Loading…
28
Thought the thermal camera was a gimmick until I traced a shorted defrost heater behind a freezer wall in 6 minutes
Back when they first got popular I figured a $200 thermal camera was just a toy for home inspectors, so I kept using my hand and a meter like always. Then a call came in on a Whirlpool side by side in Renton where the freezer kept warming up and I had already pulled the back panel twice with nothing to show. I borrowed my buddy's FLIR, pointed it at the evaporator cover, and saw one warm stripe running down the coil in about 6 minutes flat. Turned out the defrost heater had shorted and was heating in the wrong spot the whole time. Any of you still doing it the old way or is the camera in your bag now?
1 comments
Log in to join the discussion
Log In1 Comment
paulk8917d ago
How did you manage before the camera on those weird intermittent ones? I had a Frigidaire last winter where the fridge side was fine but the freezer would warm up every couple days, and I did the whole song and dance with my meter and my hand on the coil. Pulled the evaporator cover off and on probably three times before I finally broke down and bought a cheap thermal cam off Amazon. Found the heater wire rubbed through against the edge of the coil, just one little hot spot glowing on the screen. That job paid for the camera right there. I still carry my meter for confirming stuff but the camera goes in first now on anything weird. Feels like cheating sometimes, lol. I bet the old timers would give us grief for it but who cares when the truck is rolling again.
3