Comment

Comment on Don't let it stop you from eating your egg salad sandwich, Karen!

I’m trying to figure out what kind of defect would cause that. The heating elements of a fridge, the air exchange that has the hotter refrigerant, are all outside the box I believe. If the compressor fails, the refrigerant doesn’t move and doesn’t move heat. So it’d just be an insulated box, right? I think that’d get hotter an ambient but I’m not sure I’d say it’s “heating”.

source

Sort:hotnew top

moody@lemmings.world ⁨3⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago
If the compressor dies but the evaporator tray is still heating, it would definitely cause the fridge to warm up.

source
- HikingVet@lemmy.ca ⁨3⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago
  Also if the TXV goes it could cause that.
  
  source
marcos@lemmy.world ⁨3⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago
Some malfunction on the control of defrosting. Or maybe it’s powered by Peltier elements.

source
- gnate@lemmy.world ⁨3⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago
  Thermoelectric was my first thought, since it can heat or cool, to maintain a set point, warm food, or chill beverages, as implemented in some fancy lunch boxes. I didn’t know if the same applies at this scale, but I’m assuming this unit uses a compressor.
  
  source
  - marcos@lemmy.world ⁨3⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago
    Something of this size should absolutely use a compressor.
    
    But there’s a difference between “should” and “does”, and the fact that failed into heating changes that expectation a lot.
    
    source
usualsuspect191@lemmy.ca ⁨3⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago
I’ve seen this happen when the condenser coil is outside and during electrical work to the building the phases were swapped so the unit essentially ran in reverse.

source
- Revan343@lemmy.ca ⁨3⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago
  That can only happen on 3 phase though, which a small fridge generally is not
  
  source
  - usualsuspect191@lemmy.ca ⁨3⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago
    Correct. The picture is not great, but you can see the racking that implies there’s at least one other door so this could be a larger commercial fridge running 3 phase
    
    source
    Revan343@lemmy.ca ⁨3⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago
    Oh yeah, looking closer I think you’re right
    
    source
where_am_i@sh.itjust.works ⁨3⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago
just install the compressor in reverse and done you got a heater.

source
- Neato@ttrpg.network ⁨3⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago
  Yep. But you can just install a valve for the refrigerant and that’s how you get a selectable heat pump.
  
  source
EdibleFriend@lemmy.world ⁨3⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago
Clearly it’s tapped into an alternate dimension of pure heat.

source