Our Refrigerator Is Now Working
22 July 2011 | Sonora
Taya
We received a very friendly email from Pete of s/v Citla, who found out from reading our blog, that we had refrigeration issues. From talking to other sailors, we are not the only ones, but like many, we are intimidated by it's complexity.
Pete indicated that he was told by experts, that 90% of refrigeration issues can be traced back to electrical problems and that had been the case with them, on two occasions in the past several years.
That was a good start. At the same time I received a phone call from Eric, a good friend of ours from Montreal, who offered his assistance to systematically troubleshoot the problem. Armed with his guidance and Pete's suggestion, I started to check the cooling system and water appeared to circulate freely in the cooling serpentine. During our stay in La Paz, we had a refrigeration technician clean our serpentine with a mild acid solution. Before leaving Santa Rosalia, I had cleaned our 4 water strainers.
For those reasons I was not surprised that the compressor was not excessively hot nor was the cooling serpentine. Eric pointed out however, that my cooling outlet should be above the water line rather than below, so as to not create back pressure.
It used to be above, but after adding the arch, solar panels, Monitor windvane, wind generator, radar radome and loading all our stuff in the aft state room, the water line sank by 5 to 6 inches. That burried the water cooling oulet under the water line. I will fix that problem as soon as I get my hand on a 5/8" seacock.
With the refrigerator running, I checked the copper pipe under the insulation to see if it was cool and it was not. This is when I opened the fridge control box and checked for loose connections as well as on the 12 volt motor driving the compressor. All was tight with no sign of over heating on any of the wires.
I started to visually inspect the entire refrigeration module for loose parts and or connections and this is when I stumbled on the problem.
On the side of the module are two cellunoids, controlling two diverter valves feeding the fridge and freezer with freon, when commanded to do so by their respective thermostats. When I touched the first one, the noise made by the compressor changed instantly and almost immediately the low side copper tube became cold. The cellunoid assembly was quite loose and I proceeded to tighten the bolt located on the top of it.
That was all that was needed. Our refrigeration has been running like a charm ever since and it has been 30 hours.
Our appreciation go to Eric for his invaluable assistance and Pete for his insight.