Repair or Replace?

[Jim Koepke]

Our 12+ year old freezer is starting to leave ice cream soft. Put a thermometer in last night and the coldest it gets is 20ºF. A freezer should get colder than that.

It is a Frigidaire model that can be configured for use as a refrigerator or a freezer.

Most likely this will be replaced with another freezer but there isn't any brand loyalty.

Any ideas on whether it is better to repair to see if a few more years can be coaxed out of the current unit or what brand would be better freezer?

jtk

[John Stankus]

We regret replacing our refrigerator rather than doing one more repair.
If it is cold but not cold enough, check to see if the coils have iced up. One of repairs on the old fridge was to replace the defrost heaters. Worst part was defrosting enough to disassemble to get the heater out.

John

[Tom M King]

Did you vacuum out all around the compressor, and fan?

[Zachary Hoyt]

One of our chest freezers is over 20 years old and a few weeks ago it seemed to have stopped working, the bagels at the top were not frozen so I knew it had stopped, but everything below was still OK. I wiggled the temperature knob and it came back on, and I said if it went out again we should look at replacing it, but so far it has been good, staying around -10. Is there a temp knob you can adjust on yours? If so I would give it a try and see if turning it down lower helps.

[David Publicover]

I’d check to see if the new model you like is available before making any decisions. Some appliances are is short supply lately. Or, at least they were.

[Bruce Wrenn]

Did you vacuum out all around the compressor, and fan?


Also check to see if baffles surrounding fan are still intact. Does fan motor work, both on condenser and in freezer compartment?

[Bill Dufour]

Is it still true that new fridge will pay for itself in energy saving in just a few years. If then old one is over 10 years old or so.
Bil lD

[Bruce King]

Just like anything, google the make and model to see what other people are fixing on these. I do all of my appliance repairs and most of my own car repairs and get amazed at the essays people write on how to fix things.

[Larry Frank]

My freezer is 20+ years old and still working. I bought a Acurite temperature monitor. The probe is in the freezer down stairs and the readout near my chair upstairs. It is -4 F in the freezer.

Personally, I would try cleaning coils and deicing inside. If it makes no difference, get a new one.

[Ole Anderson]

Check that the hose directing defrost water to the evaporating pan at the bottom isn't clogged.

[Thomas Canfield]

I had problem with refrigerator a couple years back that was about 6 years old. It was almost impossible to find someone to work on it, and then it would be about 10 days for service. Home depot delivered a new one in 2 days and made living in home much happier than waiting. Your freezer might not be that urgent, but a consideration.

[dennis thompson]

A few years ago my dryer stopped working, I called my repairman who also sold appliances. I had used him many times and trusted him. I suggested that maybe I should just get a new dryer. He said absolutely not, the newer ones quality was far below mine, remember he was recommending against my buying a new dryer from him. His last words were "keep fixing this until it can no longer be fixed". Now one problem with my suggestion is getting parts. We have been waiting 3 months for a part for our wine cooler which we really need since that's where we store all our bottled water☺

[roger wiegand]

Is it self defrosting? (a truly horrible choice for longer term food storage, btw-- they temperature cycle on a daily basis dehydrating food something awful. Stuff will last in good condition 5-10 times longer in a manual defrost freezer. In the lab we showed how quickly they killed biological materials like enzymes; not pretty!)

Anyway, a common failure in self defrosting units is the circuitry that does the temp cycling, the fan they usually incorporate, or drainage, any of which causes ice buildup on the coils and loss of cooling capacity. If you defrost the freezer and it has a miracle cure this area is probably where the problem is.

Manual defrost freezers are extremely simple devices, assuming you've cleaned the coils the most common failure is loss of coolant, in which case you probably just need to buy a new freezer. AFAIK there's very little difference among manual defrost freezers. One with a better energy rating probably has more/better insulation, chances are the refrigeration pump is the same.

[Jim Koepke]

Went out shopping today. Very few freezers available. One from Mexico, most of the others were from China. The odd thing is many of them do not have reversible doors.

Must be American factories that used to build appliances have all been dismantled. Otherwise some forward thinker could start up an assembly line and get rich.

jtk

[Mike Soaper]

It seems some of the maytag freezers are "assembled" in the usa

[John K Jordan]

...Any ideas on whether it is better to repair to see if a few more years can be coaxed out of the current unit or what brand would be better freezer?

jtk

I think it really depends on what's wrong with it. I faced the same problem today. My kitchen refrigerator, just 16 years old, quit last night. A bit of detective work by myself and free testing by my trusted appliance guy determined the compressor, in fact, was shot. Given the chance that the oil was burned meaning even replacing the compressor might not make the fridge as good as new and we wouldn't know until it was installed, I went shopping for a new one today.

(I had only three fridges and three freezers so I was in a bit of a panic. :))

JKJ

[Brian Elfert]

The Maytag refrigerator I bought in September was made in Thailand. I always prefer made in USA, but I built my refrigerator opening around my previous Maytag and every other brand was too tall so I stuck with Maytag.

A friend is a commercial refrigeration tech and looked at it briefly. He said it probably lost the charge because compressor and fan were running, but coils never got warm. Even if could be fixed it didn't make sense for a $650 refrigerator.

[lowell holmes]

I would go buy a new one.

https://www.google.com/search?q=lowes+refrigerator&oq=lowes+re&aqs=chrome.1.69i57j0i433l3j46i175i199i433j0j46i175 i199i433j0.7988j0j15&sourceid=chrome&ie=UTF-8

[Jim Koepke]

I would go buy a new one.

https://www.google.com/search?q=lowes+refrigerator&oq=lowes+re&aqs=chrome.1.69i57j0i433l3j46i175i199i433j0j46i175 i199i433j0.7988j0j15&sourceid=chrome&ie=UTF-8

That looks like the plan though the Lowes close to us doesn't have any to sell. Home Depot has a batch coming in later in the month.

As it is now the freezer had a rise in temp and wasn't cooling. It smelled like it was over heating so it was unplugged. We are going into town today to see if we can find some dry ice and do what we have to do to reserve one of the Freezers coming to HD.

jtk

[Jim Becker]

Check with the local, independent dealers and "scratch and dent" folks to see if they have something that will work for you in addition to the box stores. The latter can often provide a higher level product at a better price than buying new from the 'borg...

[John K Jordan]

Check with the local, independent dealers and "scratch and dent" folks to see if they have something that will work for you in addition to the box stores. The latter can often provide a higher level product at a better price than buying new from the 'borg...

The dealer I went to yesterday had at least 50 or 60 "scratch & dent" fridges and freezers with significant markdowns.

[Jim Koepke]

We did check the locals, not that many around here.

One called back an hour ago and we are about to go take a look.

The door handle may be on the wrong side and unchangeable, SWMBO says we can live with that.

jtk

[Roger Feeley]

A few years ago my dryer stopped working, I called my repairman who also sold appliances. I had used him many times and trusted him. I suggested that maybe I should just get a new dryer. He said absolutely not, the newer ones quality was far below mine, remember he was recommending against my buying a new dryer from him. His last words were "keep fixing this until it can no longer be fixed". Now one problem with my suggestion is getting parts. We have been waiting 3 months for a part for our wine cooler which we really need since that's where we store all our bottled water☺

I got the same thing from my repairman back in Kansas City. Our washer and dryer were some of the last electro-mechanical ones made. Our guy said they would outlive us. When we moved, we let them go with the house. Our new washer/dryer/frig/range are all heavily electronic. We bought the longest extended warranties we could get which have already paid for themselves. We didn't get a warranty on the microwave because it was only about $300. Same story on our car. I used to avoid the extended warranties but I haven't lost money on one in 10 years.

[Jim Koepke]

We did purchase the used twenty cubic foot freezer. It is a couple cubic feet bigger than the old one.

Thanks for all the comments and suggestions.

jtk