type of electronics

[Burgerman]

Not normally... Butane. Propane type of refrigerant with a fancy name and £££ is sometimes used.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Refrigerant

[martin007]

Not normally... Butane. Propane type of refrigerant with a fancy name and £££ is sometimes used.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Refrigerant

Money moves the world...

[Burgerman]

Generally speaking if yor air conditioning or fridge stop cooling, or heating, then its one of 3 things.
1 no power. Fuse, thermostat, etc. Easy to test with a multimeter.
2 if compressor runs and it doesent cool, then its refrigerant has escaped over the years from microscopic leaks in welds etc. This is gradual not a sudden failure so easy to determine in some cases. Like whe it cools but badly!
3 everything has power and compressor doesent run... Put hand on it, is it vibrating? Can you hear it?

If 1, fix the problem!
if 2, add refrigerant. Not easy as theres usually no valve. You have to braize or silver solder one on. Which takes minutes if you are a plumber and I am. Then its a case of adding the right amount of refrigerant of the correct type or guessing and hoping its a super slow leak that will take years to drop low again. It usually is.
if 3, hit compressor with a lump of wood. If it starts up, great. If not, its buggered - replace it, or the whole fridge...

Easy enough no?
We went a bit off topic!

[Burgerman]

Theres a DIY dummy way to do this at more cost in case you are too scared to brase/solder a pipe...
All fridges and compressors have a fill pipe which will be sealed off like the one below.

The dummy way:

youtu.be/e0JYIKsbSjc

[Burgerman]

And if you bought that fancy valve or similar you top it up with expensive refrigerant... Me, I am stingy. I just used propane. And soldered the pipe. All basically free. I have done a few over the last 40 years!




youtu.be/P2tdP-ph2sI

[Burgerman]

Theres an old chest freezer in my garage. Its been unplugged since about 1980. Was already used for a decade then. Plugged it in today, and 5 hours later its at -19c. They dont make them like that today! Was use for ice cremes in the 70s at a long closed down petrol station. Still working 53 years later. Its got 2 settings. On and Off. And its loud.

[martin007]

That freezer is older than me.
Does it even work?

[Burgerman]

Working great!