non-frost free freezer thawing / refreezing

[warm_freezer]

Coolzone ZON101

I am pretty sure this is not a frost free freezer. It has a thermostat and a compressor and that’s about it – but the manual doesn’t say anything about needing to defrost it.

However, a few days ago it defrosted completely. I turned the theromstat up and it appeared to start working again. But it seems to be thawing / refreezing. Things that retain the cold well (meet pies) are staying frozen but loafs of bread are only partially frozen. Ice is collecting in the bottom of the freezer (I assume thawing at the top and running down to the bottom).

Find and engineer in Bournemouth

After searching the internet it seems this problem is something that happens to frost-free freezers due to the defrost cycle staying on too long but I don’t believe that is the case here.

Is it worth replacing the thermostat? It seems to be an easy job for me. Anything more complicated and I’ll probably just chuck it away and stay away from cheap brand items – it’s not 2 years old yet!

Thanks

[kwatt]

Re: non-frost free freezer thawing / refreezing

Sounds like classic short cycling so it’s a refrigerant or compressor issue, not the thermostat.

Also, not a DIY repair.

K.

[warm_freezer]

Re: non-frost free freezer thawing / refreezing

Thanks. I’ll bin it 🙂

[warm_freezer]

Re: non-frost free freezer thawing / refreezing

Forgive my ignorance, but upon reading up on ‘short cycling’ it appears that the compressor would be switching on and off every few minutes (according to every description I have read so far).

That does not happen. From a standing start the freezer will freeze to the correct temperature (with the compressor running constantly for a few hours) and once frozen will cut off as normal. It then stays off until it has started to defrost.

It just seems that the thermostat is not asking for the compressor to come back on soon enough.

[kwatt]

Re: non-frost free freezer thawing / refreezing

Okay, if stuff isn’t frozen it’s not reaching the correct temperature and, it’s not safe to eat food from the freezer or store food in it. Nasty bacteria grows, not good for you.

You may hear the compressor clicking, trying to restart.

The thermostat is a simple on and off device. Generally speaking for simple domestic units it’s in one of those two states and, if it jams in either one the unit will either freeze (run) constantly or not run or cool at all. It is so rare to see any other result as not to be worth mentioning.

Of course there are far more complex machines out there and, if you read up on those and try to apply the principles of diagnosis on those to this simple unit then you could end up getting a bit confused.

K.

[warm_freezer]

Re: non-frost free freezer thawing / refreezing

Forgive me for taking the slightest interest in finding out what short cycling was.

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