Condenser Fan Problems

Condenser fans suffer the same failures as evaporator fans. In addition to open windings, failed bearings, and misalignment, condenser fans my fail due to dirt. Because the condenser fan is beneath most refrigerators and behind a cover, it is easy to forget to clean it or the condenser coil.

Condenser Fan Motor

The photo above shows the condenser and fan of a fifteen-year-old Amana side-by-side that was probably never cleaned. It was replaced because it didn’t cool. A thorough cleaning of the condenser, fan motor, and fan blades restored it to proper operation. Don’t try to treat a new refrigerator this way; the fan motor and compressor might not survive the over-heating.

Although this fan still managed to rotate, sometimes the dirt and debris will jam the fan blades. Just make certain that you disconnect power before working on a condenser fan to prevent it from starting unexpectedly.

Why Evaporator Fans Fail

Refrigerators that have separate freezer and fresh-food sections and one evaporator located in the freezer section must have a working evaporator fan to maintain proper temperatures. This two sections and one evaporator arrangement applies to almost every refrigerator produced for the American market. Evaporator fans normally fail for one of three reasons.

1. Loss of power

2. Bad bearings

3. Misalignment

Loss Of Power
This can be caused by a variety of conditions, but the result is the same: no current flows through the evaporator motor. The fan doesn’t work and the temperatures in the freezer and fresh-food sections of the refrigerator rise. The refrigerator will likely not cool to the set point of the cold control and the refrigerator will run continuously except when it is in a defrost cycle. This problem can be caused by loose wires, an open fan motor winding, or malfunctions in electronic controls. Troubleshooting evaporator fans was once much easier than today. Most ran when the compressor ran and received 120 VAC from the defrost timer when it was in the compressor run position. With the introduction of adaptive defrost and electronic controls monitoring inputs from thermistors, fans don’t always run just because the compressor has started.

Bad Bearings
Defective evaporator fan bearings can keep the fan from rotating even though the windings are good. One should ALWAYS disconnect the refrigerator from the power source before checking the fan to see if it is binding. The fan blades should turn freely if the bearings are good. If the blades are difficult or impossible to turn the bearings are defective. Many times when evaporator fan bearing begin to fail a high-pitched squealing noise is emitted (leaving no doubt that the bearings are failing).

Misalignment
Misaligned fans can’t rotate freely because the fan blades strike the evaporator cover. Sometimes the fan is jammed and can’t turn at all; sometimes it turns, producing a knocking or clicking noise. This problem is the result of the general quality decline in refrigerator manufacturing and seems to plague the cheaper models (read Haier), although I have seen this defect on units costing over a thousand dollars. The solution is turn off the power, remove the evaporator cover, and loosen the fasteners on the evaporator fan mounting bracket so YOU can align and tighten it properly. The other choice is to try to get the manufacturer to honor its warranty and that may be far more difficult than adjusting a fan bracket.

Automatic Defrost

Moisture in the air (water vapor) enters a refrigerator each time the door is opened. The water vapor will condense on cold surfaces. The evaporator coil is the coldest surface in the refrigerator. Since the refrigerant in the coil may be twenty degrees below zero, the surface of the coil is well below the freezing point of water. The condensed water vapor quickly freezes into ice. The ice build up on the evaporator will continue to grow thicker and thicker if it is not removed. In units without a fan circulating air, the ice build up will lower the cooling efficiency of the evaporator, but will not prevent the unit from maintaining temperature. A good example is a dorm fridge with no fan. The freezer section is usually the space inside a roll bonded evaporator. The evaporator may form so much ice that much of the storage space is lost, but the temperature of the box will still be adequate.

In units with a separate freezer and fresh-food compartment, the evaporator is normally in the freezer section and an evaporator fan circulates air to the freezer and fresh-food area through duct arrangements. The amount of cold air entering the fresh-food section is controlled by a manual or electronically controlled damper. The evaporator coil in these systems must have airflow from the evaporator fan to work properly and must be defrosted in order to maintain this airflow. Defrost is accomplished by energizing an electric heating element on or near the evaporator coil.

If the defrost circuit fails and ice builds up on the evaporator, airflow from the fan will diminish. Lack of airflow causes more ice to form. Soon the evaporator will be encased in a solid block of ice and no air will circulate. The result will be fresh food temperatures above 50 degrees and a freezer temperature at or near 32 degrees. The unit will run continuously since it cannot reach the set point of the cold control. This continuous running builds even more ice on the evaporator coil.

The way that the defrost cycle is initiated has changed over the years. When energy consumption was not a priority, a clock circuit energized the defrost heater based on time. A clock circuit would switch the unit into defrost every six, eight, or twelve hours (depending on which defrost timer the manufacturer installed) without any consideration of the usage or conditions. Even if the refrigerator was in a low humidity environment and had run very little, the heater still turned on every few hours. This system used a lot of energy.

After government regulations to improve energy efficiency were implemented in the late 1980s and early 1990s, the defrost circuit was redesigned so that a defrost cycle was based on compressor run time. A refrigerator not experiencing a lot of door openings and closings ran less often than one that was heavily used. Therefore some unnecessary defrosts were avoided (the ice build up depends on moisture laden air entering the unit) by initiating defrost based on accumulated compressor run time.

When the government dictated further reductions in energy consumption, manufacturers had to redesign the defrost controls to make them smarter in order to comply. The defrost system with its electric heater uses more energy than any other part of the refrigerator. Therefore it was the best place to look for energy reduction. The solution was adaptive defrost control. The defrost timer was replaced by an electronic control boards containing a microprocessor. Inputs to the control monitored door opening and closings, cumulative compressor run time, duration of last defrost, and in some models the ambient temperature where the unit was located. The algorithms programmed into the microprocessor would adapt the defrost frequency and duration to operating conditions and changes in usage. With adaptive defrost control, a defrost cycle can occur in as little as six hours or as long as seventy-two hours.

Adaptive defrost control does reduce energy consumption, but whether the energy savings is cost effective is another matter. Most do-it-yourself homeowners could troubleshot and repair a defrost system with a defrost timer, but many will call a repairman if electronic controls are not working. A price check on the net for a defrost timer resulted in prices ranging from 18 to 45 dollars. ADC boards seem to start at 65 dollars and most were closer to a hundred dollars. With a service charge and labor, having a technician replace the board will probably be a two to three hundred dollar repair. The money that the consumer saves on electricity will likely have to be spent repairing electronic controls.

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Before You Call The Repair Person

A nonworking refrigerator is almost never an inexpensive or easy situation to endure. Most likely in addition to the stress of needing the essential appliance repaired quickly so life can return to normal, there is the matter of food spoiling. Sometimes the value of the food that may ruin exceeds the cost of paying a refrigeration tech to repair the unit. Unfortunately, there are many rural communities where there isn’t a qualified repair person. Even if there is a repair service, it is a lucky homeowner whose fridge cooperates by malfunctioning during business hours when the repair person isn’t already booked for the day (and the next).

Take a deep breath. Before you pick up the phone and call for assistance, look for the minor problems (that the repairman will still charge for). Open the fresh food compartment long enough to determine if the interior light comes on, proving that the kids or cat haven’t unplugged the unit. If there is no light, no noises, and no cool in the box, but the unit is connected by an undamaged cord to a receptacle, check the electrical panel to ensure that the circuit breakers or fuses for the circuit are not tripped or blown. If the breaker is tripped, unplug the refrigerator and see if the breaker will reset. If it trips, the problem is somewhere else in the circuit. In that case devise a way to try the refrigerator on a different circuit. If it starts normally, you need an electrician rather than an appliance repair person.

If the breaker resets with the refrigerator unplugged, there is likely a problem in the appliance. UNLESS the fridge is on an overloaded circuit. The average starting amperage on a compressor is 14 amps. If that load is connected to a 20 amp circuit that has other small appliances running when the refrigerator compressor tries to start, the circuit-breaker will trip (as it should).

Codes now require that a separate circuit be provided for the refrigerator, but that has not always been the case. Other odd external things that can cause a complete power loss to the refrigerator are defective circuits (loose and broken wires and connections) and a worn receptacle. Perhaps the prongs on the refrigerator cord have burned away from arcing in an old receptacle. Inspect them. Remove the bulb from the fresh food compartment and try it in a lamp to ensure that it isn’t defective. The combination of a bad bulb and a defective compressor starting-circuit or defrost timer may look like a complete power loss, but there is voltage present when the unit is connected to a live branch circuit.

In most cases, when a refrigerator stops cooling, the interior light works (and the fuses or circuit breaker and cord are good). Many will and should call for a professional repair person at that point, although I have done a few service calls where a toddler or small child had turned the cold control to the off position so check to ensure that the control is set to a number or letter.

Many refrigerators that have suddenly or gradually stopped cooling will be making noise ( as in fans and/or compressor running). Refrigerators with good running compressors and a full charge of freon will not cool properly if the condenser is dirty, the automatic defrost system is defective, or if the condenser or evaporator fans are not working. The unit will not cool at all if the compressor or the compressor-start circuit is bad.

If everything I wrote in the last paragraph is a complete mystery, it may be time to call an appliance repair service.

Refrigerator Chassis

Fig 1 Refrigerator with freezer section on top

Take the refrigeration components, controls, and ancillary devices such as ice-makers, fans, lights, and water valves out of a refrigerator and one is left with a plastic lined compartment surrounded by insulation and and a pretty outer covering of thin sheet-metal (okay, very thin sheet-metal on most new refrigerators). An insulated box with the least amount of insulation that the market will accept. That amount seems to be about two inches these days which works out to about R10. Put your hand on the side of a refrigerator when it is running and feel the cold. Then try to guess who is paying for that cold. If you try this on a freezer or dorm fridge with the condenser beneath the sheet-metal skin, you feel heat rather than cold.

The person that decided to make an R-10 insulated box and put the condenser just outside of the insulation (so that heat leaks back into the interior of the box through the inadequate insulation) was the same one that decided that putting a hot compressor under the refrigerator also made sense. Heat rises so while the compressor runs to make your box cold, it is adding to the heat-load that it must extract. I hear someone screaming my refrigerator is energy-star rated and is much more energy efficient than those old heavy (well built) energy-hogs of the past. I am saving the planet you mean man. Most of the reduction in energy usage has been the result of better insulation (not more of it) and the down-sizing of compressors, evaporators and condensers. Under-sizing systems to save energy may be why refrigerators now last eight years instead of twenty to fifty.

The modern refrigerators is a poorly designed appliance and none of the major manufacturers seem interested in rethinking the issue. One would believe that some of them were in the electric utility business.

Filter-dryers and Capillary Tubes

Replacement filter-dryer

Filter-dryers are placed at the outlet of the condenser in household refrigerators and contain mesh screens to trap contaminants and chemicals to absorb moisture. This provides protection to the capillary tube which can become clogged and block the flow of liquid refrigerant to the evaporator. A completely blocked capillary tube will stop all refrigerant from reaching the evaporator and no cooling takes place.

A clogged capillary tube is difficult to diagnose since it seems the unit is low on refrigerant (the evaporator doesn’t receive refrigerant, but not because it has leaked out). This is one situation where piercing-valves and manifold gauges are necessary to be certain. A system with a clogged cap tube and a good compressor will pull the low-side suction pressure down into a vacuum as low as 20 inches of hg. The condenser will be cold since it contains liquid refrigerant under high pressure. If the high-side pressure is low and the low-side is in a vacuum, the problem is likely a lack of refrigerant rather than a clogged capillary tube.

The filter-dryers installed to protect the capillary tube can also clog and the symptoms look the same as a clogged capillary tube. If a filter-dryer is only partially clogged and creates a pressure drop it will be coated with frost. A frosted dryer or frost on the cap tube at the outlet of the dryer indicates a partially clogged dryer that needs to be replaced. Dryers are cheap, but the economics of hiring a refrigeration tech to recover the refrigerant, replace the dryer, and then evacuate and recharge the system will depend on the age and cost of the system and type of refrigerant. R12 systems are likely better retired.

Capillary tubes usually clog in the first few inches after the dryer unless the system is contaminated with moisture. Moisture will almost always freeze and form an ice-plug at the inlet to the evaporator. This happens if the system is opened, moist air allowed to enter the piping, and a complete evacuation with a quality vacuum-pump is not performed prior to recharging.

Cap tubes can be replaced, but it is not an easy task. Almost all are attached to the suction line for much of their length. Their internal bore and length are part of the refrigerator design and cannot be replaced with just any cap tube one might have. The size depends on the type of refrigerant and capacity of the compressor.

In my foolish youth, I used to replace clogged cap tubes on almost new refrigerators by removing the evaporator, suction line, and cap tube back to the compressor area (as long as they were not buried in the foam insulation) and replacing the whole thing with a similar evaporator/suction line/ cap tube assembly from a scrapped refrigerator. The refrigerator that I am using now received this treatment, a new compressor, and a charge of R-409a over eight years ago.

In the past year I have seen three Frigidaire side-by-side refrigerators in which the capillary tube had not been brazed into the filter-dryer during manufacture. Thus they were sold (and returned to the retailer) without refrigerant. The replacement of the filter-dryer, evacuation, and charging with R-134a was worth it since they retailed for almost two thousand dollars each. Two other new Frigidaire units that I saw had broken cap tubes where they entered the filter-dryer. This likely happened in shipment (its a long way to China) due to the crappy placement of filter-dryers on Frigidaire side-by-sides.

Simple Ways To Know If Your Fridge Is Low On Freon

Technicians who work on central air conditioners and heat pumps use manifold gauges to find the Freon pressure and indirectly the evaporator and condenser temperatures by connecting to access fittings on the unit. These gauges have hoses of various lengths and when they are removed from the access fittings some Freon is retained in the hoses. This is not a problem with systems that contain pounds of Freon since the amount retained in the gauge manifold hoses is a small percentage of the correct charge.

Household refrigerators and freezers usually do not have access fittings. This is not necessarily a bad thing. Some refrigerators work with as little as eight ounces of R-134. Connecting gauge manifold hoses to the high-side of the system could leave a large percentage of the charge in the hose when it is disconnected. To connect to the system and read Freon pressure one must use a piercing-valve, which clamps on the refrigerant tubing and punctures a hole to allow pressure readings. These valves must be left in place afterwards and provide a place for refrigerant to leak if they are not clamped tightly or if the seals deteriorate over time.

I only install piercing-valves on a refrigerator or freezer as a last resort. Despite the common belief that almost every refrigerator problem is due to the lack of Freon that is just not the case. Most refrigerator malfunctions are caused by the failure of electrical components. An insufficient Freon charge is one of the last things I consider when troubleshooting a refrigerator that does not cool. FREON LEAKS OUT; IT DOES NOT WEAR OUT. It is unlikely that your refrigerator will suddenly start leaking just sitting in your kitchen UNLESS it is manual defrost and you recently removed the ice from the freezer compartment by using a knife, screwdriver, chisel, or pry bar and punctured the aluminum evaporator coil or an incompetent service person installed piercing-valves that are leaking.

Conditions which may seem like lack of Freon but are not:

Evaporator fan not running which ices up the evaporator and raises freezer and fresh-food compartment temperature.

Condenser fan not running which raises temperature of freezer and fresh food compartment.

Dirty condenser which raises temperature of freezer and fresh food compartment.

Defrost problems (if automatic defrost) which ices up evaporator raising temperature in freezer and fresh food compartment.

Old compressor with worn valves that raises evaporator pressure and temperature.

Worn door seals that allow hot air to leak into the freezer or fresh food compartment (Note: Some Haier refrigerator doors won’t seal even when new.)

Clogged filter dryer or capillary tube which keeps the Freon from circulating properly.

All the above conditions make the compressor run continuously or almost continuously, but so does a lack of Freon. The compressor runs continuously because the refrigerator cannot reach the set-point on the cold-control. Keep in mind that if you set your cold control to mid-range and it can’t cool to that setting, turning it to max (which asks it to make the temperature even colder) does absolutely nothing.

The fastest and easiest way to find out if the unit has Freon is to turn it off and listen. When a compressor pumps Freon the evaporator pressure decreases and the condenser pressure increases (thus we have a high and low side of the system). When the compressor stops running the refrigerant pressures in the system slowly equalizes through the capillary tube. This can take several minutes. Turn the cold control to the off position and put your ear to the side of the unit. If you hear hissing and gurgling noises the unit has some Freon, which is equalizing through the capillary tube (it may not be a correct charge). If you hear nothing, the unit contains little or no Freon or has a clogged filter-dryer or cap tube OR the compressor is running but not pumping (worn or broken valve). None of these conditions are as likely as having a defective fan, dirty condenser, or defrost problem.

If you hear the hissing and gurgling of Freon, but the unit won’t freeze ice or the ice cream is soft, unplug the refrigerator and remove the cover from the evaporator. The evaporator is in the freezer compartment near the evaporator fan. Each model is different so spend a few minutes to figure out how to expose the evaporator. Some GE and Magic Chef models place the evaporator in the bottom of the freezer compartment which makes repairing the defrost system difficult. On an upright freezer the evaporator may be tubes that are part of the shelves so nothing needs to be removed. Chest freezers have the evaporator beneath the inner lining and usually cannot be exposed.

If you remove the panel covering the evaporator and find a big block of ice, you either have a defrost problem or the evaporator fan wasn’t running. Sometimes a defrost problem will form so much ice that the fan can’t run. Thaw the evaporator and see if the fan will run before condemning it.

If the evaporator is not encased in ice arrange the cover so that the unit can be restarted. This may be difficult if the fan is attached to the panel. The capillary tube is a small copper tube entering the evaporator. The suction line at the evaporator outlet will be much bigger.

Liquid refrigerant (freon) entering the evaporator begins to boil into a gas because of the sudden drop in pressure created by the compressor. This change of state absorbs heat. The temperature inside the evaporator coil may be -20 degrees F. This will condense and freeze moisture in the air in contact with the coil (which is why we have to defrost). If there is freon boiling inside the evaporator this frosting will occur within minutes. So if we run the unit with the cover off the evaporator and no frost forms we can know that there really is no freon or the the system is clogged. If the unit runs for several minutes with the door closed and the freon charge is correct, the frosting should form all along the length of the evaporator.

Other signs of the presence of freon is heat in the condenser. If the unit has been running for several minutes and the condenser is cold, there is either little or no freon or the system is clogged or the compressor is not pumping.

Haier Ye Haier Ye

I haven’t warned people lately that Haier refrigerators are CRAP!

http://fridgeman.wordpress.com/2008/01/04/most-new-refrigerators-are-crap/

http://www.consumeraffairs.com/homeowners/haier_refrigerators.html

Others seem to agree. If you are considering buying a Haier, please send me the money. Your food will be just as cold sitting in the kitchen floor and I’ll be better off. Besides, not buying a Haier saves land-fill space for important things like toxic waste.

The Refrigeration Cycle

Most homeowners do not have EPA certifications or the necessary equipment to handle, recover, or charge refrigerants so this post is intended for educational purposes and to give the non-technician a basic understanding of how domestic refrigerators use the refrigeration cycle to preserve food. I will not try to explain the chemistry of refrigerants, but will explain the basic principals and thermodynamic laws that cause a refrigerant to create cold conditions inside the unit.

Cold is a term of convenience, but cold actually doesn’t exist. Heat is a form of energy. Cold is the absence of heat, although until one reaches absolute-zero even that definition is incorrect. There is nothing wrong with pronouncing that the inside of our freezer is cold as long as we know that it is less hot than something else that we are using for comparison (usually the temperature of the room where the unit is located or our body temperature).

A colder substance or object always absorbs heat unless it is perfectly insulated. A cube of ice in our drink cools the liquid because melting ice (changing states from a solid to a liquid) absorbs a lot of heat from the surrounding liquid. When the ice is melted, our drink absorbs heat from the surrounding air and begins to warm again. Most people think that an ice cube cools the drink because it melts and mixes cold water into the drink. It is true that the melted cube leaves cold water in our drink but the majority of cooling is due to the cube changing states (solid to liquid) and absorbing energy from the surrounding liquid. If we could magically gather the water from our cube and refreeze it, it would give up the energy it absorbed when it changed from a solid to a liquid. The only way we can get the absorbed heat from our water is to put it somewhere colder than 32 degrees so that the heat energy will flow from the water to the colder surroundings and cause a change of state from liquid to solid. We do this when we freeze a tray of ice cubes.

Now that we know that it takes energy to change a solid to liquid, lets consider other substances besides water. Most metals are solids at room temperature. We have all seen pictures of furnaces used to melt steel. Changing steel to a liquid takes a lot of heat energy but it is useful to mold it to the shape we desire. As soon as the liquid steel is removed from the heat source of the furnace it gives up heat to the much colder surrounding air and becomes a solid again. All substances change states depending upon the temperature (and pressure). Some solids have to be very hot to change to a liquid. Some gases have to be cooled to extremely low temperatures to make them condense (change from a gas to a liquid). Liquid oxygen and liquid nitrogen are two examples.

Water boils at 212 degrees F at sea-level. Some refrigerants boil at -30 degrees F. It may seem odd that something cold enough to freeze our skin is boiling but as the refrigerant changes from a liquid to a gas, it is absorbing heat (even if that heat feels very cold to us). When liquid refrigerant enters the evaporator of a refrigerator or freezer, it absorbs heat as it changes into a gas (evaporates). Even if the freezer is cold (0 to 10 degrees F) it is hotter than the refrigerant so heat flows to the refrigerant. When the heat inside the freezer flows to the refrigerant, heat energy is removed from the air and contents of the freezer and it gets colder.

Fig 1 Four basic parts of a refrigeration system

Evaporators are designed so that liquid refrigerant evaporates (absorbing heat) and leaves the coil as a gas. The compressor pumps the gas out of the evaporator coil through the suction line. The compressor pumps the refrigerant gas into the condenser and raises the pressure from less than 10 psi to around 130 psi. This compresses the gas and raises its temperature (which is why condensers are hot). The refrigerant in the condenser gives up heat (absorbed from inside the refrigerator) to the surrounding air as it condenses into a liquid. Because the refrigerant is under higher pressure it condenses at a higher temperature. The liquid refrigerant is forced by the pressure of the compressor into the cap (capillary) tube for another trip to the evaporator. This cycle is constant as long as the compressor is running.

The cap tube is a small copper line with a precision internal bore measured in thousandths of an inch connecting the condenser to the evaporator. It is used in domestic freezers, refrigerators, and air conditioners. It meters liquid refrigerant into the evaporator and maintains a pressure differential between the high-side condenser and low-side evaporator.

This is a very simple and basic description of the refrigeration cycle but all mechanical refrigeration systems operate on these principles.