15 year old Freezer started getting warmer, we noticed it on Friday but it's basically still just about maintaining -6C or so, so not a complete failure. Now my Mrs (with her super nose) has said she smelled a strange sort of gas smell half way between house gas and ozone. Some ice chipping has recently taken place, however not near the shelves/pipes on this occasion. Is it plausible that there's a tiny leak? If so, are we in any kind of danger? I haven't been feeling the best the last week or so, but I've not spent that much time in the kitchen which is 2 floors below where we spend most of our time.
We've already ordered a new one because this one is a bit knackered in general - it's arriving tomorrow morning so no fix required.
Our Samsung fridge started leaking water at the back after a couple of years - I found that there was a part at the back which heated up and evaporated some fluid into the air (part of frost free?) and they can come not set up quite right at the factory. First noticed the freezer icing up. I did a bit of tweaking at the back and it’s been fine for 10years plus.
Yes, and no.
IIRC a restaurant in that London's Leicester Square once had a leaky refrigerator that led to employees complaining of an array of symptoms, que the London Ambulance Service and London Fire Brigade arguing over who's Hazardous Area Response Team was in charge, the LFB won as they had the best toys. I think ammonia was the issue. Good luck!
It'll be bog standard refrigerant, so HFC 134, same stuff you use in your car, HVAC, etc, only real risk from it is that it's an asphyxiant, as it's denser than air, but it would have to displace all the air to cause any issues, so you'll be safe as it'll probably already have dissipated.
Thanks ^^
Some ice chipping has recently taken place, however not near the shelves/pipes on this occasion.
My wife did exactly this. The scratches matching the serrated bread knife blade suggested slight mission creep
Is it plausible that there’s a tiny leak?
Several in my experience, but the major harm will be to your finances
At 15 years old it could be R134a (HFC) or iso-butane. It should be on the rating plate.
My wife did exactly this. The scratches matching the serrated bread knife blade suggested slight mission creep
Oh, I have beaten the shit out of it in the past, for sure 🙂 Before I realised that the best way by far to defrost a freezer is to set up a fan to blow room temperature air into it.
Several in my experience, but the major harm will be to your finances
I hope the new one will be better. There is an average of about 200W overnight in our house, thinking part of that could be an over-worked frosted up fridge.
The new one claims to be genuinely frost-free, let's see how that goes.
Is it plausible that there’s a tiny leak? If so, are we in any kind of danger?
As others have said - its almost certainly R134a - which is an asphyxiant, but you'd need quite a high concentration in an enclosed space to do you any harm.
Any gas leaking from your fridge will fall to floor level and dissipate pretty quickly.
