Can a refrigerator compressor reverse and pump heat?

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jhs914

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I moved a refrigerator to my son's house yesterday. It had been stored in my garage in working condition until I moved it. During the move it fell over while in the trailer. I only had bungee cords to secure it from toppling and needless to say that didn't work. It fell forward onto the doors. The only apparent damage was a dent in the corner of the door and a bent top hinge.

I plugged it in yesterday and told my son to let it run overnight and cool off before transferring food from his other frig. When I returned this morning and opened the frig the inside felt like a warm oven The compressor was somehow running backwards and pumping heat into the frig. I felt the exhaust air at the back and sure enough it felt cool.

The electrical plug is a three prong grounded unit so the plug can't be reversed.

Does anyone know what could have happened to cause this? Did it hurt the compressor to run backwards all night long? I would like to try and fix it myself before calling a repair man.
 
No, it won't pump backwards.... a piston just goes up and down.
On the refrigerator you probably broke/cracked a line and lost the Freon.
 
Originally Posted by KJSmith
No, it won't pump backwards.... a piston just goes up and down.
On the refrigerator you probably broke/cracked a line and lost the Freon.


Did it damage the compressor to run without freon all night?
 
Did you let the fridge stand upright unplugged for 24 hours? The freon is probably "in the wrong place" after being on it's side and needs to settle back into the compressor.
 
I'd unplug it and let sit for a day or two.

My experience:
We had a electric outage and I was running the frig (occasionally) using a portable generator.
When the power came back on, I plug the frig in to the house current and it did not work.
I always suspected the frig compressor was out of cycle.
I unplugged it for one day and it then started working.

Why it was warm ?
Maybe the motor was running but the compressor was not doing its thing.
Good Luck
 
Originally Posted by jhs914
Originally Posted by KJSmith
No, it won't pump backwards.... a piston just goes up and down.
On the refrigerator you probably broke/cracked a line and lost the Freon.


Did it damage the compressor to run without freon all night?


Probably not.
The reason you let one sit upright after laying it down is to let the oil settle back into the compressor.
A short time on its side probably did no harm.
The Freon not only cools the inside, but it also cools the compressor motor.
Most compressors are equipped with thermal overloads... most refrigerators that I have seen have an external overload on the top near the electrical connections.

If the compressor gets hot, it should shut it down before any damage is done.
It can take some time to reset.

You can let it sit and see what happens, certainly won't hurt.
When you restart it try and verify the compressor is running.
 
I'm not a expert in the field but I've seen on refrigerators advertising they use efficient linear compressors. Would that make a difference here?
 
Still has a piston, it either goes up and down or side by side.
On a typical piston compressor, it doesn't matter which way the motor runs.
You still have valves...not like a combustion engine but reed valves... they only work in one direction.

A scroll will run backwards but not pump and they make a horrible noise when doing so.
 
Originally Posted by Kibitoshin
Did you let the fridge stand upright unplugged for 24 hours? The freon is probably "in the wrong place" after being on it's side and needs to settle back into the compressor.


This ^^^^^.

Unplug it and let it set for 24 hours. The freon will run back down to where it is supposed to be. Plug it back in and all will be well.
 
You probably broke a refrigerant line somewhere-if a refrigerator is ran with an empty system, they will cause the inside (& everything else) to get hotter because no freon is moving. Need to cut the process tube, solder/braze on an access fitting, pump it up with about 150 PSI of nitrogen, see where it leaks out.
 
IMO there could be a defrost element on the inside .......... when the thing fell over could have disturbed the connections on the defrost timer (or the timer itself got damaged) and the element is cooking the inside of the fridge.

There are also defrost systems where the flow of the coolant is reversed by way of a solenoid valve controlled again by a timer ............ same problem as above. In this case its also possible to damage the solenoid valve mechanically and prevent the system entering normal cooling cycle
 
Had similar problem many years ago and was told to lay fridg on it`s back for a couple hours then stand it up for 24 hours. Did so and it worked fine. The defrost element did heat the box but for only it`s cycle. The timer had a loud set of contacks that would wake the dead
 
One thing I have learned about moving or buying used refrigerators is that, they don't like laying down during the move and must be kept in the upright position.

I have purchased perfect running used refrigerators for my vacation/rental property in FL. And the only way I was able to get the fridge to my house was to lay it down in a buddy's pickup truck. They just don't seem to run properly after that.
 
Originally Posted by Char Baby
One thing I have learned about moving or buying used refrigerators is that, they don't like laying down during the move and must be kept in the upright position.

I have purchased perfect running used refrigerators for my vacation/rental property in FL. And the only way I was able to get the fridge to my house was to lay it down in a buddy's pickup truck. They just don't seem to run properly after that.


The refrigerators that I see have the compressors' feet planted down through short rods from the chassis. But no bolts to keep them on tight. This allows the compressors to wobble a bit when they start up, are in operation, or turn off. I guess they get out of position when you lay them down during transport and fracture a freon line. When I buy a ref, the movers always have them upright, never on their side or lying down. The boxes they ship in also warn "Keep Upright."
 
Success! Those of you who said to leave the frig unplugged and upright overnight were right. I plugged in back in this morning and it now cooling correctly. Thanks!
 
An easy solution is to keep it unplugged overnight at the place where you installing it to let lubricant go into crankcase slowly after being moved in the system during transport. Some old refrigerators used to fail due to hydraulic shock from oil in wrong parts of the compressor.
 
Glad to hear that it worked out for you. This is one of those simple solutions that can typically be found by reading the Owner's Manual. A rare practice indeed.
 
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