Thursday, Mar 20, 2008 at 23:25
No prob's Pooley - don't know the actual fridge, but would suggest that at 25 years old would still be running on R12 which is the banned CFC refrigerant that stuffs up the ozone layer. However, there are a few alternatives gases including R134a or even hydrocarbon (flammable) which could be used as a direct replacement.
To measure pressures you need a set of refrigeration type gauges, but using them without a licence is illegal. To work on any refrigeration system nowadays requires an Arctick licence and the licence is federal, not state, so it's the same everywhere.
You could
check as follows to give you some idea of what is happening - for a working system, with the compressor running, the discharge pipe should be very hot (too hot to thang on to for more than a few seconds) and the suction pipe back to the compressor should be quite cold (perhaps close to frosting).
If both pipes are the same temperature, then chances are the compressor is stuffed (not pumping)
If the discharge is warm to hot and the suction is warm (but cooler than the discharge), then it's likely the system has lost some or all of the gas. If this is the case, then only a section of the cooling coil will be cold and the rest warm.
Look carefully for oil stains around the pipes - there shouldn't be any. If there is, then it's possibly from a gas leak in the system.
There could be other reasons such as blocked filter/drier within the refrigerant circuit (Older Engels often had this problem), but not something you can do yourself.
All fairly crude, but without proper equipment at hand, may help you work out what's happening.
Hope that helps mate. Good luck.
Cheers
Gerry
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