I'm an idiot. Broke my Waeco fridge

[Yellowbay]

I’ll bet welding is cheaper

[svDrifter]

I would try West System's G-Flex. I've had much better luck getting it adhere to a difficult surface, like aluminum. I would cut a small round "band-aid" of fiberglass cloth and glue it over the hole, then wet out the cloth with a bit more G-Flex. I'd would be surprised if that did NOT patch the leak. Then, of course, you'll have to recharge. (I've patched many difficult things this way, including a leaking plastic outboard fuel tank, which has now been in use for 5-6 years without issue.)

As for deicing in the future, I find that a low pressure hose does an excellent job in quick order. (I use the hose on my sink, using warm water.) In short order, you can pop off large chunks of ice, with your hands, and without risk of damaging the fragile condenser.

I keep the reefer drain closed, and vacuum out the water with a wet vac, when finished, then dry it with an old terry towel. It never takes me more than 15 minutes to do the whole job... and the reefer gets cleaned in the process.

svDrifter

[Chadstjulien]

I've worked in residential a\c and trained in refridgeration. We always replaced a leak in coil because the wall of the coil is too thin to weld or solder, if you are able to seal the hole, then the tap shown by someone else who wrote about this would be the way to recharge with refridgerant. On the subject of refridgerant, r-12 and r22 are hard to come by and very expensive when you can find them.

[QuentinC]

As a professional Hvac guy, i would be willing to supply the labor for free, in exchange for a day of cruising. Lol. Is the pipes aluminum or copper? JBweld will not work. Copper you can fix easy. Adding in a service port is easy. If it was frozen, two things, low on freon, you already had a leak or two your seals are bad letting in moisture. At worst you can order a new coil and have it installed. The system after repairs needs to be pressure tested and vacuum. It cannot have anything but pure freon. The freon has to be the correct type. If you have more questions. Pm me. I work on hvac for a living.

[BoatGuyBill]

Don’t be too hard on yourself. I had one of these packed in our camper. It was on top of another cooler right next to the door. As we were leaving to go camping my wife suggested I lock the door. I couldn’t think of why so I didn’t.

We were nearly to our campground when a guy came running up behind us at a stop and let me know that our camper door was hanging open. Yes, it’s true. The fridge must have slidden off the cooler, onto the lever-style door handle, causing the door to open and the fridge to fly out. Fun!

[QuentinC]

Also, if it is aluminum, check out muggy weld products. Simple torch to solder aluminum. Practice first. R12 or r22, go to ebay. You can buy piercing Schrader valves. No solder required. Now you only need gauges and vacuum pump.

[DeBe]

Been using this stuff for years to repair refrigerant leaks on aluminium evaporators & ive never had any trouble with it. This was a small leak in a new fridge & it was not in a position that could be brazed easily. Also a lot of new fridges the copper pipe to aluminium tubing uses an epoxy & then crimped.

[OS2Dude]

I've never had long term success with saddle vales. Also, you are not just trying to repair a hole, but a hole in a THIN walled passage that needs to stay open. Just slapping a ton of epoxy or solder in there will likely block it and it still wont work.

[Tricolor]

Originally Posted by qazvick

Well this is the dumbest thing I've ever done. Long story short, I was letting the frozen over fridge/freezer melt out and got impatient. I started chipping away with a flathead and small hammer. Wasn't really that difficult and I wasn't really banging away that hard. But, alas, I have learned the hard way how fragile the tubes holding freon in the cold plates are.

I punctured one.

I was going to try to fix the leak. JB weld? Can it actually be legitimately welded?

Also, even if this is the case, I've come to notice that this danfoss bd35f has ZERO ports available to recharge the system. Nothing for me to screw on an attachment ANYwhere. Is this typical? Everything I find online shows my exact compressor but with attachments.

This is an old Weaco Coolmatic 80. Model RD-80B.

Any guidance much appreciated.

I'm going to go drink about it now.

Over 25 years ago I did exactly the same.... I repaired it then by cleaning the area with grinding paper up to the aluminum and filled the hole with Araldite glue (never forgot the name) I know from the present owner that he still uses this old ice box with my repaired vaporizer. So this repair last now for over 25 years.

[DeBe]

On the Danfoss compressor there is a Service tail to fit the schrader fiting, Its the same for either R12 or R134A which the later ones have. Theres the instructions for the Epoxy, & a picture of a Waeco evaporator. Unless the hole is realy large then theres no risk of the epoxy blocking the pipe, as the epoxy is not that runny. I have repaired countless holed evaporators over the years using this process.

[LargeMarge]

I asked my neighbor the HVAC gal. She says the tears in your plumbing can be silver-soldered, then pressure-test the system using nitrogen, then evacuate the system, then fill with the appropriate gas.

No valves? Hmmm. How did the manufacturer purge then fill the system before the fridge was installed? I'm leaning toward sky-hooks and unicorn sharts.

I think you furnished a dandy lesson for impatient idiot me. With this in mind, how much time would I save by using a bigger hammer? Do you recommend twin/dual flat-blades, one in each hand? Do you honestly truly believe the supervising babes need to wear all their bikini parts during the 'defrosting'? I ask because I want to be sure before I start.

Thanks in advance!

[87Catalina34]

Oh shoots. Good to know I’m not the only one to have made this costly mistake. 4 years ago , I was told JB weld would not hold very long, if at all. I ended up getting a new compressor and ice box from Adler Barbour, since it was a cheaper combo. The new control unit lasted 4 years of nonliveaboard use. I was able to order a new control unit. I bring this up because the new unit no longer comes with a huge heat dissipator, indicating better efficiency. We’ll see. Please post your results and good luck.

[hellosailor]

Marge-
Anytime an "AC guy" mentions using nitrogen, that's a good sign. The crooks claim it doesn't exist, so they can use refrigerant gas and charge two or three times what they should be charging, because they need, you know, all that expensive gas. (When cheap nitrogen is all they really need.)
It is COMMON is just about everything except cars and central AC systems to not have service valves. Why waste money on valves, which have seals and will leak, when they can just have a permanently sealed fill tail? There is some logic in that, even if it is arguable.

Plugging leaks with epoxy, without blocking the tube, is easy. You put a spot of metal duct tape over the hole, and then nothing can get in to clog it. Then you epoxy over the tubing and tape, forming a seal over all of it.

Silver soldering on aluminum...evaporators are often aluminum. I'm not sure solder will stick, and if you try brazing or welding, they are thin enough to just melt and burn away instead. It takes more skills and practice than epoxy.

The best place to get these repairs done is in Texas, where apparently because of the heat and coastal humidity, they allow incompetent repairmen to be hung, right alongside the horse thieves. Tends to keep the survivors honest and hard working.

[smith8273]

I'm mostly a weekend cruiser, and I discovered a great and easy way to defrost. I have a built in box that now has a refrigerator plate.

My marina has a ice machine, so on a overnighter I fill the box, put the beer on top of the ice, and the food on the cold plate and on a wire shelf. Turn off the fridge.

Sail and have fun. Electron worry free! Come back and turn on my now ice free fridge.

[qazvick]

Well... Ive patched it with JB Weld marine. Forgot a buddy of mine does HVAC. He soldered on a port then vac'd and charged it. Its been 10 hrs and so far so good. Only time will tell.

I appreciate all the replies. Been a great help!