[DDoone]

About 2 months ago I noticed water on the floor below the freezer door and found that it was warm. Raised number on tstat from 3 to 4 then to 5 then to 6.. Over the next couple days the temperature was 46F in the fridge 38 in the freezer then warm in the freezer. I had the service guy in who said that the capillary had a blockage and he would evacuate the system and recharge (using my freon) and this would fix it. 30 minutes and $375 later it was up and running again. Condenser unit is spotless ( I vacuum every 6 mo.) Yesterday I saw that familiar brown spot on the floor and took some readings of the freezer and found it was between 20 and 30 f, humidity at 75% inside and the fridge was about 40. Steak in the freezer was not rock hard, I raised the tstat from 4 to 5 and still the freezer wasn't good enough. Today checked the condensate pan evap coils (which were warm) on the bottom of the unit and the pan was almost full. Dumped the water and the unit is down to about 10F in the freezer and 37 in the fridge. In the last 20 years I own it I've never had to drain the pan. Still can't get the freezer down to Zero F, its empty now and the tstat is set to 5. Did the service guy just give me a short term fix - hoping for a more expensive repair down the road? What to do? Ready to buy a Leibherr but want to be sure that I am not throwing out a good but old SubZero. Advice please and thanks.

[PS Staff - Sheila]

Check the frost pattern on the evaporator coils.

If your not getting a full frost pattern you should have the repair man back in to check for a leak in the system.

Check your repair bill for repair warranty.

Hate to see a good Subzero go to land fill.

[DDoone]

Do you mean the evaporator coils in the freezer behind the fan? Now that I have the tstat up to 5 t I get 37 in the fridge and 2-5F in the freezer. However the humidity in the freezer seems very high. 80% and why all the water in the pan? Could it be the defrost tstat and timer?

[PS Volunteer - Appguy]

Did the service person replace the dryer? Also, it is never a good idea to re-use refrigerant. Too many ways to get contamination in system. From your description, it seems like contamination in the system, or a compressor going sour.
Replace your repair guy!

[DDoone]

No he didn't, I asked the question when he was there and he said that there was no receiver dryer in this model. I didn't see one on the return line near the compressor either. What about all the water in the pan at the bottom of the unit lately? When I removed it the unit chilled better. There is no blockage in the condensate line however it could have been backing up because the pan was so full. Compressor is not making any unusual noises and comes on without noise. What about the higher tstat setting I am using now. Used to use 3 to 3.5 now up to 5. Fridge is 20 years old.

[PS Volunteer - Appguy]

Pull the back freezer panel and post what you see.

[DDoone]

Appguy; thanks for your replies. This is a single compressor 211 Subzero. Nothing is making strange noises and the compressor has it's usual hum. Over the weekend the fridge held 40 but the freezer was 20 to 25. There is no back panel on the freezer however I pulled the panel cover on the freezer coil unit and it was not iced up however there was a little frost on the copper line going to the defrost sensor which tells me that it and the timer are functioning correctly.

I really don't think it is a system leak, I had a car once that the a/c had a leak and it would get warmer and warmer over a weeks time until the lo pressure sensor would kick in to save the compressor. If there was a system leak it would have shown itself by these same symptoms by now.


I regularly clean out the upper compressor compartment with a vacuum and also the heat exchange coils but this time I blew the coil unit out from both sides 3 or 4 times with a can of compressed air until no more dust came through, you couldn't believe the volume of dust that came out. I vacuumed and wiped everything spotless, the fan blades, the compressor, the electrical connections, all the mountings, the copper lines and even wiped the paint finish spotless and shiny so it wouldn't attract or collect more dust. I used a flashlight and saw some louvers in the back behind the compressor for passive cooling of the box top and vacuumed them too, they were partially blocked by soot/dust. I emptied the ice tray and think that this may have caused the high humidity since the cubes keep getting smaller each time I looked at them. I dumped the water from the collector pan in the bottom and set the tstat to 4 as I always would. I have nothing in the freezer but those blue artificial ice packs and very little in the fridge now. I will get a half gallon of ice cream and place it and a thermometer in the freezer. I'll give it 24 hours to adjust and then take some readings. I'll hope to see 37 to 40 in the fridge and 0 to 5 in the freezer.

I'd hate to see this become landfill fodder so I am hoping this cleaning will work. Anyway this unit deserves another chance. I'll let you know by another post tomorrow. Any other thoughts?

[PS Volunteer - Appguy]

You have a clogged capillary again. It should be covered under the first repair warranty. Symptoms of that are low compressor current, high condenser temp. differential( high temp in, low temp out).

[DDoone]

Ice cream not frozen. You are right it's clogged again and they want 195 just for the dryer and 895 for the dryer and a new coil set. That would be $1295 invested and maybe something else breaks a little further down the road. Time to trade in the old heap. Thanks for your time.

[PS Volunteer - Appguy]

This is one reason I talk customers out of this kind of repair when I suspect contamination.
The guy should have installed a high side dryer with a fine microscreen filter to prevent this.
He might have moisture in the system that froze in the capillary or he left rosin in the system. If so,you could put a blow torch on a clogged capillary and let the compressor pump it out into the evaporator. Worth a try!