Grrrr.... I think my keezer died

I've got a 4 year old converted GE freezer. Went to the garage yesterday and my temp sensor showed it was way high. The compressor was running but not getting cold. Anyone know if it's worth while to have this thing checked out? Paid $170 brand new so I don't necessarily want to put a whole bunch of effort into it.

Geoff

Sounds just like mine. I'm guessing it's out in the cold garage? The compressors don't like that.

Yep.... had it in the garage all winter here in Mich. I guess that's a lesson learned. I didn't know that those compressors didn't like the winter. Sigh.... maybe it's my excuse to get a bigger freezer for more beer!

Call your local appliance parts house and ask if they have a "garage kit" in stock that you can adapt to your machine. When ambient temps get too low garage kept refrigerators (which is what you have turned your freezer into) quit cooling. Once your ambient temps come back up you should be ok unless the compressor is fried, at that point its time to just replace it.

How do I know if the compressor is fried?

There are things like, the compressor will be too hot to touch, or it will short cycle repeatedly, like only run for as few seconds before kicking out on the overload, or it will get noticeably louder when it cycles on, or the relay will short out.....

These machines are very simple systems where not much can go wrong, so if its running and the compressor isn't too hot to touch, warm is ok, sounds normal, your probably ok.

I guess i should ask, did you just put a collar or tower on it or did you go the full blown Jester route with a cabinet? I assume that since its in the garage you just put a collar or tower on it.

The reason for asking is two fold.

First that condenser in most chest freezers is part of the cabinet, which is why guys who put them in cabinets run fans in the cabinet to keep them cool. So if there isn't sufficient cooling on the outside you wont get sufficient cooling inside.

Second, are you certain that you didn't damage a coolant line during conversion? A pin hole leak could take time to bleed off the refrigerant in the system and if you have a line leak, well your back to square one, replace the unit.

Sorry for the rambling reply but i just want to be thorough.

Thanks for the reply Static. Here's the info on the keezer. I've had this for about 5 years. Bought it brand new and built a collar for it. It has run just fine for those past 5 years until yesterday. However, I hadn't kept it in the garage running through winter until this past year. I built an "eBay temp controller" and have been using that for the past year after using an analog Johnson controller. I'm going to plug it back in and see if I can notice any problems you mentioned. I will say, however, that when I first noticed the temp being higher than normal, the freezer was running. It didn't sound loud or bad. Another thing to note, the past few days are the first few days since it's actually had to do some "cooling" since winter kept it mostly cool. More to come....

It sounds like its just the ambient temps messing with you then. IDK what Michigan is like right now but its snowing in Seattle.....

Well, it's still not cooling. Temp inside is 51.4 and outside is 51. Not making any loud noises. I couldn't check if it was running hot.

I've come to find that the cold temps don't temporarily make it stop cooling. The oil that keeps the compressor lubed and cool gets too viscous to do its job and that screws it all up. When it was working fine, I'd get the keezer to stick around at 40F in any ambient temp all the way down to 45. When it "went", it was 52 ambient and 53 in the keezer (setpoint 40).

With an ambient of 51 deg its more likely that you have a different problem than just the location of the machine. Is the compressor running all the time? If that is the case it could mean that there is a restriction in the sealed system. Which in that case its time for a new machine.

For those interested here is a decent article that describes why garage refrigerators have issues in the winter

http://www.blog.applianceoutletservice.com/2009/01/refrigerator-in-garage.html