RIP Sanyo 4912 Kegerator ??

Homebrew Talk - Beer, Wine, Mead, & Cider Brewing Discussion Forum

Help Support Homebrew Talk - Beer, Wine, Mead, & Cider Brewing Discussion Forum:

This site may earn a commission from merchant affiliate links, including eBay, Amazon, and others.

Refry

Well-Known Member
Joined
Feb 27, 2010
Messages
285
Reaction score
2
Location
Texas
First of all, I've had no problems with my converted 4912M for about five years. It always kept cold and cycled on and off with no problems.

This week, the compressor seemed louder than normal and maybe running longer than normal, but I didn't think much of it. Then last night, I noticed it was running continuously and not really keeping cold. So, I pulled my now 50 degree beer out and had a look.

Inside, there was a huge chunk of frosty ice right at the top of the coil/cover, but the rest was not cold at all - first time I saw that. So, I turned it off to let it melt. Tonight, I plugged it in and the compressor seemed to be running. It was pulling .89 amps according to the kill-a-watt, so I thought I was back in business. However, two hours later the entire coil/cover area was still room temperature and the compressor was pretty warm (159 degrees). So, I shut it down again.

Am I right in guessing it probably isn't worth trying to fix? I was hoping it might be a capacitor, but it seems the compressor is running and it probably has a leak. :(
 
yeah, i got a 4910 sanyo off craigslist(same as 4912 except older), but it only works at 32F, or 60F, nothing inbetween so its worthless
 
5 years eh. was it used or new when u got it? did you have to do any mods other then the kegging additions?

I bought it new from Best Buy back in 2005. The only mod was drilling a 3 inch hole and putting a tower on it (right after I bought it). Nothing was done to the working parts.

The only thing I can think of that might have damaged it was when I moved in early 2007, but it was a local move across town (less than 30 miles) and it worked fine until this week.
 
Inside, there was a huge chunk of frosty ice right at the top of the coil/cover, but the rest was not cold at all - first time I saw that. So, I turned it off to let it melt. Tonight, I plugged it in and the compressor seemed to be running. It was pulling .89 amps according to the kill-a-watt, so I thought I was back in business. However, two hours later the entire coil/cover area was still room temperature and the compressor was pretty warm (159 degrees). So, I shut it down again.

Am I right in guessing it probably isn't worth trying to fix? I was hoping it might be a capacitor, but it seems the compressor is running and it probably has a leak. :(

0.89A is way low. A unit like that should be drawing at least 4A.
 
0.89A is way low. A unit like that should be drawing at least 4A.

This is a small (4.9 cu. ft.) unit. Here are the specs - I also thought it wasn't drawing enough until I looked at this:

sanyo_spec.jpg
 
if it only had two hours running after the thaw, i wonder if maybe it was just not cooled down yet. did the coil inside get cold? if it was me i'd let her run for a while and see what happens. if its the compressor it'll probably make some bad noises or something. plus fixing will be more than a new one probably, so nothing lost really. but it may just take 5-6 hours to cool the inside form room temp.
 
if it only had two hours running after the thaw, i wonder if maybe it was just not cooled down yet. did the coil inside get cold? if it was me i'd let her run for a while and see what happens. if its the compressor it'll probably make some bad noises or something. plus fixing will be more than a new one probably, so nothing lost really. but it may just take 5-6 hours to cool the inside form room temp.

I tried running it this morning again (4 to 5 hours), but when I checked on it at lunch, the coils did not get cool at all. I could hear some sounds coming from the coils, but they are same temp. as the outside of the refrigerator. The compressor was also really hot, so I unplugged it again.

One guy I talked to today thought it had a very slow refrigerant leak. He said once the refrigerant got low enough, it might only cool the first part of the evaporator coil and cause a big chunk of frost/ice in that spot. He also said turning it off probably allowed enough additional refrigerant to leak out so it wouldn't cool anything. Since it's a sealed unit, he said to trash it.

On the bright side, I already have everything I need to do another one, except the refrigerator.
 
I bought it new from Best Buy back in 2005. The only mod was drilling a 3 inch hole and putting a tower on it (right after I bought it). Nothing was done to the working parts.

The only thing I can think of that might have damaged it was when I moved in early 2007, but it was a local move across town (less than 30 miles) and it worked fine until this week.

Oh NO! I bought a 4912 about 3 1/2 years ago and it has been my little keggerator for the past 3 years. I sure hope mine doesn't decide to die. I suppose I'll just hafta get me a small freezer and convert it. Wait, I already have one but it's full of hops.

Sorry about your loss. BTW where was the 4912 located in your house? Garage or inside the house?
 
Sorry about your loss. BTW where was the 4912 located in your house? Garage or inside the house?

Thanks - It's always been in the kitchen. I'll be getting a replacement this weekend, not sure if I'll get another Sanyo 4912 (found one at Fry's for $250, ouch!) or the Frigidaire FRC445GM ($180 at Lowe's).
 
If you go to frys.com you can get the sanyo 4912 for $199 and click the "pick up in store" option, it saves you $50.
 
I would suggest getting a chest freezer instead. They are a lot more efficient at keeping the cool air inside. The only disadvantage is having to lift the kegs into the cavity.
 
If you go to frys.com you can get the sanyo 4912 for $199 and click the "pick up in store" option, it saves you $50.

Good catch! They lowered the Sanyo 4912M on-line price from $249 a couple days after I did the "pick up at store" purchase. The store manager gave me credit after I picked it up - no problem. :rockin:

I would suggest getting a chest freezer instead. They are a lot more efficient at keeping the cool air inside. The only disadvantage is having to lift the kegs into the cavity.

I seriously considered doing a keezer build, but figured I would just use the tower setup I have right now.

Regarding the tower, anyone have an opinion between drilling out a 3 inch hole for the dual tap tower versus drilling two 5/8" holes and using 1/2" copper pipe to keep the beer lines cool? Would one method be better than the other?

I'm thinking the copper pipe, with the section inside the tower being wrapped with insulation, might work better - maybe someone has tried this and knows...
 
Bump ditty Bump!


Well my little sanyo 4912 has bit the dust. I was working around the house the other day and it was beer thirty. So I went to pull a pint off of the keggerator and didn't think too much about the foam issue from the new keg of pilsner I made. I came back to top off the pint and noticed the perlick faucet didn't have any condensation on it. That seemed odd. So I opened the door and looked at my thermometer and it read 60 F. Now, that's not right I said to myself. Let's see... light works inside, it's still plugged in, so what's wrong here. I tried turning the switch on the thermomstat on and off and nothing. I even unplugged it and left it that way for a couple of hours. Then came back plugged it back in and still nothing. Well, time to check out HBT and see if anyone else has similiar issues. Not sure if this little bugger has a capacitor that has gone bad and could be replaced (hopefully). If not then I suppose I'll just hafta get busy working on a keezer. Asking to see if anyone has had similiar issues then to please post. Thanks.
 
No icing of coils. Damn thing won't even turn on to cool.

Just wondering if being low on freon would keep it from cycling on at all?

Comments?
 
This unit should have a cutout on the compressor had the same thing happen on my wine fridge. Picked up universal one at Johnstone. This is only if the case if when its turned on and you have no compressor run.
 
Low freon cut off switch isn't a given.
Measuring the compressor for ohms between phases and ground can shed some light. (unplugged of course)
(had a few, so not going to give specs. Catch me before beer:30 :D )

And if its a low freon cut out, if its low, it needs a recharge and more importantly find the leak before adding freon.
 
My sanyo kegerator's also been having trouble keeping the beer cold. But in my case the top of the back panel in the interior (where all the coolant runs I assume?) continues to get cold. I just end up with a big block of ice built up on this back panel and a cellar-temperature interior. If I defrost it completely and plug it back in frost starts to build up again in a matter of hours.

Is this also due to a freon leak? Or perhaps just poor insulation allowing outside air in? I was going to try attaching a little heatsink and fan to the back panel inside, hoping to more effectively exchange heat between the back panel and the interior air, but if it's totally doomed I won't bother.
 
Frosting is a symptom of a low charge. You could get it topped off. but if it happens again fairly soon, might be time to think about alternitives.

My sanyo kegerator's also been having trouble keeping the beer cold. But in my case the top of the back panel in the interior (where all the coolant runs I assume?) continues to get cold. I just end up with a big block of ice built up on this back panel and a cellar-temperature interior. If I defrost it completely and plug it back in frost starts to build up again in a matter of hours.

Is this also due to a freon leak? Or perhaps just poor insulation allowing outside air in? I was going to try attaching a little heatsink and fan to the back panel inside, hoping to more effectively exchange heat between the back panel and the interior air, but if it's totally doomed I won't bother.
 
Back
Top