Garage Fridge

[Les White]

Earlier this year my garage fridge started freezing sodas, so I set the temperature control one notch higher. Now it's barely cooling. Makes me think it's a refrigerant leak, but it's just a guess. It's an older squared off Kelvinator. Is it worth the cost to have it diagnosed and repaired? Or just spend the $800 on a new fridge for the kitchen, and move the old one out to the garage?

Anybody got a garage fridge for sale?

 

[fieldgrade]

New ones get wonkier sooner. No matter how much you spend, the components on new ones are made of chineseum.

 

[Ben Jefferson]

I would certainly get it looked at first!

I still have can old round top Kelvinator that just needed a thermostat for $30.00.

 

[RetiredUSNChief]

New ones are designed to be energy efficient and they don't work as well in a garage that gets cold in the winter and hot in the summer.

In fact, if the garage gets too cold, stuff in the freezer may thaw just a they might if the garage gets too hot.

That would be a consideration for me.

 

[Jp8819]

Have you tried checking the coils to make sure they are not dirty or unplugging it and letting it thaw out completely one time? Sometimes if it gets dirty coils they wont cool as well or if its outside in a garage it may not have been able to deal with the excess humity in the air to deal with it during the automatic defrost cycle? Cheap easy things to try before you pay the man.

 

[Mirac]

Yeah, what he said.^^^

Get under it and clean the coil, fan and compressor.

The temp swings in a garage will do that too. To hot in there to transfer heat or to cold to transfer cooling.
I have a small window ac in my shop / garage running all summer and I still have to adjust the fridge to how hot or cold it is in there thru the year.

 

[Scsmith42]

Have you tried checking the coils to make sure they are not dirty or unplugging it and letting it thaw out completely one time? Sometimes if it gets dirty coils they wont cool as well or if its outside in a garage it may not have been able to deal with the excess humity in the air to deal with it during the automatic defrost cycle? Cheap easy things to try before you pay the man.

X2^^^

 

[Les White]

This old model has the coils on the back of the unit, they take up the whole back, no fins, just coils. Like this:



And they're clean. I did tweak the temp setting last night to it's previous setting and it's getting colder, so I'm leaning towards the thermostat. For $30 I'll slap one in and see what's what.

27 years old.

 

[Snal~]

We've been looking at new ones, fridge and separate stand alone freezer to put on our covered deck at the lake,
GE seems to be the most available that is "garage ready"...whatever that difference is.

 

[Laughterback]

Earlier this year my garage fridge started freezing sodas, so I set the temperature control one notch higher. Now it's barely cooling. Makes me think it's a refrigerant leak, but it's just a guess. It's an older squared off Kelvinator. Is it worth the cost to have it diagnosed and repaired? Or just spend the $800 on a new fridge for the kitchen, and move the old one out to the garage?

Anybody got a garage fridge for sale?

It could be a thermostat issue if the temp isn't regulating properly. I'm not an expert but I do have some experience with vapor cycle systems. Side note. If it does die I've seen guys transform them and soda machines into a
"plain sight" gun safe.

 

[Tailhunter]

Fix the old ones. 👍🏻

 

[Chriselalto]

Or, check online for old refrigerators. Why buy a new one for the house (unless that's the excuse to buy a new one) when a $50-$100 marketplace one will do.

 

[Les White]

I replaced the thermostat, the defrost thermostat, defrost timer, and fan motor - it wasn't frozen up when I got into it so I didn't replace the defrost heater.

After 48 hours the freezer was 30 and the fridge was 55. Made me think the compressor was getting tired. New compressor was $350 and would probably require conversion to R134 since R12 is priced like liquid gold.

Used appliances are hard to come by, often selling within an hour of being posted - if they're not priced crazy high.

Picked up a used very reasonably priced side by side from a guy who just moved here from NJ. Super nice liberal minded guy who was fleeing his states commie leadership. I invited him to join us here.