I have an old chest freezer that seems to be giving up the struggle to cool its contents and given its age I strongly suspect it’s losing its refrigerant. I’m actually using it as a fridge with an add on thermostat but recently the compressor has been running continuously without reaching the target temperature.Then its not losing its gas. It's lost its gas,.
Now I quite fancy having a play with the old compressor (maybe as a vacuum pump) but it’s clearly got some refrigerant and being a law abiding citizen if possible (and not ridiculously expensive) I’d like to get it degassed.
Anyone know of likely costs for such a service?
Is there a simpler/cheaper (and legal) way of getting hold of a second hand fridge compressor?
Maybe I just need to keep my eyes open for a fly-tipped fridge with a
broken coil? ;-)
Tim
I have an old chest freezer that seems to be giving up the struggle to cool its contents and given its age I strongly suspect it’s losing its refrigerant. I’m actually using it as a fridge with an add on thermostat but recently the compressor has been running continuously without reaching the target temperature.
Now I quite fancy having a play with the old compressor (maybe as a vacuum pump) but it’s clearly got some refrigerant and being a law abiding citizen if possible (and not ridiculously expensive) I’d like to get it degassed.
Anyone know of likely costs for such a service?
Is there a simpler/cheaper (and legal) way of getting hold of a second hand fridge compressor?
Maybe I just need to keep my eyes open for a fly-tipped fridge with a
broken coil? ;-)
I have an old chest freezer that seems to be giving up the struggle to cool >its contents and given its age I strongly suspect it’s losing its >refrigerant. I’m actually using it as a fridge with an add on thermostat
but recently the compressor has been running continuously without reaching >the target temperature.
Now I quite fancy having a play with the old compressor (maybe as a vacuum >pump) but it’s clearly got some refrigerant and being a law abiding citizen >if possible (and not ridiculously expensive) I’d like to get it degassed.
Anyone know of likely costs for such a service?
Is there a simpler/cheaper (and legal) way of getting hold of a second hand >fridge compressor?
Maybe I just need to keep my eyes open for a fly-tipped fridge with a
broken coil? ;-)
Given that the compressor runs, but it doesn't cool down, this suggestsThis talk about fridges and opening the (stable) door reminds me of a
you would be opening the stable door long after the horse has gone to
the knacker's Yard.
On 29/05/2025 17:54, Tim+ wrote:
I have an old chest freezer that seems to be giving up the struggle to cool >> its contents and given its age I strongly suspect it’s losing its
refrigerant. I’m actually using it as a fridge with an add on thermostat >> but recently the compressor has been running continuously without reaching >> the target temperature.
Now I quite fancy having a play with the old compressor (maybe as a vacuum >> pump) but it’s clearly got some refrigerant and being a law abiding citizen
if possible (and not ridiculously expensive) I’d like to get it degassed. >>
Anyone know of likely costs for such a service?
Is there a simpler/cheaper (and legal) way of getting hold of a second hand >> fridge compressor?
Maybe I just need to keep my eyes open for a fly-tipped fridge with a
broken coil? ;-)
Given that the compressor runs, but it doesn't cool down, this suggests
you would be opening the stable door long after the horse has gone to
the knacker's Yard.
I admire your scruples, and wish more people took your approach - but I
don't think they are needed here.
On 29/05/2025 19:38, Sam Plusnet wrote:
Given that the compressor runs, but it doesn't cool down, thisThis talk about fridges and opening the (stable) door reminds me of a
suggests you would be opening the stable door long after the horse has
gone to the knacker's Yard.
friend from university. She'd got an first in physics, so she wasn't
exactly uneducated about scientific things.
Some years later she posted on Facebook that she was having problems
getting her fridge to stay at a cold temperature. Various people chipped
in with questions and suggestions, trying to be helpful.
Then she just casually replied, after a couple of days "Does it matter
that there's no door on the fridge?"
There really needs to be an emoji for "jaw dropping with amazement",
"are you f-ing serious?" and "of course it f-in matters", because she'd
have been bombarded with those!
It turns out that the fridge door had fallen off (there's more to *why*
it "fell" off, but that would be disloyal to her) and she was using
bottles of lemonade propped up at the front of the fridge, where the
door would go, as a makeshift barrier to try to keep the cold air from falling out (being more dense than air at room temperature it would sink
as it came out of the doorway*).
To this day I cannot work out why someone with a degree in physics was
in any way surprised that fridge without a door would be unable to
retain its cold temperature.
(*) That's why open-top freezers in shops work: the cold air remains in
the "well" of the freezer and doesn't escape and allow ambient air to
enter. There are probably still losses by conduction to the ambient air,
but those are deemed acceptable if it makes it easier for shoppers to
remove things to but in their trolleys.
To this day I cannot work out why someone with a degree in physics was
in any way surprised that fridge without a door would be unable to
retain its cold temperature.
On 29/05/2025 17:54, Tim+ wrote:
I have an old chest freezer that seems to be giving up the struggle to cool >> its contents and given its age I strongly suspect it’s losing its
refrigerant. I’m actually using it as a fridge with an add on thermostat >> but recently the compressor has been running continuously without reaching >> the target temperature.
Now I quite fancy having a play with the old compressor (maybe as a vacuum >> pump) but it’s clearly got some refrigerant and being a law abiding citizen
if possible (and not ridiculously expensive) I’d like to get it degassed. >>
Anyone know of likely costs for such a service?
Is there a simpler/cheaper (and legal) way of getting hold of a second hand >> fridge compressor?
Maybe I just need to keep my eyes open for a fly-tipped fridge with a
broken coil? ;-)
Given that the compressor runs, but it doesn't cool down, this suggests
you would be opening the stable door long after the horse has gone to
the knacker's Yard.
I admire your scruples, and wish more people took your approach - but I
don't think they are needed here.
On 20:27 29 May 2025, NY said:
[SNIP]
To this day I cannot work out why someone with a degree in physics was
in any way surprised that fridge without a door would be unable to
retain its cold temperature.
Maybe this is a feature of a dumbed-down modern degree, where dull-witted children are spoonfed what to answer in online exams.
Sam Plusnet <not@home.com> wrote:
On 29/05/2025 17:54, Tim+ wrote:
I have an old chest freezer that seems to be giving up the struggle to cool >>> its contents and given its age I strongly suspect it’s losing its
refrigerant. I’m actually using it as a fridge with an add on thermostat >>> but recently the compressor has been running continuously without reaching >>> the target temperature.
Now I quite fancy having a play with the old compressor (maybe as a vacuum >>> pump) but it’s clearly got some refrigerant and being a law abiding citizen
if possible (and not ridiculously expensive) I’d like to get it degassed. >>>
Anyone know of likely costs for such a service?
Is there a simpler/cheaper (and legal) way of getting hold of a second hand >>> fridge compressor?
Maybe I just need to keep my eyes open for a fly-tipped fridge with a
broken coil? ;-)
Given that the compressor runs, but it doesn't cool down, this suggests
you would be opening the stable door long after the horse has gone to
the knacker's Yard.
Oh it does cool, just not to the set temperature so there’s obviously some gas left.
On 29/05/2025 19:38, Sam Plusnet wrote:try to keep the cold air from falling out (being more dense than air at room temperature it would sink as it came out of the doorway*).
Given that the compressor runs, but it doesn't cool down, this suggests you would be opening the stable door long after the horse has gone to the knacker's Yard.This talk about fridges and opening the (stable) door reminds me of a friend from university. She'd got an first in physics, so she wasn't exactly uneducated about scientific things.
Some years later she posted on Facebook that she was having problems getting her fridge to stay at a cold temperature. Various people chipped in with questions and suggestions, trying to be helpful.
Then she just casually replied, after a couple of days "Does it matter that there's no door on the fridge?"
There really needs to be an emoji for "jaw dropping with amazement", "are you f-ing serious?" and "of course it f-in matters", because she'd have been bombarded with those!
It turns out that the fridge door had fallen off (there's more to *why* it "fell" off, but that would be disloyal to her) and she was using bottles of lemonade propped up at the front of the fridge, where the door would go, as a makeshift barrier to
To this day I cannot work out why someone with a degree in physics was in any way surprised that fridge without a door would be unable to retain its cold temperature.
(*) That's why open-top freezers in shops work: the cold air remains in
the "well" of the freezer and doesn't escape and allow ambient air to enter. There are probably still losses by conduction to the ambient air, but those are deemed acceptable if it makes it easier for shoppers to remove things to but in their trolleys.
It's unlikely the individual has seen the inside of a
Physics building.
The first clue you're being taken for a ride, is when
the individual won't tell you the name of the degree
granting institution.
Maybe they don't even know what it says on a typical
parchment for such a degree.
And just for fun, I suspect the individual in question,
is now present in this thread.
When you're an 8-sigma individual, you stand out. We can
spot the pattern, spot the "setup".
https://www.steve-p.org/sm/menaswomenI.jpg
I worked in a Physics department for a summer, I took
a second year course with the cohort at the time. I
ate lunch with them a couple times. I was the only
non-Physics major taking that course with them.
I know what real physics students (even before graduation)
sound like. Accept no substitute. My major was in
something else.
The lunchtime conversation is very technical.
It's all shop talk. It sounds just like the TV program
"Big Bang Theory". Genuine nerd talk. What was missing
was eye glasses with tape holding the two halves together.
Oh, and asthma. None of them had asthma.
They know how a refrigerator works. They also know the
lab setup to get to 50 millikelvin above absolute zero
and 25 millikelvin above absolute zero. Obviously,
the door has to be closed to do that :-) The liquid helium
we used in our course, would only get you to about 4K
(two stage cryostat). Using liquid helium is pretty mundane,
but you have to do one as a proof of purchase.
The undergrads would also not talk about what the grad
students were researching. Even the grad students wouldn't
really talk about their research (not secret, just boring).
The basement labs were working on SQUIDs. But the undergrads
were interested in a lot of other stuff. One of the students
was bound and determined to work on MagLev, which would mean
leaving the country, as we will never have a MagLev here.
The quiet one in the group, today he is a Lithium Battery researcher.
His last project, was illuminating the inside of a battery
while it charges, with a synchrotron. Jeff is past retirement
age, and continues on. The report I saw, they had not processed
the collected data yet, to write a paper.
https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/saskatoon/cls-synchrotron-testing-next-generation-electrical-vehicle-batteries-1.7411578
There is only one person who does not know how a refrigerator
works (8-sigma), and that's why the door fell off.
Paul
Yabbut those are experimental physicists. I can confirm that those are pretty much as described. (There is a retired fellow on another group that worked with
physics grad students, and he describes them as "pretty hard on equipment", to
put it politely.)
Not sure about the theoretical physicists, though...?
Thomas Prufer
On Thu, 5/29/2025 3:27 PM, NY wrote:It was a well-known red-brick university in the UK, the same one that I
To this day I cannot work out why someone with a degree in physics was in any way surprised that fridge without a door would be unable to retain its cold temperature.
It's unlikely the individual has seen the inside of a
Physics building.
The first clue you're being taken for a ride, is when
the individual won't tell you the name of the degree
granting institution.
On 30/05/2025 22:14, Paul wrote:
On Thu, 5/29/2025 3:27 PM, NY wrote:It was a well-known red-brick university in the UK, the same one that I
To this day I cannot work out why someone with a degree in physics
was in any way surprised that fridge without a door would be unable
to retain its cold temperature.
It's unlikely the individual has seen the inside of a
Physics building.
The first clue you're being taken for a ride, is when
the individual won't tell you the name of the degree
granting institution.
went to. She did a physics BSc and started doing a PhD there before
stopping that for some reason. She must have got a fairly good BSc
result to be accepted on the PhD course.
When she asked the question about the "fridge that wouldn't stay cold"
on her Facebook discussion page, various of her university friends (whom
I know) contributed suggestions as to why her fridge wasn't working
properly. It sounded a genuine enquiry. When, several days later, she happened to mention casually in a Facebook posting "my fridge door has
come off - does it matter?" there was a collective response which can be paraphrased as "WTF! Of *course* it ****ing matters!"
I don't think humour was involved. The woman in question didn't seem to
have a sense of humour. I got the impression that it was a genuine
serious enquiry.
I think she genuinely believed that a few 2-litre bottles of lemonade standing at the front of each shelf as a "wall" would be enough to keep
the cold air in and prevent it escaping to the room and hence being
replaced by warm air from the room.
It was a very sad story. I think she wasn't coping with life towards the
end after getting divorced. She firmly believed on religious grounds
that marriage was for life and she didn't recognise that she was legally divorced, even after her husband later remarried. We lost touch about 15 years ago and I heard the other year that she had died of cancer. I knew
that she had a lot of obscure long-term health problems, but I'd no idea about the cancer.
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