Cost of fridge recharge

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anniebray

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Our fridge performance recently severely dropped off so I got a technician to recharge the refrigerant. The cost for barely an hours work 130Euros ! The fridge now works OK but is this level of charge the norm ?
BTW the job was done in Lyon,France.
 
anniebray said:
Our fridge performance recently severely dropped off so I got a technician to recharge the refrigerant. The cost for barely an hours work 130Euros ! The fridge now works OK but is this level of charge the norm ?
BTW the job was done in Lyon,France.
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NO! NO! That is way way over the top. You were ripped off big time.

Have a glass or two of fine french wine, it will at least make you feel better.

Fair winds

Peter
 
anniebray said:
Our fridge performance recently severely dropped off so I got a technician to recharge the refrigerant. The cost for barely an hours work 130Euros ! The fridge now works OK but is this level of charge the norm ?
BTW the job was done in Lyon,France.
Click to expand...
I hate to dissalusion you BUT ask the question, where did the gas go. It must have leaked out somewhere, if you havent fixed the leak then you will be paying froggie again!
Stu
 
Agree, no real point in recharging until you know where the original refrigerant has gone. In fact I’d suggest that simply charging a system without at least checking for leaks is probably illegal, or at least it was when I was last involved with industrial refrigeration systems around 15 years ago. Deliberately discharging a refrigerant, including R134a was also illegal then, so presume it still is now?
 
Thanks for all replies, I'm starting to learn about fridges !

The French techy didn't speak english & neither is my French good so a lot of communication was lost. The fridge, a top loader Vitrifrigo is just 4yrs old. The plate had only about 25% icing so I deduced shortage of refrigerant which was confirmed by techy. I assumed natural wastage, how often should one expect to recharge ? Just hope it will function till I get home about mid-Aug !!
 
anniebray said:
Thanks for all replies, I'm starting to learn about fridges !

The French techy didn't speak english & neither is my French good so a lot of communication was lost. The fridge, a top loader Vitrifrigo is just 4yrs old. The plate had only about 25% icing so I deduced shortage of refrigerant which was confirmed by techy. I assumed natural wastage, how often should one expect to recharge ? Just hope it will function till I get home about mid-Aug !!
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Recharge should be "Never"; there should be NO natural wastage. Refrigeration circuits are sealed; ANY loss of refrigerant is a fault. So, if you were losing refrigerant, the first action would be to fix the fault, THEN recharge the system. I'd guess the charge was mainly for fixing the fault.
 
AntarcticPilot said:
Recharge should be "Never"; there should be NO natural wastage. Refrigeration circuits are sealed; ANY loss of refrigerant is a fault. So, if you were losing refrigerant, the first action would be to fix the fault, THEN recharge the system. I'd guess the charge was mainly for fixing the fault.
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Is that true? Domestic refrigerators are "sealed for life" but a lot of others aren't, car air conditioning circuits for example. I am just guessing, but maybe 12V pumps are less reliable and are mounted in a way that makes them replaceable, with flanges and associated potential leak points? However, as others have said, it is necessary to find and fix any leaks before refilling.
If the system is sealed, like a domestic system, you won't be able to recharge it anyway!
 
anniebray said:
The French techy didn't speak english & neither is my French good
Click to expand...

hence the rip off prices - you are a foreigner and the French think we are all well off. Had a similar experience in France when I needed a repaired starter motor on a Yanmar 2GM - they wanted to charge £600 without even fitting! Took it into the next big town and found a car spares place on a backstreet - about £50 from memory.
 
CreakyDecks said:
Is that true? Domestic refrigerators are "sealed for life" but a lot of others aren't, car air conditioning circuits for example. I am just guessing, but maybe 12V pumps are less reliable and are mounted in a way that makes them replaceable, with flanges and associated potential leak points? However, as others have said, it is necessary to find and fix any leaks before refilling.
If the system is sealed, like a domestic system, you won't be able to recharge it anyway!
Click to expand...
Car compressors have a seal around the pulley shaft, ceramic usually, if not used they leak a bit so could have a natural leakage. Compressors like mine on my Bene are sealed units, they dont leak except for if they have a bad quick disconnect, so if the system wants charging then there is a leak and it needs fixing.
Stu
 
skipper_stu said:
I hate to dissalusion you BUT ask the question, where did the gas go. It must have leaked out somewhere, if you havent fixed the leak then you will be paying froggie again!
Stu
Click to expand...

Or in our case having paid €110 to have the fridge re-gassed, a month later it cost another €1,100 to have a complete new fridge compressor and cooling plate installed.:eek:

Bit disappointed as the boat is only five years old.:(
 
lefkasman said:
Would realy like to know who did the job for you, I am having problems finding someone who fixes fridges here, there is a guy who trades as "Stiff Nipples" but I have heard bad reports about him, so who was it you used ?
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For a quicker reply you may be better to send Davy a pm. just click on his name and it will let you pm direct from there.

Sometimes after posting people may not come back to that thread for a while.
 
Refrigeration systems in fridges are sealed for life, unlike a car compressor the compressors in a fridge are fully hermetic, the motor and oppressor are contained inside a sealed pot.

The best way to recharge would include recovery of the refrigerant, then evacuation (using a vac pump) of all the air and more importantly the moisture in the system, this process also provides the check necessary to determin if there are even minute leaks, if the gauge detects a leak the engineer will (should) not weigh in any new refrigerant.

The charging caps and shrader valves, that the engineer uses to gain access into the system and onnects his gauges to, are usually very efficient seals indeed, but that's were most minute leaks may occur from time-to-time. Unlike other systems that have semi-hermetic compressors.

As or the charge (financial), it depends what refrigerant he used, if he had to buy a new dumpy of it, if he did his job properly using correct recovery/evacuation procedures, if he trim charged or needed to dispose of old refrigerant because of many factors, was it regarded as an urgent call-out (unlikely I know), how far he travelled to get to you, if he found the leak (perhaps not just a flare nut) and repaired it and many other factors.

If the fridge is working well it's probably worth it, as has been said, cool a decent wine and forget it! In saying all that it does sound a little steep......!
 
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