Refrigerator Maintenance Something we all seem to neglect to some extent…

The purpose of refrigerators, we believe, is to keep our food cold ………. No, not the case…. The purpose of the refrigerator is to remove the heat from our foodstuffs, and the resultant effect is what we call cold. So then technically refrigerators keep our food cold.  At colder temperatures food is preserved for longer periods of time. The normal operating temperature of a refrigerator is about 3.5° C. This is a mean average temperature , for example: the maximum temp. may rise to about 5.5° C, and then fall to about 1.5° C, so then the general mean average temp. is around 3.5° C.

 Lower temperatures may cause food to freeze; higher temperatures may lead to food spoilage. The freezer compartment should be kept at -16.5° C. You will notice that there is exactly 20° C difference between the two compartments. This scenario is only true if your refrigerator is in perfect working order.ie: the refrigerant (gas) charge should not be compromised as in a partial gas loss.

What is the correct setting for the thermostat?.

This is a question I get asked all day and every day. All you need to do is to make sure that the refrigerator compartment is sitting at 3.5° C.  Now I am not saying that you should rush out and buy a thermometer because there is a far easier way. We know from school that water begins to freeze at 0 °C at sea level. Take a cup of tap water and place two fingers deeply into the water. Your fingers will tell you that this is tap water….. Now place this cup of water in the refrigerator overnight. Next morning you look at the water. If it is solidly frozen, obviously the stat (thermostat) is set too cold. Adjust warmer ie: anti-clockwise. If the water has a thin layer of ice, still too cold… adjust warmer. If the water is so cold that it actually bites you, this is exactly 3.5°C. Now you can go out and buy that thermometer if you don’t believe me. This is the most suitable temp for tomatoes, lettuce, cucumbers and most beverages.

Frequently opening and closing the refrigerator door will cause the temperature to fluctuate, causing food to spoil faster and consuming additional energy.

More perishable food should be stored in the coldest area of the refrigerator close to the bottom, and  less perishable food can be stored higher up. This is because all the cold air-space lies at the bottom of the compartment and the warmer air, higher up. Just imagine what happens each time you open the door – all the cold air-space falls out and very soon the compressor will turn on again to try to replace the lost cold space. Obviously more than usual electricity is used.

Overfilling the refrigerator shelves could restrict the flow of cold air, which could cause the temperature to rise higher than is recommended. You should regularly clean your refrigerator in order to keep your food fresh for as long as possible. A good time to clean your fridge would be when you are out of food and before going shopping for fresh products. Cleaning any spills or food that has dropped onto the shelves is very important, as these spills could contaminate your fresh food with bacteria and cause it to spoil faster. A well-maintained refrigerator will keep your perishable food fresher and safer for a longer period of time, and will save you time, money and energy.

Just a few handy hints to keep in mind. Check your fridge temp. occasionally… It saves money.  More Later…

Power Tronics & Rent-A Fridge

Power Tronics & Rent-A-Fridge

We have been in operation at 57 Long street,  Great Brak River for the past 22 years.

(Power Tronics First started in Port Alfred early 1987 – Total 30 years.)

Deon van Eeden (Sole Proprietor) of  Power Tronics  (Est. 1987) and Janet van Eeden (Sole Proprietor) of Rent-A-Fridge  (Est. 2007), herewith wish to thank all our valued customers for their loyal support in the past.
 At Power Tronics  we repair all types of domestic washing machines, dishwashers, tumble driers and microwave ovens  in addition to our main-line of domestic refrigeration repairs, re-gassing and re-builds.  For technical queries and sound advice, contact: 
 Deon van Eeden on 081 233 9122  or (044 620 3656  &  079 479 0059  Office Hours Only.)

                                    xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

                          Rent-A-Fridge

Rental Units:
We also provide the option for short term  fridge & freezer rentals,

Sizes ranging from 110L – 572L. 
We have available: Chest and upright freezers.
Single and Double door refrigerators.
Double door Combo-fridge/freezer units (top & bottom)

Who would Rent-A-Fridge  you may ask?

Your fridge breaks down when you least expect it.  Now you may be forced to spend your hard earned holiday cash to repair or replace it. This is where the wise will rent.    

Our clients range from holiday makers in tents/ caravans/ cottages and holiday homes.  Also permanent home  owners having extra visitors over holiday periods. Our service is also ideal for restaurants and shop owners who need to carry large volumes of stock over busy seasons. Eliminating unused appliance storage - headaches after the season has ended.

With the increasing cost of electricity, appliances are no longer left running throughout the year, but rather switched off. 

Turning your appliance off for a long period is fatal to its life span, causing internal rust, blockages, gas-loss and compressor burn-outs.  If you only come on holiday once or twice a year, it certainly makes sense to rent.

( Also see our Post "Does your fridge lose Gas Part 1 dated 02/11/2012 "

Our objective is to provide a valued service to our community, by taking the worry out of any holiday - crisis. Although we have in excess of 45 rental units, it is highly advisable to book in advance in order to avoid any disappointment.

Our rates are affordable and we provide an appliance breakdown backup service.

For enquiry on rates, terms and conditions, contact Janette van Eeden

 On  079 479 0059.  

  

Does your fridge lose gas ?              PART TWO

In the previous article we mentioned that no fridge should ever lose gas, but yet they do.
Being in the refrigeration and appliance repair trade for a number of years, I have come across a few amazing things. These are the type of things that make one realise that all electrical domestic  household appliances were initially designed and built to make the workload of the housewife a lot easier. When I say "housewife", this also surely includes "live-in" servants, stay-at-home dads and anyone else who may even vaguely fit the description of "doin-household-chores".

Let us, for the purpose of this article only concentrate on domestic refrigerators & freezers.
 
As many of you already know, my wife Janet van Eeden, is not only a very dedicated and devoted marriage partner, but she also runs our combined office. This  also makes her a perfect business partner. Wifie is not only the sole proprietor of her own business Rent A Fridge , but she also runs the entire office for my business, Power Tronics.

Anyway a customer phones, and Wifie takes the call. He begins to complain that his double-door (top & bottom) refrigerator is not chilling the milk enough, every so often the milk will turn sour and spoil for the umpteenth time, now his wife is ready to raise hell. He has already adjusted the thermostat fully clockwise for maximum cooling, to pacify her, but to no avail. Now he wishes to speak to me, because, as he apologised to wifie, "a lady would not be able to help him with his problem".
Wifie:   "There could possibly be a shortage of gas in the system Sir, the appliance will have to be brought in."
Customer:  "No, I am sure there is a problem with the thermostat, that's why I want to speak to Deon.
Deon:  "There could possibly be a shortage of gas in the system Sir, the appliance will have to be brought in."
"Well alright then", the customer says - He will bring the appliance in to our workshop for repairs, but he assures me that there is nothing wrong with the freezer section ....... only the fridge side is at fault.
This particular appliance only has one compressor for both fridge and freezer sections, and not two compressors as some model refrigerators have.
To cut a long story short, Wifie was right...... It was a shortage of refrigerant in the system, (but I already knew that when the call came in - just nice to hear the change of tone in the customer's voice .... it's almost like "I told you so."

We at Power Tronics and Rent A Fridge refer to all our appliances as our patients, because after being booked-in at reception, they go straight through to theatre, where they are hooked up to temperature probes for monitoring......
Well the patient arrived half an hour later, and was quickly "Booked" & "Hooked".
Two hours later, I could say with certainty that there was most definately a refrigerant leak.

Now for more serious stuff................ The whole idea behind this article is to help you, the reader, to help yourself. By this, I mean that, if you know what to look for in the behaviour of your refrigerator, then you can be well aware of any problems before they are upon you.

What are a few symptoms to look out for, to identify a refrigerant leak.
Assuming that the thermostat is usually set at a midway position or at 50%


1.)  A change in refrigerator cabinet temperature. - becomes warmer than usual.
      Perishables tend to spoil.
2.)  The need to have to adjust the thermostat colder, in order to maintain the same temperature as usual. (Even with the thermostat eventually set to the coldest position).
3.)  The fact that a rather large mound of ice has begun to build-up on one side of the evaporator plate (cold plate).
4.)  A change in refrigerator cabinet temperature. - becomes colder than usual.
      Perishables tend to over-freeze.
5.)  The need to have to adjust the thermostat warmer, in order to maintain the same temperature as usual. (even with the thermostat set to the warmest position).
6.)  The compressor runs and freezer works perfectly, but the milk in the refrigerator turns sour.
7.)  The compressor runs, but no cooling in either refrigerator or freezer takes place.
8.)  The compressor seems to run for very long periods before switching off.

The eight scenarios above are some of the most basic symptoms that tend to show when a shortage of refrigerant occurs.

Any one or more of these symptoms may be present at any one time, so try to keep a sharp lookout to identify some of the above culprits.

 Basic Components.

 In a standard double-door (top & bottom) or even side by side refrigerator, also known as combo-units, (as in combination fridge/freezer units), there are a few basic components, as follows:

1.)   The Compressor
2.)   The Thermostat
3.)   The Refrigerant or (Gas)
4.)   The Defrost Element
5.)   The Door Gaskets (Door Rubbers or Door Seals)

Because these basic components have been designed to work in close harmony with one another, it is very important that they all work at the best of their ability at all times.
Failure of any one of these components will impact on the cooling ability of your fridge and in so doing, create the impression that a gas leak exists.

1.)   If the pump effeciency of the compressor decreases from 100% to, let's say 50 % on account of internal dirt caused by moisture, then only 50% gas will be pumped and only 50% cooling will take place. ------- This will give the symptoms of a gas leak.

2.)   If the Thermostat becomes eratic in switching on and off at the correct temperatures, this will also show the same symptoms of a gas leak, because cabinet temperature will become too warm or too cold.

3.)   If there is a relative large loss of gas, well then obviously loss of gas symptoms show up.

4.)   The Defrost Element is responsible for preventing large ice build-up on the cold plate. Sometimes they burn out and can no longer do this. Not only do we now have ice build-up but also the time space between off and on periods becomes too long. This then looks lika a shortage of gas.

5.)   A faulty or broken door gasket which is unable to keep all the hard earned cold inside the refrigerator, simply loses it and causes the compressor to run virtually non-stop.  Also looks like a shortage of gas.

With all these weird symptoms and many others that exist on the everyday refrigerator, we prefer to book all appliances into our hospital together with an R80-00 strip & test/quotation fee. This puts your appliance in professional hands and takes the worry out of your life, giving you more time for Golf or some of those odd little jobs your wife wants done around the home.

 Boy! am I glad I've got a full-time Job. C U Next time. Deon & Janet.

Does your Fridge lose Gas ?            PART ONE

So why exactly do fridges & freezers lose their refrigerant (gas)?

For some people this may not make sense at first, but try to form a picture in your mind as we go through a basic discussion, and you may find this article, and others that follow, very informative.

 Getting Started with a few Basics.                                                 

The gas in any refrigeration system, is in a closed or sealed system. This means that no refrigerant is supposed to leak out, and also no moisture is supposed to enter the system. This simply means that no refrigerator unit can ever use it's refrigerant (gas) up. The refrigerant is simply re-used to allow the correct cooling to take place on a continuous basis, and nothing ever gets used up ..... unless your electricity, of course.
All refrigerators have two parameters within which they operate, being electrical and gas respectively.
If the electrical system never gives any problems, and the gas section does not lose any refrigerant either, well then ideally we will have a fridge that would last a lifetime. ................Your lifetime.
Let's forget about the electrical side for a moment, because we all know what problems can occur when Escom or Municipal power supplies go on the blink.........................

We have already learnt that the gas in the system does not get used up, which thus means that it must obviously leak out of the system somehow,........... but how, and where?
Let's go back to the Biology Lab. at school to prove this theory........
Take a fair size party baloon and inflate it to it's maximum holding capacity. Now tie two or three decent knots to the open end to prevent the baloon from deflating. Next, place this baloon in a safe place and monitoir it's size for a few days.

10 days later, and you will see that the size of the baloon has changed. --- It has become smaller ----- WHY has this happened?    Has it leaked at the knots?    NO... It has leaked through the wall of the baloon through a process known as "Osmosis"
Osmosis, as some of us learnt in Biology, is when molecules from one structure may pass through a permeable surface to another structure. The operative phrase here would be permeable surface. "Permeable being the same as porous or a pervious surface.  Not very suitable to absolutely prevent any substance from possible leakage.
If we can understand the concept of the deflating baloon over a period of time, then the loss of gas from the refrigeration system is no different.
The piping within the refrigerator system is either Steel, Copper or Aluminium. Since both Copper and Aluminium are very costly metals to use, because they chase the cost of producing the appliance through the roof, the manufacturers are in agreement with one another that this is a very bad idea, since they are in the business of producing and selling fridges as cheaply as possible. (which,"by the way", is not so cheap nowadays.)
When water and steel are present, they soon get a little helper "rust". As we all know, "rust"soon does it's bit by quickly corroding and pitting any metallic object in sight.

fig. 1.

Here we have an internal gas leak which has to be cut open, and found from the outside....

fig.2.

Finaly the damaged pipes become visible.

fig. 3.

Here one can clearly see how rust has badly damaged piping, causing a gas leak.

These pipes are also enclosed in polyurethane, which has now also become waterlogged and very soggy.

Having temp problems with future video for this space........................................

Now this is the sick part.................
 Remember that each appliance comes with a lifetime warranty ...... No you've got it all wrong, this is not your lifetime, but the lifetime of the appliance ......... even if this appliance, only in some instances, barely makes it throught a 12 month warranty period, well that's good enough for the manufacturer, because when you and I try to lay claim to our valuable warranty when things go wrong , we usually hear the words "Sorry, your appliance is out of warranty". Doesn't it just make you completely mad?

High and Low pressure piping.

The refrigerator has two pressure sections in the gas piping, these are more commonly known as the "High" and "Low" pressure circuits. Very easy way to remember, is that High pressure pipes are usually fairly hot to the touch (around 40 Deg C - 60 Deg C), and are mostly visible or mounted on the rear surface or the bottom of the appliance.
Low pressure pipes on the other hand are the opposite. They reach temps. as low as - 25 Deg C to about - 40Deg C, and are usually mounted within the cooling compartment or may even lie within the inacessable inner walls of the appliance. There is always a very damp or wet situation around these pipes.  i.e. they rust or corrode very easily. (see fig. 3. above.)

Where would my fridge be most likely to leak gas from?

We now know that mostly steel piping is used for both high and low pressure systems.
We also know that high pressure pipes are exposed to the atmosphere, and run much hotter than those with a low pressure, which are also enclosed within a wet or very moist environment.
Common Logic shows us that heat and open air, drives away moisture and a potential rust environment.
From this we can clearly see that almost all refrigerator gas leaks will therefore be found in the low pressure piping or within the moist walls of the cabinet. This is a "scientific fact".
The fact that steel piping rusts in the presence of moisture is just where our experiment about osmosis comes into play.
The wall thickness of the steel piping is compromised, because it now becomes thinner and slowly, yes ever so slowly, the internal refrigerant pressure begins escaping through the damaged walls of the steel piping.

Now we can see just how it is possible for the system to begin losing Gas.

So why am I feeding you the reader all this jargon about osmosis  and pressures and hot and cold piping........?    SIMPLY - Put, dear reader, to hopefully save you some money in the long run.
So read on because your fridge will not last until the the end of your lifetime as Grandma's did.

Your fridge has run out of Gas ........ Why?

Ever wondered why fridges of today so often lose their refrigerant and have to be refilled with refrigerant (re-gassed), only to leak again at some stage in the future.
Quite odd that we very seldom heard of this type of thing 30 years ago. Refrigerators hardly ever leaked refrigerant unless the evaporator plate (cold-plate) was stabbed with a sharp object or there was a compressor burn - out, in which case the system, (with new compressor installed) had to be re-gassed anyways.

Grandma and Grandad simply purchased one refrigerator in their lifetime which was handed down generation after generation which, "by the way", is still going strong today. Take Note... no need to re-gas.
Refrigerators of today can, and do leak refrigerant more readily, some of them even before a 12 month warranty has expired. Is this in any way fair to the unsuspecting consumer, you may ask.

This document, and those that follow are intended to enlighten the non suspecting public about things not pointed out to them when purchasing domestic appliances with hard earned cash...... Whatever happened to after sale service.?

Terms that may be Greek to Some.

Appliance repairs, electrical repairs, fridge repairs, refrigeration repairs, fridge re gassing, faulty appliance, domestic appliance, noisy appliance, thermostat, gas, appliance dead or not working, need new fridge rubbers (door gaskets),  fridge not cooling. Need an electrician.
These are some of the thoughts that may come to mind when you have a defective appliance. Your first thought in mind is to get help, and get it fast ........ before "Wifie" gets on your case about more things around the house that need fixing.