We purchased an Imperial Heavy Duty Commercial Freezer, Model 134A at a Garage Sale.

Until recently, the Freezer has worked well. Recently, the Freezer has not had its "whooshing" sound when the door closed. Then we noticed that meat in the lower areas were not frozen solid. The thermometer at eye level registered 20 degrees or so. The top shelf was heavily frosted. We defrosted the freezer.

The freezer seemed to be doing well. Ice cream was not "hard" but our meat was solid

This morning (97 degrees outdoors) the freezer (in the garage) had a dripping mess on the floor, tinged with blood from meat.:mad:

I emptied the freezer, and noticed that the bottom gasket was not in place.
After cleaning the freezer and gasket, I loosened the screws on the bottom the door, inserted the gasket and retightened the screws. I cleaned the gasket, too.:cool:

I closed the door and still no "whooshing" sound. I locked the freezer to help tighten the door/gasket connection.

The temperature has dropped steadily over the past hour and temp is now 45 degrees. The compressor is running. It is HOT to the touch...but it IS
80+ degrees in the garage (since I had to open the door when I flushed the floor mess out.):eek:

My plan is to check the temperature overnight to see if it goes down to zero.

Is the compressor going out on the freezer? Should the entire gasket be replaced...since there is no "whoosh" when the door is closed?:rolleyes:

Thank you for your help!

Heidi

If there is a moderator on these forums, they really need to delete Dean whom I'm pretty sure has no clue what post they even responding to, let alone what planet they are on.

Anyways, I am not familiar with imperial freezers, so not sure how much help I can be. Does this one cool via the shelving, or does it have evaporator coils behind a panel in the back of the freezer compartment? If it does have a hidden coil, is there a fan back there not running? It sounds as though your thermal overload may have tripped out and shut down the compressor for a period of time. It being hot is nothing to be concerned about as long as it is running and cooling. Having to drop temp from that warm to 0 will cause it to run for quite a long time and get very hot. The question is, does it run more than it needs to due to a bad fan or freon leak and thus cause it to overload?