At 11:01 PM 12/3/2005 -0800, Steve Shipley wrote:
>
>I have a refrigerator in the shop. I went out to get an ice cream cone the
>other night and it was barely frozen. Since we recently got our first
freezing
>weather, I was wondering if a refrigerator is affected by the outside
>temperature. The shop is unheated so I'm pretty sure the temperature was
>around 32 degrees for a day or so. Does a refrigerator depend on the
>temperature
>to function?
Steve,
The short answer is yes, only not he way you think. The Refer is taking hot
air out of the box and releasing it to the outside air. If the temp were
say 100deg. then it's harder to get the hot air off of the fins.
But in this case the colder it is, the more easily it can disapate the heat
from the box to the outside air.
I've had a refer in my "unheated" but attached garage for years. The winter
has never been a problem.
I suggest that you get a thermometer and put it in the frig. and or freezer
compartment and see what the box temps are. The freezer should be about 0
deg and the main refrigerator box should be about 37 to 40.
Is it a small "dorm" refrig, or a big one - side by side or vertical?
I know on the side by sides, in the freezer compartment there is usually
a metal panel that covers the cooling coils. If you remove that by unscrewing
the 8 to 12 screws and take the panel off, you'll see the coils.
Are they frozen?
There are several possibilities here:
1. Low on freon
2. bad defrost switch
3. bad defrost heaters.
>From my experience with the 2 refers here, is that the heaters go bad and
the coils freeze up. I've had to replace them on both my refrigs a couple
of times.
The heaters are usually a smallish, 1/2" diag. glass tube with a resistor in
side. On mine there were 2 in each refrig. You will see a wire coming out
of each side. Follow the wires, they usually go to a plug or wire nut.
Disconnect them, and using a multimeter in the ohms position check the
resistance. It should be low, say 10ohms or less, maybe even 0 depending
on the meter. If they read infinate or over 100ohms the resistors are
bad. Replace them.
Be sure to unplug the refer before starting to check this out.
Good luck, and hope this helps.
John
John T. Blair WA4OHZ email: jblair1948@cox.net
Va. Beach, Va (eBay id: zebra48-1)
Phone: (757) 495-8229
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