My three-year old Goldstar no longer works. The coils are cool, but
never cold enough to permit condensation.
Is it practical to have the unit recharged, or is this cost
prohibitive? And, if fixed, will it last?
I have already purchaed a new Haier and will start using unless
you guys recommend otherwise.
Thanks for your help!
Frank

frank1492 wrote:
My three-year old Goldstar no longer works. The coils are cool, but
never cold enough to permit condensation.
Is it practical to have the unit recharged, or is this cost
prohibitive? And, if fixed, will it last?
I have already purchaed a new Haier and will start using unless
you guys recommend otherwise.
Thanks for your help!
Frank

Hi,

Have you checked your warranty? Some will have a 5 year system warranty
( gas charge, compressor ) on those items.

jeff.
Appliance Repair Aid
http://www.applianceaid.com/

"Appliance Repair Aid" wrote in message
oups.com...


frank1492 wrote:
My three-year old Goldstar no longer works. The coils are cool, but
never cold enough to permit condensation.
Is it practical to have the unit recharged, or is this cost
prohibitive? And, if fixed, will it last?
I have already purchaed a new Haier and will start using unless
you guys recommend otherwise.
Thanks for your help!
Frank

Hi,

Have you checked your warranty? Some will have a 5 year system warranty
( gas charge, compressor ) on those items.


From what I've seen, the 5 year warranty is on the can only....


jeff.
Appliance Repair Aid
http://www.applianceaid.com/

If it's like a lot of other things, it's only economically feasable to
fix if you can fix it yourself.

Dissemble the unit and clean it, thoroughly.

--

Christopher A. Young
Learn more about Jesus
www.lds.org
www.mormons.com


"frank1492" wrote in message
...
My three-year old Goldstar no longer works. The coils are cool, but
never cold enough to permit condensation.
Is it practical to have the unit recharged, or is this cost
prohibitive? And, if fixed, will it last?
I have already purchaed a new Haier and will start using unless
you guys recommend otherwise.
Thanks for your help!
Frank

Is it practical to have the unit recharged, or is this cost
prohibitive?

this unit cannot be "recharged" in the same sense as recharging your car or
home A/C

like a window A/C unit, it does not have ports to screw on a set of charging
hoses

generally speaking, low freon is not a problem with a dehumidifier, they are
not prone to leaking refrigerant

problem is more likely a dirty or mashed condenser or evaporator coil, or a
defective thermostatic switch, or other issue, not low refrigerant


And, if fixed, will it last?

if it did have a leak, and you did weld on a charging port and
evacuate/recharge, it would only "last" if you also fix the source of the
leak

generally speaking, a dehumidifier that is leaking refrigerant is very rare,
and also not worth the hassle of repairing and recharging, for most people.

but I believe your problem lies elsewhere, as noted above, which ~would~ be
worth fixing, and that fix will "last"

Stormin Mormon wrote:
Dissemble the unit and clean it, thoroughly.


Hey, just like they have to do Mormons when they wise up and quit the cult.

--
Learn the Truth about Mormonism
http://www.eaec.org/cults/mormons.htm

problem is more likely a dirty or mashed condenser or evaporator coil,
or a
defective thermostatic switch, or other issue, not low refrigerant.

Comments:
The thermostat works, as the compressor does seem to try to turn on.
(A short "buzz" is heard when it kicks in.) After the buzz, though, it
does not seem that the compressor is running, and the coils don't
get cold..
If by "mashed" you mean "crushed", no chance. Dirty I doubt also,
as the filter was very clean. Also, it suddenly stopped working
(nothing this spring, fine in the fall.)
Does this help further pinpoint anything??
Thanks very much!





On Mon, 13 Jun 2005 13:18:59 -0400, "bubba"
wrote:

Is it practical to have the unit recharged, or is this cost
prohibitive?

this unit cannot be "recharged" in the same sense as recharging your car or
home A/C

like a window A/C unit, it does not have ports to screw on a set of charging
hoses

generally speaking, low freon is not a problem with a dehumidifier, they are
not prone to leaking refrigerant

problem is more likely a dirty or mashed condenser or evaporator coil, or a
defective thermostatic switch, or other issue, not low refrigerant


And, if fixed, will it last?

if it did have a leak, and you did weld on a charging port and
evacuate/recharge, it would only "last" if you also fix the source of the
leak

generally speaking, a dehumidifier that is leaking refrigerant is very rare,
and also not worth the hassle of repairing and recharging, for most people.

but I believe your problem lies elsewhere, as noted above, which ~would~ be
worth fixing, and that fix will "last"

Your job is getting harder by the day. We have about 300,000 convert
baptisms a year, and I can't remember the total church membership, but it's
about 11 million. Might be 12 by now.

--

Christopher A. Young
Learn more about Jesus
www.lds.org
www.mormons.com


"G Henslee" wrote in message
...
Stormin Mormon wrote:
Dissemble the unit and clean it, thoroughly.


Hey, just like they have to do Mormons when they wise up and quit the cult.

--

Well, that changes everything! All of our previous advice is irrelevant,
now.

Now that you've changed the symptoms, the diagnosis will of course change.

For your latest list of symptoms, you have a starting problem wtih the
compressor. Can be either not getting enough power, or start components
problem. On many dehum, it's not dificult for a refrigeration person to wire
in a hard start kit for the compressor.

Please remit a second $48.50 for the second diagnosis. First diagnostic fee
will not be refunded.

--

Christopher A. Young
Learn more about Jesus
www.lds.org
www.mormons.com


"frank1492" wrote in message
...

Comments:
The thermostat works, as the compressor does seem to try to turn on.
(A short "buzz" is heard when it kicks in.) After the buzz, though, it
does not seem that the compressor is running, and the coils don't
get cold..
If by "mashed" you mean "crushed", no chance. Dirty I doubt also,
as the filter was very clean. Also, it suddenly stopped working
(nothing this spring, fine in the fall.)
Does this help further pinpoint anything??
Thanks very much!

In article , "Stormin Mormon" wrote:
Your job is getting harder by the day. We have about 300,000 convert
baptisms a year, and I can't remember the total church membership, but it's
about 11 million. Might be 12 by now.

You're all the way up to one percent of the membership of the Catholic Church.
Wow!

--
Regards,
Doug Miller (alphageek at milmac dot com)

Nobody ever left footprints in the sands of time by sitting on his butt.
And who wants to leave buttprints in the sands of time?

Stormin Mormon wrote:
Your job is getting harder by the day. We have about 300,000 convert
baptisms a year, and I can't remember the total church membership, but it's
about 11 million. Might be 12 by now.


What job? I don't have to convince people to believe lies. You do...

--
Learn The Truth About Mormons
http://www.carm.org/mormon.htm

replying to bubba, Actionman wrote:
generally speaking, a dehumidifier that is leaking refrigerant is very rare,
Not so sure about that...I have owned 2 that discharged slowly over time.
I know this because I bypass all the electronics and sensors after verifying
all the other parts work and test it with direct setup using a light switch
to turn the compressor on and off manually.
If I do not get a result then it's because there's no coolant.

--
posted from
http://www.homeownershub.com/mainten...ier-61438-.htm

replying to Actionman, Ceapea wrote:
The coils and lines are packed tight in dehumidifiers. Leaks are very common.
Find and repair the leak, evacuate the system and recharge.

--
for full context, visit http://www.homeownershub.com/mainten...ier-61438-.htm

On 8/28/2016 12:14 PM, Ceapea wrote:
replying to Actionman, Ceapea wrote:
The coils and lines are packed tight in dehumidifiers. Leaks are very
common.
Find and repair the leak, evacuate the system and recharge.


Sadly, 11 years ago the OP had mold growing in his damp basement. If
spread over the entire interior of the hose and the DEP condemned it
after his wife and two dogs died from lung infections. The house was
burned in an exercise for the local fire department.

On Sunday, August 28, 2016 at 1:52:23 PM UTC-4, Ed Pawlowski wrote:
On 8/28/2016 12:14 PM, Ceapea wrote:
replying to Actionman, Ceapea wrote:
The coils and lines are packed tight in dehumidifiers. Leaks are very
common.
Find and repair the leak, evacuate the system and recharge.


Sadly, 11 years ago the OP had mold growing in his damp basement. If
spread over the entire interior of the hose and the DEP condemned it
after his wife and two dogs died from lung infections. The house was
burned in an exercise for the local fire department.

To that I'd add that very few DIY homeowner types are going to have
the eqpt and knowledge to do what was suggested. And IDK where the
leaks typically happen, but if they happen in the evaporator or
similar, the cost of the part would make it not worth it. Plus
these modern dehumidifiers seem to crap out for one reason or
another after maybe just 5 years or less. In short, when you can
get one for $150, if it needs to be charged, it's probably ready
for the heap.

replying to bubba, Buddy wrote:
You are wrong. Modern day, commodity (Sams Club, Wallmart, etc) dehumidifiers
leak their coolant routinely, lasting only two years. Compare to
dehumidifiers your grandparents had in the basement lasting 10 - 20 years.

--
for full context, visit https://www.homeownershub.com/mainte...ier-61438-.htm

replying to frank1492, Buddy wrote:
You are wrong. Modern day, commodity (Sams Club, Wallmart, etc) dehumidifiers
leak their coolant routinely, lasting only two years. Compare to
dehumidifiers your grandparents had in the basement lasting 10 - 20 years.

--
for full context, visit https://www.homeownershub.com/mainte...ier-61438-.htm

In article ,
says...

IDK about the leaking refrigerant part, but I've seen countless posts
where people complain that dehumidifiers just don't last today and
I've had that experience with two different brands myself. A couple
years is all I got. They were so bad that I took the extended warranty
on the last one and sure enough in two years it failed.



I don't know the cause of failuer either,but two friends of mine have
had several units and they only last a couple of years if that long.

On Thursday, July 5, 2018 at 3:29:29 PM UTC-4, Ralph Mowery wrote:
In article ,
says...

IDK about the leaking refrigerant part, but I've seen countless posts
where people complain that dehumidifiers just don't last today and
I've had that experience with two different brands myself. A couple
years is all I got. They were so bad that I took the extended warranty
on the last one and sure enough in two years it failed.



I don't know the cause of failuer either,but two friends of mine have
had several units and they only last a couple of years if that long.

And also, the original post from years ago was about possibly getting
it recharged. They don't lose charge unless something goes bad and leaks
and they don't have recharging ports either. This isn't like an auto
AC where there may be a small leak at the compressor shaft seal or a
schrader valve and you can easily hook up to a port and check the pressure
and charge it. Which is why I doubt loosing refrigerant is the problem.
I know on one of mine, a Sears, it was the blower motor that was a POS.
The first one failed, I bought a replacement for ~$45, put it in, it
didn't last a year. Not having learned my lesson, I ordered another motor
put that in and it smoked when I powered it up. Later looking on line
I saw a whole lot of people saying the motors were failing.

In alt.home.repair, on Thu, 5 Jul 2018 17:54:57 -0000 (UTC), Wayne
Boatwright wrote:

On Thu 05 Jul 2018 10:14:02a, Buddy told us...

replying to bubba, Buddy wrote:
You are wrong. Modern day, commodity (Sams Club, Wallmart, etc)
dehumidifiers leak their coolant routinely, lasting only two
years. Compare to dehumidifiers your grandparents had in the
basement lasting 10 - 20 years.


The best dehumidifiers are very well waterproofed, as well as
connecting a drainage hose. There is virtually no leakage with those
that are built with a direct drain, as oppposed to those that have a
drain connection coming from the reservoir.

A friend of mine had a house that also had a sump with a pump because
of a high water table. The house was more than 30 years old and had
the original dehumidifier with a drainage hose feeding directly into
the sump. When they sold the house along with the old still working
dehumidifier.

This isn't about dehumids, which I don't have, buit about refrigerators,
which I've heard also break quickly these days. I went away for 3 days
not noticing the door to the fridge was ajar, so it ran the entire 3
days. I get back, it's raining inside the fridge, the paper mache egg
carton is soaked. I shut the door and it's working fine and still is a
week later.

I also ran it for a couple weeks with no fan on the condenser, and also
with no fan between the fridge and freezer. Alll the plastic is in good
shape, only the main gasket is cracking on the outside edge only.

This is a Kenmore, 39 years old.

On 7/5/2018 10:50 PM, micky wrote:
In alt.home.repair, on Thu, 5 Jul 2018 17:54:57 -0000 (UTC), Wayne
Boatwright wrote:

On Thu 05 Jul 2018 10:14:02a, Buddy told us...

replying to bubba, Buddy wrote:
You are wrong. Modern day, commodity (Sams Club, Wallmart, etc)
dehumidifiers leak their coolant routinely, lasting only two
years. Compare to dehumidifiers your grandparents had in the
basement lasting 10 - 20 years.


The best dehumidifiers are very well waterproofed, as well as
connecting a drainage hose. There is virtually no leakage with those
that are built with a direct drain, as oppposed to those that have a
drain connection coming from the reservoir.

A friend of mine had a house that also had a sump with a pump because
of a high water table. The house was more than 30 years old and had
the original dehumidifier with a drainage hose feeding directly into
the sump. When they sold the house along with the old still working
dehumidifier.

This isn't about dehumids, which I don't have, buit about refrigerators,
which I've heard also break quickly these days. I went away for 3 days
not noticing the door to the fridge was ajar, so it ran the entire 3
days. I get back, it's raining inside the fridge, the paper mache egg
carton is soaked. I shut the door and it's working fine and still is a
week later.

I also ran it for a couple weeks with no fan on the condenser, and also
with no fan between the fridge and freezer. Alll the plastic is in good
shape, only the main gasket is cracking on the outside edge only.

This is a Kenmore, 39 years old.


The only problem is it uses way more power than a newer one. I replaced
mine when I saw one on freecycle that was new enough to be significantly
more efficient. Turned out it had a much colder freezer than my old one too.

replying to frank1492, Frankiefa wrote:
My LG Dehumidifier will ice up in the center coil and not extract water.
Evaporator is clean and I changed the Thermistor. No difference. What can it
be?

--
for full context, visit https://www.homeownershub.com/mainte...ier-61438-.htm

replying to Frankiefa, The Fixer wrote:
Sounds like it's not cycling. I don't think icing up is a symptom of low
refrigerant but rather the condenser continually cooling, drawing out the
ambient moisture in the area where the dehumidifier is placed and not cycling
to allow the coils to warm up and drop all that collected water in the pan.
Do you hear the compressor cycling?

One way, I think, to test this theory is to connect the dehumidifier to a
timer and set it (at first) to run for 1 hour one and ½ hour off and see what
happens. If that makes the unit appear to work normally, i.e. it doesn't ice
up and it collects water, then you've got to dig in and figure out what is
causing it to NOT cycle. OTOH, if you don't need that timer, you have just
cured the problem, albeit with a jerry-rigged solution

--
for full context, visit https://www.homeownershub.com/mainte...ier-61438-.htm

replying to Buddy, Steve wrote:
You are correct he is wrong.

--
for full context, visit https://www.homeownershub.com/mainte...ier-61438-.htm

On Wednesday, April 24, 2019 at 7:14:06 PM UTC-4, Steve wrote:
replying to Buddy, Steve wrote:
You are correct he is wrong.


aside from the fact that this is a 14 year old thread...

icing is a symptom that CAN be caused by low refrigerant.

if a system is low on refrigerant, the compressor can create a lower than usual pressure in the evaporator. This causes PART of the evaporator to get colder than normal which can cause ice.

The overall capacity of the system is reduced because the rest of the evaporator is warmer than normal. Think of it this way, the compressor is still working but on a smaller load so it gets that smaller load colder then normal.

There are other issues that can cause ice but low charge is one of them especially if only part of the coil is iced.

mark

On Thursday, April 25, 2019 at 10:12:44 AM UTC-4, wrote:
On Wednesday, April 24, 2019 at 7:14:06 PM UTC-4, Steve wrote:
replying to Buddy, Steve wrote:
You are correct he is wrong.


aside from the fact that this is a 14 year old thread...

icing is a symptom that CAN be caused by low refrigerant.

if a system is low on refrigerant, the compressor can create a lower than usual pressure in the evaporator. This causes PART of the evaporator to get colder than normal which can cause ice.

The overall capacity of the system is reduced because the rest of the evaporator is warmer than normal. Think of it this way, the compressor is still working but on a smaller load so it gets that smaller load colder then normal.

There are other issues that can cause ice but low charge is one of them especially if only part of the coil is iced.

mark

More to the point, if a typical dehumidifier is low on refrigerant,
then it's leaking. What's it going to cost to find the leak, repair
the leak, recharge, etc? Just buy a new one. On the other hand,
if it's bad blower motor, maybe it makes sense to replace that, but
even then, I'd evaluate the cost of a new one vs the parts, which
aren't cheap. I learned my lesson years ago with a Sears. It was
only a few years old and the blower motor went. So, i bought another
one from sears for $50. That one lasted about a year. Then, foolishly
I bought another one. That one blew up, smoked when first powered up
and yes, it was connected correctly. After that, I did what I should
have done earlier, which is google. Found so many people with the
same Sears units that were having the same problem. And also from
threads like this, that dehumidifies today, of whatever kind, don't
seem to last very long. From my experiences, I bought a new one
and took out the extended warranty, which I almost never do. It made
sense too because as part of the negotiating, I had an online price
and the local store had a price that was maybe $25 higher, but they
threw in the extended warranty too. And in about year three, it too
failed. So, I got another one. At that point they didn't have the
direct replacement, so I wound up having to pay like $30 more for
the higher capacity model they did have, but still, good thing I had
that extended warranty. IDK what the solution to this is, I haven't
seen any posts indicating some brand that really lasts.

replying to bubba, Shorty wrote:
I have had three dehumidifiers all leaked freon.
Common problems with all brands..

--
for full context, visit https://www.homeownershub.com/mainte...ier-61438-.htm

replying to bubba, Dunk Klint wrote:
Dear Bubba, the fact dehumidifiers leaks is one of the many reasons they
"fail" some units may be recharged others not if you are DYI however a
professional shop can do it since it requires special fittings; some
dehumidifiers coolant circuit are just "clamped off" and thus requires
professional tools. Hence, these are not worth the cost of repair since a new
one would cost less than fixing them.

--
for full context, visit https://www.homeownershub.com/mainte...ier-61438-.htm

replying to makolber, Chris Snyder wrote:
This sounds like what happened with my 50 pint Hi-Sense from Lowes. Started
icing at 60F in the basement last year, even though is supposed to work down
to ~40F, so I put a small space heater at the coils, which seemed to work for
a while, but then it stopped working completely - coils wouldn't get cool. It
was cheap/on sale for about $150 so I got the +2 year warranty for $25 and
Lowes sent me a check for the claim. I have another/same 50 pt upstairs
(bought at same time, but not used nearly as much) that seems to be working,
BUT the 70 pt in the basement just started icing coils today. I've heard what
many say, that these only last 2 - 3 years nowadays. This compared to an old
Montgomery Ward unit from the 70s that came with the house and it always
works, though ices at 65F-70F. I don't understand what the problem is, though
sense they DO lose coolant through cheap seals. The controls seem to work
fine so may be able to salvage them for something (would like to turn on my
central AC when humidity goes up in the evening when house is75F-78F), but
will check to ensure compressors are starting - hot start kits are only about
$10.

--
for full context, visit https://www.homeownershub.com/mainte...ier-61438-.htm