Husky Fridge performing poorly.

[davegsm82]

Hi Everyone, I'm new here so go easy please.

I'm not a refridgeration engineer but understand the theory etc, i'm an electrical engineer to be honest.

Ok, well the problem I have is with a Husky Guinness beer fridge i've just been given (because its faulty).

You plug it in, switch on and it runs fine, brilliant. However with a thermal probe inside the cabinet, after about 4-5 hours of pretty much continuous running it only manages about 8 degrees centigrade.

To add to this, the external radiators (whatever the proper name is for them) on the outside of the fridge, left and right hand sides, get quite hot. Compressor isn't that hot, but the most interesting thing is that the pipe outside the cabinet which runs from the compressor into the cabinet (to the radiator which absorbs the heat inside) gets an impressive coating of frost on it after just a few minutes of running.

If you switch off the compressor this frost disappears within about 20-30 seconds, turning to water which proceeds to drip on to the lower metalwork.

Works well as a dehumidifier, not so good as a fridge.

Can anyone shed some light on this problem?

Thanks, Dave.

[monkey spanners]

Are all the fan motors running? Is it the big pipe coming out of the evaporator to the comp that gets ice on? or the small capillary tube that goes in to the evaporator?

Jon

[Electrocoolman]

Does the 'radiator' (evaporator) inside the fridge get cold? You should be able to follow the 'frost line' along the 'tube' in this evaporator - it should get longer ie. further along this 'tube' as the inside gets colder.

Your frosting back to the compressor is due to either overcharge of refrigerant, no load due to fan (if fitted) not running, or broken capillary tube inside the fat tube.

Are there signs that it has been worked on.....ie is the 'stub' tube on the compressor sealed or does it have an access port?

[davegsm82]

Are all the fan motors running? Is it the big pipe coming out of the evaporator to the comp that gets ice on? or the small capillary tube that goes in to the evaporator?

Jon

Hi Jon.

If the Evaporator is the 'cold plate' on the end of the pipe which goes inside the fridge cabinet, then yes, its this that gets the ice on it outside of the cabinet, right next to the compressor.

the small capillary tube is wrapped around this bigger pipe then disappears inside of it (I presume its inside of the bigger pipe all the way to the evaporator). The ice is all the way from where the big pipe comes out of the cabinet, right down to about 1 inch away from where the capillary tube joins the 'big' pipe.

Sorry I dont know the names of these parts, fridges aint my speciality.

Thanks, Dave.

p.s. i'll try and get a photo of the ice etc and post it up.

[Clk320_Greg]

If you need any spares you will be better throwing the fridge in the bin.

Husky spares are useless. Unbeliveable so!

[davegsm82]

Does the 'radiator' (evaporator) inside the fridge get cold? You should be able to follow the 'frost line' along the 'tube' in this evaporator - it should get longer ie. further along this 'tube' as the inside gets colder.

Your frosting back to the compressor is due to either overcharge of refrigerant, no load due to fan (if fitted) not running, or broken capillary tube inside the fat tube.

Are there signs that it has been worked on.....ie is the 'stub' tube on the compressor sealed or does it have an access port?

Ok, to clarify, theres no load fans inside of the unit at all, its purely what I would call 'passive'.

It definately doesn't look like its been worked on, the compressor looks original and the 'vacuum' pipe (where I assume its vacc'ed down and filled from) has the same zigzag crimp and brazed end that i've seen on all the other fridges i've ever dealt with.

Here are some pictures i've taken;

Compressor, with frost.

[IMG]img20.imageshack.us/img20/579/02072010835.jpg[/IMG]

right hand side, not sure what the sausage shaped thing is called, 'Drier' springs to mind but dont know why. The 2 pipes above it disappear off to radiators either side of the cabinet.

[IMG]img268.imageshack.us/img268/175/02072010836.jpg[/IMG]

Inside the cabinet, I had a DC fan running inside the cabinet to see if I could help circulate the 'coldness', the little thermometer at the side is reading 10 degrees, its not that accurate but my Fluke multimeter is and it backs up what the thermometer is saying.

[IMG]img227.imageshack.us/img227/2350/02072010841.jpg[/IMG]

[davegsm82]

ack... the site wont let me post clickable links, please paste the links into the address bar and the pics will be there.

Thanks, Dave.

[Andy AC]

Mine's crap as well, always had been, glad I didn't pay for it. Keep meaning to have a play, but can't be bothered. I don't think that the evap is anywhere big enough for the size of the fridge. The other thing is that its on r600a, so no-one wants to play with it anyway.

Andy

[davegsm82]

Mine's crap as well, always had been, glad I didn't pay for it. Keep meaning to have a play, but can't be bothered. I don't think that the evap is anywhere big enough for the size of the fridge. The other thing is that its on r600a, so no-one wants to play with it anyway.

Andy

Hi Andy, i'm guessing r600a isn't a nice substance to play with? I know that my car air-con runs on r134 or something.

Do you need special equipment to deal with r600a? The repair shop I work for knows someone who deals with fridge repairs (the re-gassing side of things) so I might ask him to have a look at it if its a gas-related problem.

I turned the stat down to '2' last night and left it running, when I got up today there was only condensation on the pipe and the cabinet was sitting at about 14 degrees.

I think you could be right about the evaporator not being big enough, when the fridge is running it seems to pretty muh have ice on it all the time, yet the cabinet doesn't get as cold as it should, even with a fan running inside.

I wonder if its something to do with the radiators (condensers?) on the sides of the fridge warming it up?

Dave.