Frigidaire Freezer is about 4 years old, kept inside laundry room, clean and not overloaded, etc. No previous issues at all.
After a one week trip I found water in front of the freezer. Alarm was not tripped and power to the freezer was not out since other clocks were not reset.
Inside, there were icicles hanging from the top and on the door shelves (not too much though), but ice cream and such are still frozen.
The door no longer has a suction or vacuum sound and is not hard to close or open. It does seal fine and I checked the seal all the way around it. There must be ice in the vents/valves preventing the vacuum but that is the symptom of course.
I have had fridge/freezer issues before and I am thinking maybe defrost timer.
Ideas? How to test?
Thanks.
P.S. Also, would you trust the meats if the alarm was not active or just play it safe and dump it?
I would check the door hing ramp (Item 26 in Section 2) and the bearing (Item 22a in Section 1) just to be sure the door is closing properly.
Remove the cover inside the freezer so you can check the coils.
If they are heavily iced over you have a defrost problem.
I would doubt that there will be a problem with defrost not coming on because the unit now seems to be OK but it may not be shutting off the heater when it should.
Try forcing a defrost cycle. The timer (Item 23 in Section 3) is at the back bottom of the unit. Turn the cam till the compressor and it’s fan shut off, you should now be in a defrost cycle.
If the heater does turn on, check that it shuts off when the ice has melted off the coils. The defrost thermostat is supposed to do this. It opens just above freezing. Perhaps it is not opening this will then keep the defrost heater on for the entire defrost cycle which is usually about 25 minutes.
It looks the defrost cycle will run every 12 hours of compressor run time so if you seldom open the door and the unit is efficient it may only run once a week.
Be careful that you do not burn your fingers.
This would add too much heat into the unit and could cause your problem.
Note: if the defrost thermostat is bulged or deformed it definitely requires replacing.
It is too bad the problem is intermittent.
It could also be the thermostat sticking open.
Since you were away tha alarm may have come on but shut off when the unit dropped the temperature again.
OK, I pulled it apart and found some chunks of ice on the coils near the middle but not that much (not like a solid block or anything). I turned the timer and forced a defrost cycle. The wire under the coils did get very hot to the touch and it worked. I tested it a couple of times and it seems to be working.
Also, now, the door once again has that hard seal and suction.
It seems like it works for now but my wife did recently notice small amounts of ice forming near the top of the inside of the freezer and near the back upper wall. It seems to break off little pea sized chunks here and there (recently) and hit her. I found a couple of boxes of ice cream bars (near that rear upper area) that had more ice on them then other things and the box looked water stained as well.
Should this be a shotgun approach of thermostat and timer? The heater gets hot and the sides of the freezer itself gets very warm too.
P.S. In the last hour or so there is a lot of water (cup full or so) leaking out from under it. I have the coils exposed and they are clear (some light frost on them now that it is back on). I suppose ice was trapped inside? Under the freezer after I pulled it out I also saw dried water rings as if it had puddles – maybe that is normal after time.
[COLOR=“DarkRed”]I found a couple of boxes of ice cream bars (near that rear upper area) that had more ice on them then other things and the box looked water stained as well.[/COLOR]
When you did the forced defrost did the heater shut off before the defrost timer started up the compressor again?
If not then I would put the defrost thermostat at the top of the list.
It should turn the heater off shortly after the ice has melted off the evaporator coils.
Your above comment may be a clue that this is not happening since the food with the worst symptom was near the back wall.
It sounds like the timer itself is working correctly.
The water on the floor may be that the drip tray on the compressor has overfilled or has a hole in it.
Another possibility is that the main temperature control is sticking open once in a while. They can go intermittent.
When the timer was still in defrost mode, the wire got cold. I thought that it was normal assuming that the temp was high enough that the heater did not need to be on anymore. It seemed like the outer sidewalls were still very warm at the same time though.
I let it run overnight and shot this image this morning. Is the accumulation of frost normal (http://i55.tinypic.com /2jfkg2v.jpg) [I had to put in a space in the url to display it]?
I would say that your frost pattern looks normal.
I think the extra ice on the top of the coils is just because the evaporator cover is off so the defrost heat is dissipating into the freezer section instead of staying in the defrost area.
I would carefully check that the defrost thermostat is not bulged or deformed.
And that the evaporator fan runs OK.
If they are OK then my best guess would be that your main thermostat is the most likely culprit.
The fan seemed to blow fine. I felt the defrost thermostat but I am not sure if I know what is normal or not but it did not seem odd to me.
Is the main thermostat #F77 (upper inside right wall behind a cover)? Maybe I will order that and the defrost thermo and let it run a couple of days after.
I tested again tonight. The defrost cycle worked for the 25 minutes or so with the coil heater going off afte the ice was gone. The drip pan was near empty underneath. I turned it off and let it air out and warm up. Water kept coming out in front from the door. I unscrewed the bottom screws and more water came out as I could hear ice chips falling inside. Two hours later and it is still dripping here and there from the door.
I am not sure if this helps to see what the issue may be or not but maybe. The door must have had pounds of ice near the bottom of it.
I also double checked the seal and it is 100%. No air/cold spots, all perfect material and meeting the box just fine.
This freezer is starting to get on my nerves, it must be driving you around the bend.
Water in the door is a definite problem.
I do not know what they use in this door as insulation but if it is fiberglass then the wet fiberglass will have to be replaced.
I would remove the inner door cover and see what is going on inside the door.
Who knows there may be insulation missing from it.
Check the inner door panel for cracks etc.
These can be sealed with duct tape.
Not the stuff “Red Green” uses but the silver foil backed tape that is very sticky on the one side.
I took the door apart and found one of the two door drain valves closed with foam insulation from the factory. I cleared it out, let the door dry out for two days and put everything back together and powered it up (1/29). I put a remote temp probe into it and have been recording the temp. It varies from -8 to a temp high of 16 (during defrost). Is this normal? It seems good for the past several days.
I have a theory that over time the door gained moisture and ice with only one working valve which then caused expansion on the bottom part of the door (inner) which opened the freezer to allow more air in which lowered temps and created the icicles and more, etc.
Reasonable?
[COLOR=“DarkRed”]I put a remote temp probe into it and have been recording the temp. It varies from -8 to a temp high of 16 (during defrost). Is this normal?[/COLOR]
To be honest I am not sure about the above. But since it is well below freezing I would say it is OK. Not sure where you had the probe but I would try it close to the evaporator cover vents. Also right at the top as that is where heat can collect.
Your explanation of what was happening sounds reasonable to me.
I guess only time will tell, I will keep mu fingers crossed !!