My gal felt bad for the coolant trapped in our old duu yen so she decided to liberate it by making a small hole in one of the tubes of the freezer section. The gas was delighted and rushed out with a big smile and a loud hiss. She and I are less delighted now that we have no cool water to cut through this hot hot heat. The common solution to this situation is to buy a new refrigerator. However, this being Thailand with inexpensive repair costs, I was thinking it might be worth my while having someone plug the hole and put the gas back in its "cage".

Any thoughts/ideas/info on getting this done?

Thanks, Bam

Any proficient air con engineer can weld/braze a patch on the line and recharge the gas. Cost from 500 baht - 1,000 baht depending on your location.

Any proficient air con engineer can weld/braze a patch on the line and recharge the gas. Cost from 500 baht - 1,000 baht depending on your location.

i think a soldered repair would be more suitable if on copper or light steel tube

The refrigerator repair man I had look at mine said the coolant is a closed system with no valves for checking pressure and/or refilling, adding that both of those would have to be done in the shop. Is that brand specific, mine being a Whirlpool side by side? Don't know.

Brazing a patch on the hole is one thing. If there are no refrigerant pressure/fill valves, you might want to take the brand and model particulars to the Niyom Panich appliance repair shop (say) and check with them before having an air conditioner technician work on a refrigerator.

It's a pretty old bugger, too. But it came with the house (rental) and I'll probably get stuck paying for it at a high rate if I don't fix it... Meanwhile, let me go get a drink of hot water....

on small appliances; it will be a crimped copper tube, very close to the compressor....that is where they evacuate and fill....then re-crimp. You will need yo add a valve, if you wish to re-fill. If you let it run after the puncture, your compressor is ruined due to water ingestion.

Yup, located the crimped tube. I think the difficult part will be plugging the hole in the freezer section. Is the material aluminum? Seems pretty soft but it's painted and/or coated in plastic/rubber so I imagine some prepping will need to be done on it.

A company called Saha Paniche (sp) will pick up your fridge (and other appliances), repair and bring it back.. Call them for a quote.

Have used them before, but with mixed results.

Tel 053 220-999 ext 111

They are agents for major companies, including Toyota

T

Rule of thumb:

When fridge coolant is gone time to but new fridge.

There is no repairing it, no matter how positive you want to be.

Ask girlfriend how much she has in her budget for new fridge.

That will get a frosty answer....unlike your fridge.

To conclude: my landlord's husband delivered the fridge somewhere in his pickup truck. It came back after two weeks and is working great, colder than ever. Cost: 1000 baht. The only thing, for the last week it's been making an unholy whining vibration-type racket. I finally pulled it out and looked in the back figuring something was loose. Sure enough, the compressor tank (I guess that's what it is) was completely loose. Obviously, it had been taken out and put back with the 4 nuts just twisted onto the bolts a couple turns. One was missing but the other three I tightened down and the thing is so silent now that I often figure it's broken again.

So, moral of the story, you CAN fix a fridge that has had a hole punched in the gas tubes. Probably manual labor is so pricey in Farangland, and the corporate powers that be so entrenched, that getting this type of repair done OVER THERE is like getting a screw tightened down properly OVER HERE.

No the moral of the story is;

If you have a proprem with anything or anyone in Thailand, a couple of screws in the right place will work wonders.

hmmm, let me think about that...