 years
ago. Only difference is that after repairing the bearings on the fan
motor several times, I simply strapped an external fan to the back
of the unit. A properly designed and manufactured hermetic
refrigerstion system *should* last almost forever. Some do, many don't.

--- sam | Sci.Electronics.Repair FAQ: http://www.repairfaq.org/
Repair | Main Table of Contents: http://www.repairfaq.org/REPAIR/
+Lasers | Sam's Laser FAQ: http://www.repairfaq.org/sam/lasersam.htm
| Mirror Sites: http://www.repairfaq.org/REPAIR/F_mirror.html

Important: Anything sent to the email address in the message header above is
ignored unless my full name AND either lasers or electronics is included in the
subject line. Or, you can contact me via the Feedback Form in the FAQs.

On Jul 8, 4:01 am, Rick wrote:
Meat Plow wrote:

On Sun, 08 Jul 2007 01:05:14 +0000, wrote:

I'll find out about getting this repaired. If I need a new one, is there a
better band that hopefully isn't made by LG?

Good luck. We bought a Sears - cough, cough, looks identical to LG units
- dehumidifier two summer seasons ago. The highest capacity (translates:
most expensive) model Sears carried. It broke within six months - fan
went dead. That got replaced under warranty. 15 months after purchase it
died again. This time the fan still works! But there is zero output. And
it now makes so much noise you can hear it two floors up from the
basement.

Oh, and one of the "press in place" casters fell off. Can they possibly
make them any cheaper?

Sears could give a rat's arse about the problem. After numerous calls to
various customer service departments they all came up with the same
solution: Pay this time to get it fixed for the second time in 15
months, or please go buy another Sears unit to replace it. Otherwise, go
stuff yourself.

Died twice in fifteen months. Ya think we're gonnna throw repair money
at it? The bench charge alone is 45 bucks, even if we decide to not get
it repaired.

I don't know what to buy because no matter what brand name plate is on
the units they all look the same as if they are coming from the same
factory. GE, LG, Sears, Samsung - they all look like clones of each
other. We wanted to upgrade our still functioning 20 year old unit to
something with higher capacity. Bad idea, I guess.

BTW, do you think the orange colored substance I'm finding at bottom of the
water bucket is from the oil that was mixed in with the freon, or do you
think that is something else? Other than that I'm not seeing any oil
anywhere.

Thanks,

Hey at least you get "orange stuff." We got nuttin at all.

LG warranty = 5 years.

Better read that again:

1 year - entire unit.
5 years - compressor only.

Rick

Me too; Sears top model, fan died; replaced fan, now it freezes up
alla time (despite manual saying this model is good down to like 50
degrees or such).
And I discover it's the same as the LG series, which is the same as
the Comfor Aire series.
So, I find that there are rebuilt LGs going for $99 here and there
both locally and over the internet, so at that price they're more
attractive.

On Jul 9, 1:13 pm, z wrote:
On Jul 8, 4:01 am, Rick wrote:





Meat Plow wrote:

On Sun, 08 Jul 2007 01:05:14 +0000, wrote:

I'll find out about getting this repaired. If I need a new one, is there a
better band that hopefully isn't made by LG?

Good luck. We bought a Sears - cough, cough, looks identical to LG units
- dehumidifier two summer seasons ago. The highest capacity (translates:
most expensive) model Sears carried. It broke within six months - fan
went dead. That got replaced under warranty. 15 months after purchase it
died again. This time the fan still works! But there is zero output. And
it now makes so much noise you can hear it two floors up from the
basement.

Oh, and one of the "press in place" casters fell off. Can they possibly
make them any cheaper?

Sears could give a rat's arse about the problem. After numerous calls to
various customer service departments they all came up with the same
solution: Pay this time to get it fixed for the second time in 15
months, or please go buy another Sears unit to replace it. Otherwise, go
stuff yourself.

Died twice in fifteen months. Ya think we're gonnna throw repair money
at it? The bench charge alone is 45 bucks, even if we decide to not get
it repaired.

I don't know what to buy because no matter what brand name plate is on
the units they all look the same as if they are coming from the same
factory. GE, LG, Sears, Samsung - they all look like clones of each
other. We wanted to upgrade our still functioning 20 year old unit to
something with higher capacity. Bad idea, I guess.

BTW, do you think the orange colored substance I'm finding at bottom of the
water bucket is from the oil that was mixed in with the freon, or do you
think that is something else? Other than that I'm not seeing any oil
anywhere.

Thanks,

Hey at least you get "orange stuff." We got nuttin at all.

LG warranty = 5 years.

Better read that again:

1 year - entire unit.
5 years - compressor only.

Rick

Me too; Sears top model, fan died; replaced fan, now it freezes up
alla time (despite manual saying this model is good down to like 50
degrees or such).
And I discover it's the same as the LG series, which is the same as
the Comfor Aire series.
So, I find that there are rebuilt LGs going for $99 here and there
both locally and over the internet, so at that price they're more
attractive.-

BTW, they're easy to replace the fan motor, which is like $30 from
Sears. I'm idly thinking of what might replace that motor and be more
reliable. Since it's a two speed motor and both speeds go out at the
same time, I'm guessing it's the thermal protection in the motor
getting overexcited.

I brought it to a local repair place. They will let me know in a few days
if it's the refrigerant system which is still under warranty, and, if it's
not, that, then what it would cost to fix.

If I need a new one, maybe I'll wind up paying an extra $60 to extend the
warranty of the whole unit to 5 years.

J.

Hi!

But this is one of those "fully electronic" disasters with touch pad
controls. And, in theory, an electronic hygrometer of some sort that is
supposed to control the whole process.

Ever thought of bypassing this to see what happens? It shouldn't be too hard
to disconnect fan and compressor, after which you can power them externally.
You might even be able to hot-wire the unit and get an external humidistat
that's capable of turning it on and off at the prescribed humidity level.
Make notes, drawings or take pictures of how it all went together. It is
most likely a bunch of spade lug connectors that plug into the control
panel.

You might even be able to get a good humidistat from an older unit that has
had another failure and wire that up.

A compressor that's "banging away" is either in very poor health (!!!) or is
being abusively cycled on and off. If the fault is really in the compressor,
you probably cannot do very much about it. If the fault is in the
controller, I'd be *very* tempted to wire around it and use the unit that
way.

William

Hi!

Only difference is that after repairing the bearings on the fan
motor several times, I simply strapped an external fan to the back
of the unit.

In the case of this unit, the fan motor simply wouldn't reach operating
speed and overheated very quickly. The bearings were still pretty good--it
seems like the motor developed some shorted windings.

I think this one might be built somewhat differently--it is actually built
so that the intake and exhaust are both in front. I've never seen another
like it. The design is really quite a good idea. It's much easier to put it
up against a wall, and the water pan slides out of the front.

A properly designed and manufactured hermetic
refrigerstion system *should* last almost forever.

Absolutely agreed. :-)

William

z wrote:

On Jul 8, 4:01 am, Rick wrote:
Meat Plow wrote:

On Sun, 08 Jul 2007 01:05:14 +0000, wrote:

I'll find out about getting this repaired. If I need a new one, is there a
better band that hopefully isn't made by LG?

Good luck. We bought a Sears - cough, cough, looks identical to LG units
- dehumidifier two summer seasons ago. The highest capacity (translates:
most expensive) model Sears carried. It broke within six months - fan
went dead. That got replaced under warranty. 15 months after purchase it
died again. This time the fan still works! But there is zero output. And
it now makes so much noise you can hear it two floors up from the
basement.

Oh, and one of the "press in place" casters fell off. Can they possibly
make them any cheaper?

Sears could give a rat's arse about the problem. After numerous calls to
various customer service departments they all came up with the same
solution: Pay this time to get it fixed for the second time in 15
months, or please go buy another Sears unit to replace it. Otherwise, go
stuff yourself.

Died twice in fifteen months. Ya think we're gonnna throw repair money
at it? The bench charge alone is 45 bucks, even if we decide to not get
it repaired.

I don't know what to buy because no matter what brand name plate is on
the units they all look the same as if they are coming from the same
factory. GE, LG, Sears, Samsung - they all look like clones of each
other. We wanted to upgrade our still functioning 20 year old unit to
something with higher capacity. Bad idea, I guess.

BTW, do you think the orange colored substance I'm finding at bottom of the
water bucket is from the oil that was mixed in with the freon, or do you
think that is something else? Other than that I'm not seeing any oil
anywhere.

Thanks,

Hey at least you get "orange stuff." We got nuttin at all.

LG warranty = 5 years.

Better read that again:

1 year - entire unit.
5 years - compressor only.

Rick

Me too; Sears top model, fan died; replaced fan, now it freezes up
alla time (despite manual saying this model is good down to like 50
degrees or such).
And I discover it's the same as the LG series, which is the same as
the Comfor Aire series.
So, I find that there are rebuilt LGs going for $99 here and there
both locally and over the internet, so at that price they're more
attractive.

Yeah, but...

If the LG - aka Sears aka Comfort Aire - units are failing in a matter
of months... And you are finding them available as rebuilt units all
over the place... Do you think they "un-built" the problems that caused
them to turn into refurbished units to begin with?

Personally, I wouldn't drop another hundred bucks on the purchase of a
same model unit I already paid $175.00 for after that model type failed
twice. A refurbished unit generally has a far shorter warranty period
than a new unit.

Rick

BTW, they're easy to replace the fan motor, which is like $30 from
Sears. I'm idly thinking of what might replace that motor and be more
reliable. Since it's a two speed motor and both speeds go out at the
same time, I'm guessing it's the thermal protection in the motor
getting overexcited.


Assuming it's the bearings that fail, you could probably pick up a pair of
sealed ball bearings from Mcmaster Carr and use them in place of the
original sleeve bearings. Would probably take some fabrication but it might
be fun too.

" writes:

I have a Friedrich 40 Pt. dehumidifier. It is just over 2 years old. I
believe it is made in China by LG. I only use it 6 months out of the year.

I have two 50 pint Comfort Aire D50A2 units. They are full of FSP part
numbers which makes me think Whirlpool. And the 800-253-1301 on the label
rings through to the Whirlpool No-Help line. Despite that, they deny any
relationship.

Another label has "Heat Controller, Inc" of Jackson MI.
www.heatcontroller.com I suppose I should call them.

Both failed the same way; the crimped-togther 0.01HP Emerson Electric
motor seized, the coils iced over, and the compressor Klixon overload
eventualy roached itself.

In one case, the 5 cent plastic fan hub cracked off the shaft as well.

I freed up the one motor & drilled a hole into the back bearing cap.
I lubed up both bearings and it now blows up a storm.

I found the part #'s on some appliance repair site.

Their [aprox] prices:
$46 for the motor
$36 for the PoS fan blade
$36 for the Klixon.

I need the overloads at the least. I can find another fan.
Electronicsurplus.com has some Klixons, but I can't decode the trip
curve of them. I may just buy 'em. [Hell of a statement for an overload,
right?]

--
A host is a host from coast to
& no one will talk to a host that's close........[v].(301) 56-LINUX
Unless the host (that isn't close).........................pob 1433
is busy, hung or dead....................................20915-1433