is it my freezer or thermostat?

recently my keezer hasn't been cold. I have a thermometer at my collar which shows 60. Typically it shows 45 and my thermostat bulb is at the bottom set to 38-40. I can hear the compressor running though.

is there a way to test if my thermostat is malfunctioning? It is in a vial with water as well, so it's not set up improperly.

I would really HATE to have my freezer be pooping out on me after all the hard work i put in.

thanks

I switched the freezer's plug from the johnson controls plug to a regular outlet. It's been working the whole time since then, about 4 hours. It's still in the low 50s in there, with 48 on the lower inside wall being the coldest. How much longer should I see results in?

Any people in the trade know how much it costs to pump some more freon in there?

Depending on the type of freon and the company you call out, it may be more cost effective to look at a newer unit. Lowes/Home Depot deep freeze type units. What you describe definitely sounds like a refrigerant problem. Service call $85 - $100, then refrigerant charging $50 -$150 depending on type and company.
Do you have any friends that are in the HVACR business?

Here is an easy thing to try. Unplug the keezer for a minimum of 24 hours, 48 is better. Then plug it back in and try again.
Some (most) freezers with a compressor will go into a defrost cycle a few times a day to eliminate build up of frost on the evaporator coils. If the defrost cycle isn't working the freezer will not cool properly do to ice build up on the coils.
When you plug the unit back in check the temperature after a few hours and if all is well the problem is the defrost circuit/system. (The problem will reoccur
over time)
You can also check to make sure the gasket on the lid is sealing well and that the condenser coils are clean.

Hope this helps, good luck

i cleaned off the condenser coils a bit today. I'll try that unplug resetting method

mendozer said:

i cleaned off the condenser coils a bit today. I'll try that unplug resetting method

Click to expand...

Just to be clear you are not resetting anything by unplugging the unit, what it does is to allow the the evaporator coils to de-ice.

If it works OK for awhile after being plugged back in and then starts to fail again, you can be fairly confident that the freon level is ok and that the problem is in the defrost circuit. More on that after later

is it a cyclical thing? i haven't had any issues since last March when I got it. If it's a once yearly unplugging, I'm ok with that

Wobbly said:

[...]If it works OK for awhile after being plugged back in and then starts to fail again, you can be fairly confident that the freon level is ok and that the problem is in the defrost circuit. More on that after later

Click to expand...

Chest freezers have defrost circuits?

Cheers!

day_trippr said:

Chest freezers have defrost circuits?

Cheers!

Click to expand...

No I think most if not all do not, I was thinking more of a refrigerator when I first replied, but that being said if the evap. coils are iced up, defrosting the unit will help.
Definitely worth trying before spending money to repair the unit.

ok i did the 48 hour rest. I plugged it in for 4 hours directly to outlet and it got reasonably cold, but not freezing. Then i unplugged it and switched it to the thermostat. The compressor didn't run, indicating that it was at 38d, which it certainly didn't feel like.
Now a day later, my beer is pouring out at 53d. uck!

So maybe it's low on freon?

Sounds like you may have 2 problems.

1 - After the 48 hour rest and removing your thermostat the freezer should be able to freeze water, but it may take more than 4 hours to get it done. With no fan to circulate air chest freezers are a lot slower to cool down than freezers with a fan, especially when empty.

2 - Your thermostat read 38 when you first put it back in but now won't get the beer below 53 sounds like a thermostat problem.

I would probably try removing the external thermostat and running the unit longer to see if it will freeze a container of water, try 12 - 24 hours. If it freezes water the unit is good and you have a thermostat problem. If it won't freeze water you have a freezer problem, you could also have a thermostat problem but you can't determine that with a broken freezer.

Yep I agree with "B.B."

Don't use the thermostat and just leave the freezer plugged in normally until you can determine if it is working properly. If it works like a normal freezer when you are not using the thermostat then the problem is your thermostat.

The freezer wasn't at 38. The thermostat was. My bulb is submerged in a water vial on the bottom of the freezer. So when I say it clicked off after hooking it up to the thermostat, I was assuming the temp on the bottom was 38.

I'll try it straight into the outlet again. I guess I'll emtpy it out (sigh) I'm lazy. lol

mendozer said:

I guess I'll emtpy it out (sigh) I'm lazy. lol

Click to expand...

Lol...yep, I know that feeling!

i switched it. interestingly it didn't start cranking on. I heard a "pfft" then nothing.

Now, hours later, i hear it "on" but not running with the compressor like I'd expect.

Is it getting colder inside?
Did the "pfft" you heard sound like an electrical arcing or more like pressure escaping?

I would also make sure that the cold control (the one that came built on the freezer) is set around the midpoint or colder and then after five or six hours the temperature in the freezer should be quite cold. Maybe try putting in an ice cube tray and see if it freezes the water.

I couldnt tell ya what kind of "pfft" it was honestly.

Right now, 20 hours after switching it over directly to the outlet, my infrared thermometer is getting a coldest point at 45 degrees, at the lowest part of the walls. Outside wall is 56, temp of my garage.

I turned the dial to max cold (factory dial) and the compressor didn't come on.

Well at this point I would suspect that either the cold control that is part of the freezer is bad, maybe the "pfft" sound that you heard was the contacts in the cold control arcing?

Or maybe like you first suspected the freon is low or the compressor is bad.

If it was mine I would temporarily bypass the cold control and then if the freezer was working ok I would know that was the problem.

I wouldn't attempt any of this though unless you are very comfortable working with electricity.

I have no idea how to do that so I won't try it. Unless it seems easy. I know a handyman who might try it.

What sucks is it's at like 45 degrees, not much higher than my usual targeted 35-38. But those degrees matter because I often use my keezer as my overflow produce storage for what won't fit in my fridge.

isn't the point of my external thermostat to bypass the freezers?

mendozer said:

isn't the point of my external thermostat to bypass the freezers?

Click to expand...

No it doesn't actually bypass it, it is in series with the one on the freezer.

If the one on the freezer is bad it could be by-passed and then the external thermostat could be used to control the temp, but first you need to know definitively what the problem is and then you need someone who fully understands what they are doing to accomplish this.

Good luck, here's hopping you have some really cold beer soon!

ok how do you bypass it? I'm curious. If it's too complicated then I won't try it

Well basically you need to jumper out the line side of the cold control to the load side of the cold control.
It's simple but you certainly should be confident in making these connections and you need to understand that unless you use the external thermostat to control the temperature, the compressor will never shut off.
This could cause the compressor to overheat and could even be a fire hazard. At this this point I would have to recommend that you have a pro look at it to make a proper repair.

Just wondering if you got things working again, here's hoping your having a cold one!

The pft sound tells me you unplugged the freezer from the thermostat then quickly plugged it into the wall. So unplug the freezer. Take your thermostat plug and set it glue side down some place dry. Now let the freezer sit for 10 minutes unplugged. Buy yourself a simple mercury thermometer and place it in the freezer. Now plug the freezer in and just let it run as the factory intended. In 6 hours check the freezer. Is it below 30f (can get to 0 to -05)? If it running fine, then it is probably the probe on your thermostat as they commonly fill up with water producing a false readings. If your compressor was low on R134a it would likely either not run or run colder! Trained by the United States Air Force in electronics, been a ground radio technician, electrician, appliance technician, telecommunications technician, and currently a radar technician. I know electronics but now I am learning about beer… cheers.

i talked to a repair guy, said it would cost over 100 to check it out so i had said "F it". However, I'll try that method of letting it sit unplugged for a while. It has been running a week in the outlet to no avail, still low 50s.

when I was a repair guy it would have been about $75 but that was then. Also something to check is to bypass the thermostat on the freezer its self. Not that hard of a job. The easiest way would be to just take the freezer thermostat out and tape the wires together (short term trouble shooting here). Now plug the freezer in and nurse a brew for an hour while you listen to it hum in the background. After an hour of flat out running it should be at 0 degrees in the freezer. Also the simplest things seem to be missed. Does your fridge have a light in it? If so... un-screw it and set it aside. I have seen door switches fail and a single 40 watt bulb heat and ruin everything in a freezer.

Remember to unplug the freezer after that 1 hour of running! don't want to have to dump any tasty brew on the fire.

also to explain the pssst sound... When a compressor is running there is a high side and a low side of pressure. If you unplug a compressor the high side and low side remain until the even out... When you plug in the compressor before these pressures even out you have a compressor trying to start against a high pressure and the compressor gets stuck as it has no inertia.

Also another thing people over look is the compressor overheating. Make sure the area around the compressor is clean and that the vents have a few inches of clearance.

1. no light in the freezer
2. the thermostat is only visible to me from the outside of the unit (the dial). just pry that off and work with those wires?
3. if this ^^^ fixes it, can I still plug it into my external thermostat? I want to know why it wasn't working if it was externally controlled the whole time. odd

From everything posted about this freezer, it's likely dying or dead. But, if by some miracle it really is all about the internal thermostat, bypassing/jumpering around it would still allow the use of an external controller. After all, said controller takes over the entire unit by virtue of it owning the main power into the freezer, making the internal thermostat pretty much redundant...

Cheers!

confirm. If the internal thermostat was broken and only allowing the compressor to run until the temp hit 50 degrees then the external thermostat would be of no ability to get the temperature any lower. Yes if you bypass the internal thermostat and the freezer gets to freezing temperatures then you can leave the internal thermostat bypassed and run it on your external thermostat.

you want to know why your external thermostat can work and your freezer wont get cold? imagine this was your car... Your foot is the external thermostat... your fuel pump is your internal thermostat. If your fuel pump is clogged and will only allow enough fuel for your car to hit 50mph it doesn’t matter how hard you mash the gas pedal you cant go any faster. make sense?