Res fridge blowing warm air
After I bought a 2-zone fridge thermometer I noticed how strange res fridge works. When it starts cycling - sometimes, not always - it blows warm air in both fridge and freezer compartment, for a m...
Forum Discussion
Almot wrote:
So it does this on purpose? I don't get much frost, all it does is warming up my food. And it blows warm air in the fridge compartment as well, where it doesn't make any sense. Probably embedded in the firmware, can't be deleted.
You should not see any frost with a "frost free" residential fridge, if you do, it has a problem.
How FF fridge works is the cooling coils are in the back of the freezer behind a false wall. There is a fan which pulls the air across the coils, some of the air is directed into the freezer section and some of the air is directed to the fridge section.
Over time frost builds up on the coils in the freezer section so the idea is clear the frost off the coils quickly enough so you don't end up with a block of ice at 32F instead of the sub zero F you would get from the bare coils..
How the clearing works is there is a small 120W-250W 120V heater attached to the coils in the freezer. The heater is cycled on with typically the compressor and fan turned off for a preset time only when the T stat calls for cooling and the proper amount of compressor run time has elapsed.
In the case of my home fridge conversion in my TT, the manufacturer used a mechanical timer which runs the defrost cycle once for ten minutes for every ten hrs the compressor has been running.
It is possible that some fridges may simply run the heater with compressor off but have the fan on for a short defrost cycle.
I would not take much concern about it blowing some warmer air for a minute or two as long as it cools down fast. Basically the air in the freezer may be warmer than the coils and until the compressor kicks on and starts cooling the coils the fan is just circulating the warmer air..
