Is my fermentation freezer dead?

[aggiejason]

I've got a chest freezer with STC-1000 that I use for controlling my ferm temp. It's been unplugged for the last month or so and I plugged it in this afternoon to start prepping for brew night. After a few hours with no change in temperature and no "cold spots" on the walls inside I became suspicious and started troubleshoot. I bypassed the STC-1000 so it's definitely not the issue.

On the freezer when directly plugged in to the wall, the compressor is definitely kicking on and running (and in fact I don't think it's ever kicking off because the freezer hasn't reached it's setpoint). It's hot to the touch. All of the lines coming in/out of the compressor are also warm (it's in my garage in Texas summer so they may just be at ambient)

I've searched on both HBT and a bunch of appliance forums and it seems like the mostly likely cause is a refrigerant leak since all of the mechanical parts are working. Before I give up on this unit, I thought I'd see if anyone else has other ideas.

Bummed...was gonna brew up some Zombie Dust tonight!

 

[day_trippr]

To paraphrase Bones: "It's dead, Jim"

If you're not feeling any cold spots in the evaporator-loop area (upper third or so inside the typical chest freezer) the most likely diagnosis is a massive refrigerant loss. Sadly, just to get a tech to look at it would likely cost $200, before he even fingers the root cause and tallies up the cost to repair.

Sorry. Went through something similar last fall, but at least my ol' girl held 40°F (literally running constantly) from Thanksgiving until just after Christmas when I completed building its successor and we pulled her plug for the last time Did take a solid $40 hit in the electric bill but it was totally worth seeing if she'd make it :rockin:

Cheers!