Leaking refrigerator

[Walter E.]

My refrigerator, a Jennair french door style, seemed to be running almost
constantly, although the freezer and refrigerator is keeping its cool.

When I pulled it out to connect a KW meter, and then pushed it back, I
noticed a line of light green fluid deposits on the floor. Felt more like
water than oil. Fluid does not smell of anything.

Obviously, something is leaking out of the bottom of my refrigerator. but
WHAT can it be? We had the compressor replaced about one year ago ( a cool $
950) because the unit was not cooling.

Any ideas?

-

www.rationality.net

[nestork]

'Walter E.[_2_ Wrote:
> ;3269923']

> When I pulled it out to connect a KW meter, and then pushed it back, I
> noticed a line of light green fluid deposits on the floor. Felt more
> like
> water than oil. Fluid does not smell of anything.
>

A frost free fridge is nothing more than an ordinary fridge that has a
way of automatically defrosting itself. Instead of the freon running
through channels in the freezer compartment itself (as was the case on
non-frost-free fridges), the evaporation of the freon occurs in a coil
typically located at the back of the freezer compartment on a frost free
fridge. That evaporator coil gets very cold (down to about -60 deg. F)
and any humidity that gets into the fridge when you open the doors ends
up in the form of frost on that evaporator coil. A frost free fridge
will also have a defrost heater and a defrost termination switch (DTS)
which melt the frost off the evaporator coil. The resulting melt water
then flow down a tube to the bottom of the fridge where the melt water
is re-evaporated into the air by the heat of the nearby compressor.

I expect what you saw was melt water from a defrost cycle that spilled
onto the floor when you moved the fridge. I don't know why the water
was a greenish colour.

Maybe the next time you move the fridge, wipe up the green liquid with a
paper towel, and save the paper towel. If it dries up, then it's almost
certainly water. The refrigerant in a fridge will evaporate almost
instantaneously at atmospheric pressure and temperature, and the oil
lubricant in that refrigerant is dark in colour and won't evaporate.

In your fridge's freezer compartment you should see a removable panel
held in place with screws. To diagnose the problem with your fridge
running continuously, you need to remove that panel and take a picture
of the evaporator coil (which is what gets really cold) and the fan
that's drawing air over the evaporator coil and blowing it into the
freezer compartment. Take that picture to any appliance repair shop and
they might be able to tell you what's wrong with the fridge that it's
running continuously.

When you take that freezer panel out, you want to see frost forming
uniformly all over the full length of the evaporator coil, no
accumulated water or ice under the evaporator coil and the fan spinning
to blow air into the freezer compartment. If that's what you see, then
the problem is likely to be either the cold control or the defrost
timer.

In fact, if you put your hand into the freezer compartment, you should
feel a cold breeze from the fan. If you feel that breeze, then there's
nothing wrong with the evaporator fan. However, the evaporator itself
may be so frosted up that the air flowing over it doesn't get cooled
enough to keep the fridge and freezer sufficiently cold.




--
nestork

[David L. Martel]

Walter,

Watery fluid under a fridge suggests an overflowing drip pan. I'd check
those and give them a quick clean. That does not explain why the fridge is
running constantly.
Leaky door seals would cause the fridge to run a lot and the entering
air's humidity could explain your water.

Dave M.

[Robert King]

Freon coolant has a colored "tracer" dye (sometimes green) in it to aid in
leak detection. What you
are seeing may be the result of a coolant leak, possibly at the evaporator
where the dye can mix with
condensate water.

Bob K.


"Walter E." <w...@example.com> wrote in message
news:ls6a8c$h4i$1...@dont-email.me...

[Stormin Mormon]

On 8/10/2014 6:18 PM, Robert King wrote:
> Freon coolant has a colored "tracer" dye (sometimes green) in it to aid
> in leak detection. What you
> are seeing may be the result of a coolant leak, possibly at the
> evaporator where the dye can mix with
> condensate water.
>
> Bob K.
>

Thanks, I'd never heard that.


--
.
Christopher A. Young
Learn about Jesus
www.lds.org
.

[D F Bonnett]

We had the same problem with the fridge running too often and long.
The switch for the light was bad and the light was on 24/7. A new
switch was the cure.
FWIW
YMMV




On Sat, 9 Aug 2014 16:18:36 -0700, "Walter E." <w...@example.com>
wrote:

[theware...@gmail.com]

Could the green spot on floor be from the copper tarnishing? As it sweats the green tarnish drips with water & dries onto floor after water evaporates from floor. I saw the same thing when I was moving,when I unplugged my freezer to let thaw out.Mine is a frost free upright. I looked under it on back side & notice majority of copper lines had green tarnish over them. No issues with my inside temparture. Occasional puddles but I think its due to my defrosting cycle is not evaporating all the water & then leaks onto floor sometimes

[alysarud...@gmail.com]

Nasty looking purple and green fluid in the bottom of the fridge no smell the purple was like sticky but the green was like water. We checked if there was any leaking food and no