So, our fellow member Sarah Purdue has bought her Mid Century Modern wall mounted GE Combination fridge here to get some much-needed repairs done.
These things are very interesting, and very awkward to handle. I built a repair stand to support and provide mobility to the machine during repairs. It is a little too high for accessing some angles on the unit; however it is high enough to allow for access to the bottom of the cabinet. The stand was built to be a repair / test / painting stand; so there are some compromises.
I have been videoing the process, as much as I can, with two videos up at this time.
The fridge was acquired in non-working condition. It was apparent that previous repairs had been done, by looking at the unit. The compressor had a support bar welded on top of it. Looked like it was done with a farmyard class AC-only stick welder. That was to support the fan shroud. The manual showed a tube-and-fin condenser mounted vertically in a shroud in front of the fan. This one had a coiled, non-finned copper tube condenser in front of the fan, with a "piece of" another GE condenser mounted to the side of the compressor.
At first I assumed the condenser setup was factory, but after finding the welded-on support, and looking closely at the manual pictures - I don't think it was. Another local friend looked at it as well, and said he's seen that coiled condenser before but it was not a GE and was a much smaller HP unit.
We powered on the fridge and the compressor started right up. Unfortunately, it drew very little power and didn't cool. I don't have the special clamp-on style GE service tool, so I was forced to use a line puncturing tap. When this was installed, the low side pressure was in the low 20's. Thinking it was low on charge, I tried adding refrigerant in the interest of having more pressure and searching for a leak with the Freon Sniffer tool.
The compressor would not start again. We tried capacitors, Supco relays, and other tricks - but she would not go. Thinking the system could have a blockage, I cracked open the high-side port. Liquid refrigerant sprayed out. All the pressure was trapped in the high side of the unit.
Even hours later, the compressor would still not start, and the pressure was still present at the high side. In looking at the unit, there seemed to be a splice in the capillary tube with extra tube added. This looked crude and poorly done. Expecting this to be where the blockage is, I removed the condensing unit and made further checks.
The heat exchanger assemble was sort of mangled. It appeared that people had damaged it trying to replace the thermostat in years past.
While the compressor was on the bench, I replaced the GE clamp-on service ports with modern 1/4" SAE ports.
Video:
(Continued)
These things are very interesting, and very awkward to handle. I built a repair stand to support and provide mobility to the machine during repairs. It is a little too high for accessing some angles on the unit; however it is high enough to allow for access to the bottom of the cabinet. The stand was built to be a repair / test / painting stand; so there are some compromises.
I have been videoing the process, as much as I can, with two videos up at this time.
The fridge was acquired in non-working condition. It was apparent that previous repairs had been done, by looking at the unit. The compressor had a support bar welded on top of it. Looked like it was done with a farmyard class AC-only stick welder. That was to support the fan shroud. The manual showed a tube-and-fin condenser mounted vertically in a shroud in front of the fan. This one had a coiled, non-finned copper tube condenser in front of the fan, with a "piece of" another GE condenser mounted to the side of the compressor.
At first I assumed the condenser setup was factory, but after finding the welded-on support, and looking closely at the manual pictures - I don't think it was. Another local friend looked at it as well, and said he's seen that coiled condenser before but it was not a GE and was a much smaller HP unit.
We powered on the fridge and the compressor started right up. Unfortunately, it drew very little power and didn't cool. I don't have the special clamp-on style GE service tool, so I was forced to use a line puncturing tap. When this was installed, the low side pressure was in the low 20's. Thinking it was low on charge, I tried adding refrigerant in the interest of having more pressure and searching for a leak with the Freon Sniffer tool.
The compressor would not start again. We tried capacitors, Supco relays, and other tricks - but she would not go. Thinking the system could have a blockage, I cracked open the high-side port. Liquid refrigerant sprayed out. All the pressure was trapped in the high side of the unit.
Even hours later, the compressor would still not start, and the pressure was still present at the high side. In looking at the unit, there seemed to be a splice in the capillary tube with extra tube added. This looked crude and poorly done. Expecting this to be where the blockage is, I removed the condensing unit and made further checks.
The heat exchanger assemble was sort of mangled. It appeared that people had damaged it trying to replace the thermostat in years past.
While the compressor was on the bench, I replaced the GE clamp-on service ports with modern 1/4" SAE ports.
Video:
(Continued)
