|
Once I heard a joke involving a discussion
between Hitler and Goring. Goring: “If you do that, Mein Fuhrer, you may
bring the United States into the war” |
D Vautier
3/2024
The
idea that gases get hot when compressed and cold when expanded is a
great way to transfer heat and that’s basically how a refrigerator
works. The only moving part is the pump and those pumps are made to last
a long time. So why is the average life of a refrigerator only 14 years
when it could easily run for 25 years or more? Well, I found out why.
My refrigerator finally died and I took really good care of it, following any and all suggestions and guidelines I could find. Perhaps that’s why I was so upset when my unit died. It passed away from something that many refrigerators die from; loss of coolant. So how could this happen in a closed system anyway? It happened because of poor design, that’s why. There are many refrigerators sold with the same ticking time bomb designed into them to ware out after about 14 years. That’s the average life expectancy. This almost seems like planned obsolescence to me. I suppose that the manufacturers do not want to sell people a 25 or 30 year refrigerators. Bad for business. Better to sell 14 year refrigerators.
The problem is with the copper tube on the cold side of the compressor. Cold copper attracts water vapor from the air. Water and copper form copper sulfate, better known as corrosion. The tube had simply corroded away releasing all the coolant and destroying any ability to transfer heat. The cold copper pipe had not been protected by insulation, a gross and disturbing design error.
Usually, copper lasts a long time quickly developing a protective tarnish. Copper pipes that carry hot material do not have to be insulated except for safety. Copper pipes that carry cold fluids or gases absolutely do need insulation from the air. So the manufacturer left the cold copper pipes unprotected and they corroded away right on schedule.
My advice to anyone who has a refrigerator should check out the insulation on the cold copper pipe that is located on the input side of the compressor, especially around the drip-loop. You will get many more years of life out of your machine if that pipe has insullation. All the other refrigerator stuff they advertise and talk about is mostly inconsequential. Pumps last a long time. Coolant last forever. Dust in the coils and leaky doors reduce efficiency, but an un-insulated cold pipe is a guaranteed killer. The only way to repair the unit is to replace the damaged pipe and recharge the system. Even an avid DIYer like me shudders at the thought.
On
the right I have included a picture of my poor dead machine
with the cold copper pipe all corroded away and looking sad.
And
here is a picture of the way it should have been done.