Bottle Cooler Issue

[Longster10]

Hello

I have a Gamko bottle cooler that has been working fine until October last year when the compressor stopped working. I took it to a refrigeration engineer who we use at work and he checked the fridge over and confirmed that the compressor was faulty.

He replaced the compressor with a new Aspera one and again the fridge was working fine until last month when I noticed that the temperature was high in the fridge, I removed the relay and noticed a bit of melted plastic and burning around the terminals. I ordered a new relay and klixon which was exactly the same as the one I took off.

The new relay came the other day and I fitted it, switched the fridge on and the compressor fired up and run until the temperature got to 3.5 degrees and the compressor cut out as the electronic stat is set at 3.5 degrees. I monitored the fridge for a while and it kept cutting in when temp went up and cut off at 3.5 degrees so all good. I didn't Need the fridge for a few days so I switched it off.

Then today I switched the fridge on and the compressor did not fire up but the compressor fan did, I switched the fridge off again and removed the relay, reconnected it and switched the fridge back on and the compressor started and temp started to drop. I again switched the power off and on again and yet again the compressor failed to start.

Does anyone have any ideas what could be causing the intermittent fault?

I hope this makes sense!

Thanks for reading.

P.S I should say that the bottle cooler is in a shed/bar outside so the ambient temp has been cold recently but has been around 10 degrees for the last few days while I have had this issue.

[Rob White]

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I am making a lot of assumptions because I can't see the fridge and you know what happens when you assume?? :D

Lets assume the compressor is ok.

You have a bad connection in the wiring from the controller to the comp
or the contacts inside the controller are dirty, burnt or otherwise making
bad connections.

Does the controller have a separate relay for the condenser fan and compressor?
It sounds like it shares the same feed from the controller but it would be worth a check.

If the fan and comp are fed from the same connection then you must look to the connections
between the controller relay and the compressor relay.

Without holding it it my hand that is the best I can do. :)

Rob

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[al]

Sounds like compressor is tripping on Klixon/overload, replacing them sometimes works but long term solution is compressor replacement or better again change the fridge. The issue that caused first compressor to fail has possibly caused issues with oil or debris internally, nearly impossible to clear, i say this from bitter experience. Bottle coolers are generally bullet proof once condenser is cleaned regularly, as an aside having it outside causes its own issues due to much lower than designed ambient temps

[Longster10]

Thanks for the replies

I checked the wiring and the cooling fan and compressor are split from the same wire from the electronic/digital stat, I did unwire it all and redo it and since I did that the fridge seems to be behaving itself so maybe just a loose connection somewhere.

When the ambient temperature is very low I do turn the fridge off as I know the low temp isn't ideal for the fridge.

The fridge is 10 years old but had a new compressor, relay/klixon and digital stat in last few months so hopefully get a bit longer out of it yet.

[Rob White]

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Low temperature in itself won't really hurt the fridge but it will stop the thing from turning back on if the ambient is low enough.

If the comp has a good power supply then I tend to agree with Al above. These things tend to be very reliable but when the compressor burns out it can mess with the system. If everything is proved to be ok it must be the compressor.

Unfortunately it might be a blockage that moves around or is oil based in the liquid / capillary line.

All the best
Rob

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