I got a free freezer. Let it run for 2.5 hours and it only gets mildly cool. The compressor is running and only draws about 40 watts. It uses R134A. What do?
DIY freezer rEpAiR
I got a free freezer. Let it run for 2.5 hours and it only gets mildly cool. The compressor is running and only draws about 40 watts. It uses R134A. What do?
Compressor died? Check how much power your are getting from the plug back. It doesn't look like you have very much to work with. I'd look inside that white box and inspect to see if you have a bad cap.
>Let it run for 2.5 hours and it only gets mildly cool.
Let it run for 24 h and get back to us.
I see you don't have much experience with appliances in good repair.
a freezer isn't gonna get up to temp in 2.5 hours
being rated for 500W but drawing 40 doesn't seem right either
>rated for 500W but drawing 40 doesn't seem right either
this is what will happen when you have low/leaking coolant, at least IIRC
It should make frost within an hour not be mildly cool.
>It should make frost within an hour not be mildly cool.
I love the experts in this thread who dont know how an average appliance works. household fridges and freezers are not designed like commercial ones. they will not be ready to use in an hour not even 2. they require a 24 hour stabilization period for the appliance to run and cycle and reach proper temp. every manual that comes with any fridge will tell you to not use it for 24 hours. residential fridges use the smallest cheapest crap components. once it reaches proper temp it will maintain it on a regular basis.
>household fridges and freezers are not designed like commercial ones
>I see you don't have much experience with appliances in good repair.
neither do you. you buy a new fridge or freezer it specifically states to leave operating for 24 hours before use. go back to bed you underage gay
you have no idea what you're talking about. It absolutely does not take a working chest freezer 24 hours to frost up.
Think about it; the amount of BTUs required to cool the small amount of air inside the unit + the walls of the unit to below freezing means that it won't take long at all.
Even the cheapest shittiest consumer models work this way. You're just flat out wrong because you have no experience.
yeah ok... when you buy a new fridge it says to wait 24 hours before use. shutup gay
Again, you're a stupid fucking shit eating retard, and you have no idea what you're talking about.
You don't understand simple math, and you have no real world experience.
There's literally no reason for you to comment in this thread, because your ignorant brain has nothing to contribute.
If you had ever owned or used a chest freezer like OP's, you would understand that it doesn't take 24 hours to get cold. It often doesn't even take an hour for the inside walls to get below freezing when its empty. This isn't something that you have to read in a booklet; these are facts that are directly observable in the real world.
You're garbage for bothering to type insults for other people when you have no idea what you're talking about.
nice blog gay!
24 Hours rule is about the oil inside the motor to settle down for a healty lubrication.
Usually when one of these things dies, it's because it developed a leak. This is problematic because the coils are not accessible and easily repairable.
Also, in order to add more refrigerant you would either have to use a piercing valve and a crimping tool, or else solder on a service valve. They don't have service valves on these types of units; that's what the "process stub" is for.
Trying to fix these things is rarely worth it, especially the small sized ones like this which you can often buy in working condition for ~100$ used.
It doesn't take one of these things all that long for the inside walls to get frosty. An hour or two is all that's needed if it were working correctly. When they are empty, there isn't a lot of thermal mass inside and so the temperature normally drops pretty rapidly.
5 amps is probably a surge rating or something-- units in this size range commonly use ~50-150w while running normally.
I hope you're just trolling
OP, it's time to convert this into a cheese cave or something
>a cheese cave
I highly, highly recommend a meat aging fridge. It takes very little effort, contrary to how it sounds.
https://www.seriouseats.com/the-food-lab-complete-guide-to-dry-aging-beef-at-home ctrl-f mini fridge
Aged steaks and roasts come out like they cost 3x as much.
>100$ used.
How am I supposed to get that kind of money!?
>Let it run for 24 h
The new one gets down to -10 in 2 hours you buffoon.
>ten days and $80 wasted dollars later
>$80 wasted dollars
Elucidate.
Clean the coils and add some R134a.
>r134a
thats really uncommon on a freezer, so much i dare say its a cooler instead and it will never reach proper freezer temperatures
>thats really uncommon on a freezer, so much i dare say its a cooler instead and it will never reach proper freezer temperatures
It isn't uncommon at all, on the contrary a ton of fridges and freezers still use R134a. I dare say you have no clue what you're talking about.
>fridgie since 2003
never once seen, serviced or installed low temperature equipment running on r134a. there is no reason to use it when better refrigerants exist for it. it will have to run and negative pressure (thats a bad thing in itself) and the suction line and compressor displacment will be fuckhuge compared to say r404 doing the same job.
thats a future leak just waiting to happen
It's 14 dollars including gas for another 10 year freezer. Tell me where the fitting leaks? I have brand new scratchers leak without the cap lmao. Leak these nuts, fuck feds, garden gnomes, and sorta morons but some morons hate garden gnomes. O/
Are you
?
no but he's posted in that thread
I've gotten 6 chest freezers free from work. If they're commerical they're worth the 50 dollars to fix. We own 14 cheat freezers in our home for bulk meat, flat pack vegetables etc. Chest freezers are dumb simple, upright gets complicated. I'd suggest waiting 24 hours, put a thermometer in it. If not to temp, it's worth 50 bucks to fix. Generally the leak is in the panel behind the dust catching cardboard filter, veeeery rarely in the walls. Speaking of walls, I picked up a deer today, got hit by a truck. Still warm. Meat. You can find easy bungy locations under your fenders if you want to strap one to your hood, dents don't matter In a hood, they pop right out. You have to be careful with blood spray if you're cruising more than 45, you will get blood on your windshield from the deer body spraying blood, might get some shit too if it ruptured the guts, mix isopropyl 90% with rainex for the spray tank, great for grim, ice, snow, shit etc. Good luck with your new freezer, you're going to be storing so much mark down meat, or better yet start hunting. Dressing a deer used to be something you learned, now you can garden gnometube it. Love you.
>14 chest Freezers
How much fucking meat do you need?
Meat, garden veg, fruit on sale, you'll save 5 grand a year buying mark down and portioning and freezing. You can never have enough food. Large BBQ, Grilling, power going out and morons and trannies feeling strong etc. Meat. I wouldn't eat a moron or chud though, they're fucked and taste bad. Put a little parsnip in your deer meat stew, sucks fresh, but stewed, the flavor of 20 carrots.
Where do you get your meth dude?
Same place as you Stein.
i hope you have a generator to keep them going if you lose power
Coupla questions. One, how much power do they draw? Two, do you keep them all in the same area, three, is your wife hot?
Not much at all, we keep them in a steel framed shed with no insulation and it's usually below freezing outside
>you'll save 5 grand a year
What's the cost to run 14 freezers?
Almost free, they're stored outside in the cold and even when they run, they use next to zero power.
Almost $100
I will buy you for 10 dollars a year you stupid fucking garden gnome. I'm coming. Smell the copper, feel the anger. Divert your nose to catch the winds. We are coming.
>power going out
They all your food thaws. Genius.
>the concept of a generator eludes me
Its nothing wrong with it WE JUST HAVE TO MUCH!!!
How would you do the repair?
Do you mean it is a temperature leak, where the cold air escapes?
Or do you mean it is a coolant leak?
Listen Jeremy, figure It out, yikes fluffer.
>eating roadkill
unfathomably based
I am losing my shit over your 14 FREEZERS
stupid racism and transphobia, I hope you meet some new, diverse friends anon and have a cookout with them
have a nice day gay
love u 2
put it inside a bigger working freezer
Okay I think I'll get a bullet valve and the auto parts store will loan me some gauges. I already have a can of R134A.
I have a scale to weight the charge too.
>I got a free freezer
You were ripped off.
Jelly
Fill it with water and use it as a cold bath
Hook a spout up to a tankless water heater for a hot bath
Did you get it working
No I plugged it back in for 8 hours with a thermometer and the temp didn't get below 50. Waiting for my piercing valve to ship.
Ah, that sucks. Just think though, you're gonna have a large commerical freezer at the end, welcome to the brotherhood. I got started by buying one from Lowes that scratch and dent. 10 years and 14 freezers later I'm a happy man. Wait until you see icecream on sale, you can stock up. And bacon when it's buy one get one free, the world is yours now.
Did you get it working buddy?
Traded my neighbor for a valve. I'm just going to return the Amazon one. Stopping by the auto parts store on the way home to see about their loaner gauge set.
Oof I got the wrong one. This won't connect to a ½ acme thread.
I think I need one like this because I already have the R134 bottle with the quick connect.
Okay I think I got the right one now. A guy had it locally on Offer Up app.
1 added about 130 grams and my low side pressure is about 3 or 4 psi. It's that good?
>1 added
I added*
The power consumption has stabilized around 60 watts.
Probably about right for a freezer. That blue scale labelled as "R134A" basically shows you at what temperature the refrigerant in question changes from liquid/vapor (and vice versa) at a given pressure. -10 is in the ballpark for a freezer, no idea about yours specifically.
Is the condenser warming up at all? Might want to gauge the high side. If it's not getting cold while the vapor line is showing normal-ish pressure, the system may not be making adequate compression. Could be a shot compressor or failed metering device. I assume this thing just uses a capillary tube, so the latter might not be very likely.
Still not getting cold.
Maybe I screwed up by using r134a with additives.
I think the free freezer is terminal. There was a clean Frigidaire on Craigslist for $80 I bought today.
Scraping the free freezer Monday along with some washing machines and other appliances I picked up today to finance my new freezer. Case closed.
God bless you for admitting defeat