Beko ca5411ff - not working.

[Coolie]

Noticed the beers were warmer than usual a few days ago, but today the freezer compartment was warm and food was defrosting.

Checked the evaporator in the freezer compartment for ice and it was clear. Fan was running ok and in fact the evaporator inlet wasn't very cold just after the inlet capillary.
The electric defrost heaters didn't feel as though they were on.

Ran my leak detector around the evaporator and compressor area a few times, but picked nothing up.

Compressor runs continuously but is very hot, with suction temp also high.

To me, it feels as though it is short, but can't find a leak.

[Rtic]

Have you connected your gauges to check pressure; if so what is it reading? If you're sure it's a leak, then recover remaining refrigerant and do a OFN pressure test to find and repair leak.

[Coolie]

Hi Rtic

No, not yet. I was looking at this at 2300 last night. This is not our main fridge, just the beer fridge in garage. We use the freezer as overflow to the main.

I've seen elsewhere on t'internet that these models had known issues with defrost timers playing up.

My background is chillers, so not quite familiar with the pipe route in a fridge.
After the main evaporator, the pipes go up to the fridge section.
I'm guessing the suction line just coils itself through the walls before heading back to compressor?

I first want to rule out any other fault before line tapping it and doing a plt.

[Rtic]

With the information you have provided I would take a guess that it is a leak.

Your right that this model had a recall a couple of years ago because of a faulty defrost timer; I believe (from memory) that they was starting fires so you might want to look into that! However; you say that the compressor is running continuously and the coil is clear, so not a defrost problem.

It might have a restriction, a fairly common fault on domestics when I worked on them. Locate the filter, and see if the capillary has frozen, or if the filter feels cold.

[chemi-cool]

Beko is a low quality fridge, you can see at the back where it is made...

check all the brazed points. If it runs on 134, the little drier is most probably clogged with dirt, I would guess that some of the pipework is galvanised steel.