As I was recently in need of a small refrigerator, I gave $20 for a
"Franklin Chef" FCD401BL mini-fridge. It looks to be another no-name Made In
China unit, but the compressor was made by Matsu****a in Singapore, so I
figured it would be OK. The unit itself was in good condition but filthy. I
took it to the car wash (!!!) and hosed it off, followed by a lot of hand
scrubbing.

Anyway, it does work fine after letting it dry out. However, when I first
plugged it in with the thermostat switch set to "0", it started up and ran.
Playing with the thermostat a bit to see if it was somehow stuck resulted in
what I thought was a little bit of arcing from inside the switch. It's
nothing more than the usual (capillary tube?) thermostat setup. I tried to
remove the housing to which it is mounted, but there just isn't enough space
to do it without risking breakage of the tube leading out of the thermostat.

What's really strange is that although it won't turn off at the 0 position,
it does cycle and run normally on any other setting. I'm curious as to why
that might be, if anyone has an idea. I would have thought that the
thermostat's working contacts would be forced apart or insulated at the "0"
setting so the unit would stay off.

It's not a big deal. If I don't want it to run, I will unplug it.

William

Hi!

Maybe the innards of the thermostat are still wet?
Or there is some soap or corrosion inside?

I have my doubts. I could get the enclosure to come away from the
sidewall of the fridge and everything inside sure seemed to be dry.
What I could see of the switch showed it to be a largely open design.
An area at the back allows some (very little) air into the
compartment.

I doubt that they are made to be immersed in
water.

It would have to put up with some degree of moisture caused by the
opening and closing of the door. I tried to stay away from it with the
washing wand and did not use high pressure.

Since it seems to be running fine, I'm not going to worry about it.

William