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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”.

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moody@lemmings.world ⁨8⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago
If the compressor dies but the evaporator tray is still heating, it would definitely cause the fridge to warm up.

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- HikingVet@lemmy.ca ⁨8⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago
  Also if the TXV goes it could cause that.
  
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marcos@lemmy.world ⁨8⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago
Some malfunction on the control of defrosting. Or maybe it’s powered by Peltier elements.

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- gnate@lemmy.world ⁨8⁩ ⁨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.
  
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  - marcos@lemmy.world ⁨8⁩ ⁨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.
    
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usualsuspect191@lemmy.ca ⁨8⁩ ⁨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.

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- Revan343@lemmy.ca ⁨8⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago
  That can only happen on 3 phase though, which a small fridge generally is not
  
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  - usualsuspect191@lemmy.ca ⁨8⁩ ⁨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
    
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    Revan343@lemmy.ca ⁨8⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago
    Oh yeah, looking closer I think you’re right
    
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where_am_i@sh.itjust.works ⁨8⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago
just install the compressor in reverse and done you got a heater.

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- Neato@ttrpg.network ⁨8⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago
  Yep. But you can just install a valve for the refrigerant and that’s how you get a selectable heat pump.
  
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EdibleFriend@lemmy.world ⁨8⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago
Clearly it’s tapped into an alternate dimension of pure heat.

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