Equipment Experts?! Chest Freezer Won't Get Cold

[mopowers]

I use a temperature controlled frigidaire chest freezer as a fermentation chamber. When I'm not fermenting, the freezer is not plugged in. For the last couple of weeks, I've been using it at 68* to ferment my latest ale and it has been working great.

A couple days ago, I lowered the inkbird themostat to 50* to begin cold crashing. The freezer has been running non stop to reach that 50* (thermocouple is taped to the glass carboy under a piece of foam). I have two 6 gallon carboys in the freezer - the one filled with beer, and the other filled with starsan to act as a buffer.

I've since turned it down to 40* and the freezer can't seem to go that low. I've even tried unplugging the inkbird controller and plugging the freezer directly into the wall with no luck. The coldest the beer has gotten is 48.4*, even though the compressor seems to be running nonstop.

Any ideas why the freezer won't seem to get any lower? The thermostat works, and compressor seem to be running fine. What else can I check? Do you think the extra 6 gal carboy of starsan could be over taxing the system?

Thanks!

 

[jjjjfrench]

Based on the symptoms, I suspect the refrigerant has leaked. You'll find over time it won't even be able to hold 50, then 60, then it will just sit at room temperature.

Depending on where the leak is, it *might* be serviceable, but unless you know some in the refrigeration business it will almost certainly be cheaper to buy a replacement. kind-of a shame....

-J

 

[Dave Sarber]

Ditto.

 

[mopowers]

Yeah, that's what I figured. Thanks for confirming. Time for a new one!