TLDR; Refilled my fridge's refrigerant, am now hitting temperatures as low as -11f, compared to the manufacturer's rating of -7f. Am I breaking things?What started with discovering my freezer was barely hitting 30f, and myself living in Canada, I decided to figure out what was wrong and fix my fridge.1) Checked the compressor was running : pulled the fridge out, touched the compressor, was warm and on it's way to being hot.2) Cleaned all the dust off the condenser coils : canned air, it'll probably resettle in a year3) Compressor fan : Tear open the freezer, pull off the back panel to get at the fan, see if it spins4) Check things are defrosting: Nope, lots of ice buildup on the bottom; remediated by leaving the fridge powered off5) Check the evaporator coils are frosting: Nope, frost ended before the first bend. Likely a freon leak somewhere / low freon.So looking around, I had no access to modern freon to refill my fridge, nor an easy way to do so. "Red Tek" was what was available, and aside from some risk of exploding, had drying agent, ProSeal (plug leaks in the metal tube), and standard Red Tek 12a gas. Got a bullet piercing valve for the copper line out of the compressor, cleaned it up, clamped on the valve, and attached an adapter. Hooked up a pressure gauge & my first can of refrigerant.Flushed the system with the drying agent, seeing as a fridge may be a bit humid, and the ProSeal solidifies in contact with humidity. Emptied the full can, expected it to leak out from wherever the leak was, emptied in the can of Pro Seal nearly immediately after and finally got a little life out of the pressure gauge saying there was slightly more than nothing in the system! Pressure was still low after the can of ProSeal, so I imagine a fair bit of the drying agent leaked out. But now with the system full of ProSeal, I topped it up to proper pressure spec with ~ 1/2 can of the standard Red Tek 12a.Like magic, the fridge is running cold again! Still noisy as hell, which is a totally different project. My handy dandy fridge/freezer temperature monitor says it has gotten as cold as -11f in the freezer, which is all well and good except the manufacturer's specs indicate they only expect the operating temperature ranges to be down to -7f.Red Tek does get colder than freon (and also gets hotter if you try to ignite it), so I don't know if this is a totally 'ok' low temperature, or if I'm risking wearing out some parts faster than I'd like. Spent $100 to rehabilitate my fridge, would like it to last a few more years. via /r/DIY http://ift.tt/2vJclxB
