Can I put my fridge on a timer?
April 25, 2021 4:22 AM Subscribe
My 5 year old fridge must be defective - it gets far too cold and no amount of adjustment fixes it. I've fully defrosted it and tried other things. Sure I need to get it repaired or replaced I know. ANYWAY - in the meantime: I have an electronic timer plug thing that I can program a schedule on. Would it terrible if I used that to cut the power to the whole fridge for a couple of hours in the middle of the night and the middle of the day (when I'm at work)?
Extra info: it's half fridge/half freezer. As I say 5-6 years old. About as tall as I am. Would cutting power like on a schedule this damage it? Cause long-term issues? Would it actually help my problem of the chiller compartment getting far too cold (it ices up in fact). I'm not thinking of it going on/off too often - cycles of many hours. I figure obviously I'd had to monitor the effect and adjust the timing - but I welcome some advice and knowledgeable input. It's help about the timer I particularly want please rather than general fridge advice.
Extra info: it's half fridge/half freezer. As I say 5-6 years old. About as tall as I am. Would cutting power like on a schedule this damage it? Cause long-term issues? Would it actually help my problem of the chiller compartment getting far too cold (it ices up in fact). I'm not thinking of it going on/off too often - cycles of many hours. I figure obviously I'd had to monitor the effect and adjust the timing - but I welcome some advice and knowledgeable input. It's help about the timer I particularly want please rather than general fridge advice.
You've just invented pulse-width modulation, just on a longer time-scale than it's usually used.
As to "will that damage it"? I have done something similar, but more aggressive, on a fridge/freezer and it is still working fine. It's probably a bit older than your one, so if your fridge has an LCD or something, I dunno if they want the power-cycling.
My experience: I spliced a relay into the power of the fridge, and put my own digital thermometer inside to control it. I needed the fridge to operate warmer than normal (for cheese), so if the fridge got too cold, my rig would just cut the power. The fridge was outside during the Jan-20 heatwave here, so it would've been switching many times a day (possibly many times an hour).
Summary: it likely won't bother the fridge itself - if your fridge has wifi or something, IDK.
posted by pompomtom at 4:57 AM on April 25, 2021
As to "will that damage it"? I have done something similar, but more aggressive, on a fridge/freezer and it is still working fine. It's probably a bit older than your one, so if your fridge has an LCD or something, I dunno if they want the power-cycling.
My experience: I spliced a relay into the power of the fridge, and put my own digital thermometer inside to control it. I needed the fridge to operate warmer than normal (for cheese), so if the fridge got too cold, my rig would just cut the power. The fridge was outside during the Jan-20 heatwave here, so it would've been switching many times a day (possibly many times an hour).
Summary: it likely won't bother the fridge itself - if your fridge has wifi or something, IDK.
posted by pompomtom at 4:57 AM on April 25, 2021
It ought to be possible to program a timer to approximate the same duty cycle and achieve the same overall cooling effect in an open-loop fashion, though you'd need to be monitoring the interior temperature and tweaking the duty cycle fairly often by hand to get it anywhere near stable.
Hadn't thought of approximating a normal duty cycle. I just cut the power when too cold, and left a bit of a gap between the on-temp and the off-temp.
OP: As flabdablet says, your plan is likely too slow to maintain the temp you're after. If you're this way inclined, you could do this with a DS18B20, a 5v relay module of some sort and the cheapest arduino you can conveniently power in situ - possibly $10 of hardware from aliexpress.
posted by pompomtom at 5:18 AM on April 25, 2021
Hadn't thought of approximating a normal duty cycle. I just cut the power when too cold, and left a bit of a gap between the on-temp and the off-temp.
OP: As flabdablet says, your plan is likely too slow to maintain the temp you're after. If you're this way inclined, you could do this with a DS18B20, a 5v relay module of some sort and the cheapest arduino you can conveniently power in situ - possibly $10 of hardware from aliexpress.
posted by pompomtom at 5:18 AM on April 25, 2021
Turning the fridge on and off on a schedule is not a good thing. You will stress the compressor unnecessarily, and lead to its eventual early demise.
You need to get a repair person in to look at it. The fridge that came with my house was acting more like a freezer, no matter how I adjusted the controls. I got a tech in and he sussed that this odd little probe thingie was dead, and he replaced it. Problem solved.
Also: Do you have the owner's manual for the thing, to make sure you are setting the controls properly? The controls on my fridge are horribly non-intuitive.
posted by Thorzdad at 5:29 AM on April 25, 2021 [2 favorites]
You need to get a repair person in to look at it. The fridge that came with my house was acting more like a freezer, no matter how I adjusted the controls. I got a tech in and he sussed that this odd little probe thingie was dead, and he replaced it. Problem solved.
Also: Do you have the owner's manual for the thing, to make sure you are setting the controls properly? The controls on my fridge are horribly non-intuitive.
posted by Thorzdad at 5:29 AM on April 25, 2021 [2 favorites]
Did it just start doing this or has it been like this for a while? I ask because a month ago I could have written this exact AskMe and today my fridge doesn't work at all. It ran too cold for about a week, week and a half, then started to warm up. Mine's a 4 year old Whirlpool and there's secret maintenance documentation hidden in the bottom detailing how to get it to go into diagnostic mode and it will self-test and possibly indicate through the temp setting lights what components pass or fail. But mine will not go into diagnostic mode, no matter how hard I try. I found forum posts detailing the same issues.
posted by glonous keming at 5:31 AM on April 25, 2021
posted by glonous keming at 5:31 AM on April 25, 2021
Instead of a timer, set the fridge thermostat to as cold as possible and plug the fridge into to a temperature controller. That will allow the temp controller to decide when to run. I use an Inkbird ITC308 for my Homebrew setup (available other places online for a better price).
I can't be sure how well this can balance a fridge/freezer combo, but I'd trust this more than a timer. Pair it up with a second thermometer that displays min/max to ensures the non-monitored compartment never goes out of food safe territory.
posted by token-ring at 6:08 AM on April 25, 2021 [2 favorites]
I can't be sure how well this can balance a fridge/freezer combo, but I'd trust this more than a timer. Pair it up with a second thermometer that displays min/max to ensures the non-monitored compartment never goes out of food safe territory.
posted by token-ring at 6:08 AM on April 25, 2021 [2 favorites]
I would suggest you get a competent repairman to REALLY look over it, but you need to get everything OUT of it first.
posted by kschang at 8:16 AM on April 25, 2021
posted by kschang at 8:16 AM on April 25, 2021
Isn't there a concern that the food could go through frozen / unfrozen cycles to its detriment?
posted by DanSachs at 8:16 AM on April 25, 2021 [1 favorite]
posted by DanSachs at 8:16 AM on April 25, 2021 [1 favorite]
I wouldn't do it as Thorzdad said, but if you do, make sure to use a timer that is rated to handle the nameplate ratings on your fridge.
posted by drezdn at 9:37 AM on April 25, 2021 [1 favorite]
posted by drezdn at 9:37 AM on April 25, 2021 [1 favorite]
Yes you could cut power at the wall to control your fridge's temperature, but like someone else said, it would be way more frequently than twice a day.
Refrigerators are not complicated machines when you disregard all the bells and whistles. I'm not trying to be rude, but I feel like using YouTube and Google to troubleshoot and fix it right would most likely be just as fast and cheap as the work-around, and you should still be able to get parts for a 5-6 y.o. machine.
posted by ctmf at 10:44 AM on April 25, 2021 [2 favorites]
Refrigerators are not complicated machines when you disregard all the bells and whistles. I'm not trying to be rude, but I feel like using YouTube and Google to troubleshoot and fix it right would most likely be just as fast and cheap as the work-around, and you should still be able to get parts for a 5-6 y.o. machine.
posted by ctmf at 10:44 AM on April 25, 2021 [2 favorites]
I wouldn't do it as Thorzdad said, but if you do, make sure to use a timer...
Um...I recommended getting a technician.
posted by Thorzdad at 11:49 AM on April 25, 2021
Um...I recommended getting a technician.
posted by Thorzdad at 11:49 AM on April 25, 2021
Um...I recommended getting a technician.
I meant to say that your reasoning for getting a technician seems right to me, but if they are going to try the timer thing anyways they should make sure it was rated for the fridge.
posted by drezdn at 1:29 PM on April 25, 2021
I meant to say that your reasoning for getting a technician seems right to me, but if they are going to try the timer thing anyways they should make sure it was rated for the fridge.
posted by drezdn at 1:29 PM on April 25, 2021
A malfunctioning refrigerator was the source of an electrical fire that burned down my grandfather's house (he was ok). I would like to second the recommendation of a technician.
posted by ewok_academy at 8:38 PM on April 26, 2021 [1 favorite]
posted by ewok_academy at 8:38 PM on April 26, 2021 [1 favorite]
« Older Would this be a dealbreaker for you? | Women’s Basic High-Quality Shirts for larger sizes Newer »
This thread is closed to new comments.
If the fridge were working properly, its thermostat would normally be cycling the compressor on and off several times per hour. It ought to be possible to program a timer to approximate the same duty cycle and achieve the same overall cooling effect in an open-loop fashion, though you'd need to be monitoring the interior temperature and tweaking the duty cycle fairly often by hand to get it anywhere near stable.
posted by flabdablet at 4:51 AM on April 25, 2021 [1 favorite]