Liebherr Lader Fridge - not keeping cold

[XrayDave]

Hi folks - I'd welcome a bit of advice on my 23-year old fridge.

Up to the middle of last week (say 27th Oct), the fridge seemed to be working perfectly. Yesterday, we noticed some water puddling under the fridge and that the fridge thermometer was at 12°C. Also, the back plate of the fridge on the inside was wet.

The thermostat control ranges from 0-7 and is normally set on 1.

Turning the thermostat control up to 5 got the temperature down to about 6°C - normally if it gets knocked onto 2 we get frozen salad stuff in the bottom!

Anyway, this morning I have emptied the fridge and taken it out of its cupboard to check it.

The drain hole for the auto-defrost was blocked - so I've cleaned that out. I've also checked the rear radiator and this is quite warm to the touch at the top and I can hear the motor/compressor running.

Currently the fridge was at 10°C at 9:20am

So is the problem likely to be caused by ...

1) simply a blocked drain hole

2) a dodgy thermostat

3) a lack of refrigerant in the cooling system

I'd welcome any thoughts/ideas. Being 23 years old (and working fine up to Wednesday) is it worth having anything done - eg regassing if that is needed?

New A+ rated fridges seem to be in the region of £300-350

Cheers

XRD

 

[Leccy758]

Age goes against it as well as the fact that if it needed re-gassing it would need to be checked for leaks and whether a drop in gas would be suitable for it (its likely to be using a banned refridgerant at that age).

Thermostats typically either work or not so freeze everything solid or never get chilled when failed or work perfectly. If you can get another stat it may be worth changing but from past experience this age fridge is not really worth doing as you fix one part and another goes.

You can try checking that it has adequate air circulating around it (sides/top/back) and that no fluff etc has blocked any cooling fans or vents and the heat exchanger matrix is clean

 

[XrayDave]

Thanks for the reply Leccy

Heat exchanger is free from dust (wasn't all that dusty tbh) and there is nothing changed regarding air circulation from last week (when the fridge was working properly).

Fridge will struggle to get to between 0 and 5°C - the stat is usually set to "1" (if set at "2" it used to freeze salad stuff in the bottom) - it will get to under 5°C but with the stat set on "5" (I hope this makes some kind of sense).

Refrigerant is (according to the label inside) 45g of R 12 R.

Could it be a faulty stat then??

I'm thinking along the lines that (as no coolant system is perfectly leak-free) that a gradual loss of coolant over the years has finally got to some kind of "tipping point" ant the fridge can no longer maintain the coolong effect without the motor/compressor running for longer (ie the thermostat is turned to "colder"). Does this make sense?

If my logic is sound on this point, it would suggest re-gassing (correct ?) - which is about £60 - £80 plus call-out fee of £20-25 - so I'm looking at roughly £100?

Unless anyone in the S.Yorkshire / NE Derbyshire area thinks they know what the problem probably is and could fix it for less.

Really don't want to buy a new fridge - but looking at A++ rated fridges if I have to. Ideally, I'd like the same capacity as the current fridge (which is 184 litres) but I can't find any - biggest seems to be 154 litre (some 16% smaller). Any recommends?

XRD