We had a cold-freezer-warm-fridge situation which required immediate intervention. Taking off the freezer back panel revealed not only the evaporator completely frosted over but also the coil inlet and defrost thermostat completely encased in solid ice.
I did the obvious thing and defrosted everything. Next question is : what went wrong ? Is the defrost heater broken? (read 30 Ohms on the multimeter so should be good) Is the bimetal defrost thermostat defective? (would have to take the evaporator fan assembly apart to get to the leads so... dunno) Has the control board gone bad?
I decided to put the fridge back online, but this time connected through one of those slightly chatty Thirdreality energy-monitoring plugs and with a Sonoff temp sensor thrown in a ziploc bag, both of them hooked up to Grafana via the InfluxDB Logger app, so I could see what's going on.
Nice compressor startup spikes So it's pretty clear the compressor is getting cycled as expected. Not sure what the short little spikes are... damper door? evap fan? Fridge was open a bit long around 1pm when my spouse loaded it with food, so temp went up. Otherwise seems like temp control is working OK (the SNZB-02 is not exactly a precise instrument).
Finally the event I was actually looking for occurred at 3:30pm : compressor turns off, then a 480W load for 10 min., then compressor turns back on. Sure looks like that 30 Ohm defrost heater is getting juice.
Pretty cool I was able to confirm everything is working as it should using $20 worth of stuff I had in a drawer. What went wrong? The only thing I haven't ruled out yet is the sealed system,
(someone later remembered the freezer door "might" have been left a open a crack for a "little" while)
That is why I have a Hue motion sensor in a ziplock back in my fridge's freezer. It's a triple threat with motion, temp, and lux. You can get ahead of temp rise by a timed lux notification.
I have temp/humidity sensors in the fridge/freezer and the snake food freezer which trip a Google routine to tell me to check the function of whichever one.. It trips after the sensor temp climbs over a certain point. Seems to work well. Surprised my carer today anyway.. I got some WiFi tuya T/H sensors spares so I used them for that purpose... Surprised how well they're working.
Does anyone know a way of dehumidifying the inside of a freezer because my fridge/freezer has a fetish for icing itself up solid.. I've tried the chemical evaporative types and they're useless...
Do you have any water running into the evaporator pan at the bottom of the fridge? If the drain tube from the freezer to the evap pan is blocked, the defrosted ice (water) will remain in the freezer, were it will refreeze, and continuously increase in thickness.
Thanks. The drain is working fine. What you are describing is in fact a pretty common problem on this model and was fixed on this unit a few years in. Typically the accumulated water will drip down to the bottom of the freezer where it will ice up in an ever thickening sheet.
I don't know about your fridge, but most have a defrost timer. Might google your model to see if it has one, and where it is.
I do similar, graphing power but just a temp/motion sensor in the fridge part. Do the same for my chest freezer. The power graph over time definitely will help show something is out of whack.
The temp sensor has a rule, to send a message to both of our cell phones to check the fridge.
FWIW, I'm using the OG Iris motion sensor that does temp/humidity. No plastic bag. Been in there for years and still going strong.
I've Tuya zigbee sensors in the fridge/freezer and the freezer for the snakes food. They seem to transmit fine but the batteries don't last very long, due to cold.
Have an alert through Google mini if the temps climb.
Try covering the sensor with Scotch Tape.
It's my assumption (don't know if it's true or not), that encasing the sensor in scotch tape significantly increases battery life.
Another (or additional) way to lengthen battery life: put a (wired) repeater very close to the sensor (in direct line of sight).
Get yourself the Zigbee Tuya temp/humidity sensors that use two AAA batteries. The batteries last forever even in freezers and refrigerators especially if you use Lithium batteries.
Thanks for mentioning this I was curious of the cost so I did a search. They have them listed on the walmart site and you can 8 of them for $8.35. I have several Iris V1 sensors I want to replace so I can shut down the C7 hub in my house and go to just using the C8. This will take care of many of them. I have been using the V1 sensors in my refrigerators and freezers for temp sensors. If these work I can swap out most that I have left. Even if they don't I am not out alot.
This seemed too good to be true and I guess it was. I received my package today and this is what I got. Ok, I am getting a bit grey and the hair has thinned a bit since my youth, but I don't really need this. Yet.
So it's pretty clear the compressor is getting cycled as expected. Not sure what the short little spikes are... damper door? evap fan? Fridge was open a bit long around 1pm when my spouse loaded it with food, so temp went up. Otherwise seems like temp control is working OK (the SNZB-02 is not exactly a precise instrument).
