Fisher & Paykel - Does this sound like a simple re-gas?

Hi all,

I've just bought a Fisher & Paykel RF356RDWX1 freestanding wine fridge from a well known auction site as spares and repairs. Retails at £3000 but got it for £70, so keen to get it working and score a bargain. I was initially hoping it would be something simple like a PTC relay or a stat or some easily swappable part, but of course that wasn't to be.

So.. it switches on fine, lights up and the compressor kicks in after a minute and you can feel and hear it running. As soon as the compressor runs, you can hear a gurgling noise from the top evaporator inside. It's a two zone system with separate evaporators for top and bottom zones. Neither evaporators get cool, nor can I discern any increase or decrease in temp on any of the condenser or evaporator lines in the back by the compressor. The compressor too doesn't seem to warm up, although I haven't let it run for more than about 15 mins.

So.. what I did find is a hissing noise and leak in a joint on an aluminium loop that comes back down in to the compressor area from the sealed back of the unit which can only be where the condenser is. It seems as though the HP line from the compressor is aluminium pipe that goes up into the back of the unit (has a yellow bit of tape on it), then comes back down (red tape on it), changes to copper to the drier, then to a solenoid and off to the evaporators. This loop in question is on the other side of the compartment with the compressor - it's aluminium pipe, one side with red tape, one with yellow. Comes down into the compartment and straight back up.

Anyway, there's a brazed joint in that loops that is clearly leaking. The hissing is from there and you can sort of stop it by covering with a finger (can feel damp coming out too).

So to the questions - firstly, what's this loop for? Seems odd that it just comes down and goes back up?

Secondly, I can only assume that the leak is the problem with not cooling as ultimately, it's not going to work when the refrigerant side of the system is leaking. I have no idea when it last worked, although the guy I bought it off said he'd run it for a few hours to see if it would cool, then surmised that it needed a re-gas. The leak wasn't mentioned.

I've got an engineer coming this week to fix the leak and re-gas the system, but I have this niggling thing in my head that there may be more to it. What's coming out is slightly oily as well as a gas. Is this likely to be the refrigerant or just air? If it's the only hole in the system and air is coming out, then do we think there must be somewhere the air is getting in - otherwise, wouldn't the compressor eventually be pumping nothing? I've got the fear of blockages and all sorts now. If it were you, would you pin your hopes on a leak fix and re-gas working?

Grateful for any experience and opinion!


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The loop of pipe might just be for ease of manufacture or something like that, or maybe someone has cut out a bit of boil off pipework.

Probably mainly air coming out. Once the refrigerants leaked out the system, on the low side would end up in a vacuum when it runs, and then when it switches off it could then equalise high and low side and suck in air through the high side leak.

Sounds like the compressor is still working if its blowing air out the hole in the pipe.
Sounds like its worthwhile repairing the leak, but make sure the person repairing it does a leak check and then vacuums the system before recharging the refrigerant.