Try to work some better than scrap metal items

Trying to get my one worker to understand that with this market (low scrap metal prices), we need to do more than cut up metal. We have a few appliances I have been putting on the back burner. Four refrigerators, six a/c window units, five dryers and two washers. My plan take one group at a time, teach him (myself too), how to go through them, clean them up, go through and test everything.

Going to do refrigerators first, starting with a small Frigidaire, it's basic a simple timer runs everything, tested the compressor and it's good electrically. Plugged it in and only the light comes on, neither fan nor compressor start. Going to press on I want to use this one more for educational purposes, my worker knows squat about electrical this could be a challenge!

Questions for appliance guys: Would you mess with a ten year old refrigerator? I have done some work on these in past and Always check compressor first, make sure there's a good motor in compressor, What do you check first? second? I'm going to go through freezer and timer next, will post how we progress. Got to make some changes as scrap metal just isn't cutting it right now.

I don't repair appliances, but as a consumer, out here, I would. One of our refrigerators was made in 1991. We have a newer one, and even a couple that aren't frost-free. People will pay good money for any working fridge out here. But, I don't know your specific market....

Check the defrost timer circuit first, get a DVM and look for line voltage going to the heater or the Tstat.
If the compressor and fan are not running, the defrost heater may be on. If the defrost timer is manual, give it a turn and see if
the compressor kicks in.

Looking at the circuit, pretty much figured I have a problem in freezer. I have flipped four refrigerators in past, they sell no problem and I have given away a few too. Just wonder at what age is to old, I think this ten year old Frigidaire may be the oldest one I have messed with.

Deep freezers get good prices. They can look like c&@p and still get a good price as long as the door seal is still good.

I was given a fridge that had been 'fixed up' but they still had revisations about it....
I took me 6 months to figure out that they had swapped the door for a good one with a good seal, but the inside shelf was different and when the door was shut the light was staying on...
Normally the shelf hit the butter box door which hits the light switch to 'Off' when the doors shut.

You will probably need a recording unit of some sort (Theres probably a 'App' for it now.. 8+) ) That will record tempatures over a period of time so you can 'see' what the fridge is doing as it goes thru its cycles.

Door seals and faulty contacts account for 85% of the fridges that get thrown out.

So this isn't about fixing appliances but a couple of weeks ago I picked up a stand up freezer off craigslist for free. I went to pick it up and it turns out it was a buddy of mine who had it. I asked it if it worked and he said "yes it works great". So I say "why not sell it on Craigslist." He said he has been listing it for $70 for 3 months and no hits. It is old, 20+ years, but works great. So I took it, (made sure it really worked), listed the next day for $30 and it sold that day. So the point being, it doesn't necessarily have to be new(ish), as long as it works, to sell. Just ask for a good price.

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Originally Posted by nutpie

So this isn't about fixing appliances but a couple of weeks ago I picked up a stand up freezer off craigslist for free. I went to pick it up and it turns out it was a buddy of mine who had it. I asked it if it worked and he said "yes it works great". So I say "why not sell it on Craigslist." He said he has been listing it for $70 for 3 months and no hits. It is old, 20+ years, but works great. So I took it, (made sure it really worked), listed the next day for $30 and it sold that day. So the point being, it doesn't necessarily have to be new(ish), as long as it works, to sell. Just ask for a good price.

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bingo
I pick up old appliances and furniture from condo's here all the time.. they might be 20 or 30 years old with less than 100 hours of usage, there "old" so they get tossed.
20-30 bucks and they never here more than a week.

Well I got the little Frigidaire Refrigerator running. Took a lot longer because my guy is "lost in space" when it comes to electricity, defiantly not ready for "prime time". Showing him how to use a meter, we ohm ed and took voltage checks on every refrigerator component, when we had found both a bad heater and a bad thermostat. I believe the heater went out first, causing freezer to "ice up", so looks to me they kept using it. All hardware (terminal, screws, thermostat, evap. fan,) all had really bad corrosion. Now the light bulb quit working and it's just because corrosion. The timer advanced good manually and we cleaned the terminal on it and replaced the connectors on all wires. Read the thermostat out and open, as soon as we bypassed thermostat with jumpers it fired up. This would have been a walk in the park for me solo, trying to teach is another story. I had a heater from a old refrigerator we scrapped before, but no thermostat, going to see if we get one out of the other three.

Go get 'em Burt!! Maybe I'll mess with fixing old appliances when I'm retired and raising exotic pheasants ;)!!

Currently, I might be a step or two up from your novice but not far...

We all had to start somewhere. Cudos to you big burt for taking the time to pass on knowledge and skills to another.

don't ignore YouTube. If your having a problem, odds are someone else is too, and they made a video of how they fixed it. Saves my butt quite a lot for little things and big things!

Also, here in upstate NY we can get a $30 rebate for any working fridge or freezer. Not sure if there is a limit though.. but its another thought for you.

youtube is a great helper.
If you can find them... readers digest has a series of New Fix It Yourself Manual. It is a great source of information that will go over just about every item in a household with step by step instructions on diagnosing, cleaning, maintaining and repair. I have several editions and they are an awesome source of information to have for someone willing to fix an item instead of buying new. Tools, furniture, plumbing, appliances, small appliances, home electronics, yard and workshop tools,jewelry, luggage on and on and on...if you own it it is in there..yes even pc repairs. I cannot recommend this series of books enough for anyone willing to do their own repairs!!!!!!!

Heck in Illinois com-ed writes me a 50 dollar check for a working fridge or freezer.

Chest freezers are pretty common around here because so many people like to go deer hunting in the fall.

We've got two, and usually load them up to the very top by late fall so we have enough food on hand to carry us through the winter.

The thing i've most commonly seen with the fridges is that the door seals wear out and the machine runs constantly. They're kind of a "must have" item but they're a bit expensive to replace.

Burt, hopefully your hired hand will eventually get the idea with the electricity... Good on ya to try him out at least!

A question, though....what about the refrigerant side? No, calm down, I'm not going safety or license nazi here!

Just if there is low refrigerant level in the thing and it doesn't cool too good. I would be hesitant to do much until I knew it would cool off properly. I guess I'm kinda answering my own question here----just jumper the compressor and see if it (a) runs, and (b) puts out cold, before doing any other work on the thing.

At $30 for a fridge, you can't spend a heck of a lot of time on it but it sure beats the scrap price for the same thing.

Jon.

In my day job I rebuild refrigerators at a local appliance shop. We see a lot of volume. We can put out between 5-10 refrigerators a day for the cleaners. We supply appliances not only for our store but for our other three stores in southwest Idaho. most of what we see in refrigerators are between 10-15 years old. when it comes to Frigidaire I prefer to only work on the later models that have the suction line molded into the cabinet, older ones i.e. 1999 or 1998 will have a condenser on the back with the suction line wrapped in a white cover going up the back. on top mount fridges its pretty simple, most of the time on certain brands is defrost drainage problems, other brands are more prone to fan failures, whirlpools are prone to defrost drainage and compressor knocking. Frigidaire has refrigerant leaks in the bag.
around here our top fridges go for $350 average for models from 5 years to 20 years old. whirlpool is the only brand that holds it's value for twenty years though. We sell about half our fridges and stoves to property management companies for rentals. they like top mounts with no icemakers and no frill stoves. you need to be careful though about anything that deals with water, make sure your defrost drain pan is not cracked or drain plugged, water in the wrong place will cost you an armload of cash and reputation.

Jon - I checked the keepers to see if they work (cool), then I put them in the shop, until I have time to get to them. If I scrap them, I have a friend who owns a appliance business. He takes the coolant, out of the units I'm going to scrap. I give him all appliance trim items (knobs, handles) and he gets the racks and drawers from interiors. He also gives me his scrap steel.

The one thing I wished I would have done is dry these refrigerators out good before we store them. Any moisture in them and doors closed causes bad corrosion problems for all electrical connectors. The corrosion could also be do to problems, Frigidaire had a bad freezer heater (broken connector) a clogged defrost drain (paper/$hit), and a open temp thermostat (probably corrosion). Hard to say what problem, who ever had it had, it was obviously not defrosting or draining so moisture build up, caused corrosion problems. Sold the Frigidaire for $75 (could have got more/with corrosion issues I'm OK with that). Sold the three side by sides (2 GE's & Whirlpool) to my buddy for $500. We just cleaned them up & they cooled good, my buddy said he would go through them anyway, recharging & will easily double his money. So we both come out good! Now I need to figure out, Should I do Washing Machines, Dryers or Window A/C units this week?

freezers always go for twice as much money on CL in the fall around deer season.

for appliance repair, there are a couple really good forums out there dedicated to both refrigerators and ac/HVAC...also you can get replacement parts dirt cheap on line as well as locally if you have a servall franchise, even door seals and stuff.

for older parts, a lot of times the local repair places still have inventory of stuff no longer made in their vans...have found discontinued heating elements for clothes dryers that way...just gotta ask...