Kitchen Large Electric Appliances - Kenmore Side by Side model 106.5814*800 made by Whirlpool refer question

I have the above mention refrigerator that is about 7 months old that is low on gas. Due to warranty service issues and the fact that I am certified in refrigeration have decided to fix the unit myself.

Last night I brought home my leak detector (but forgot my camera) and found the area that appears to be leaking. It appears to be a stainless piece/coupler that for the life of me I can't figure out what it is there for.

Sorry that I don't currently have any pictures but I am hoping someone will understand what I am describing. This piece is after the copper condensor tubing, is made of what appears to be stainless? and goes up into the cabinet of the machine. It comes back out of the cabinet into the filter drier. I doubt it goes to the evaporator as the cap tube comes out of the filter drier and goes into the cabinet on the far right side and the suction tube comes back out of the cabinet right where the cap tube goes in. Any idea what this tube goes to and why it is in the system? I am curious if it can be bypassed and just replace the line with a piece of copper right over to the filter drier. I cannot find this in any exploded part view.

Thanks,
Bill

It sounds like what you are describing is called a Yoder loop. It is tubing that goes around the perimeter of the front of the cabinet and it's there to add heat to the cabinet metal to keep it from sweating. It can be bypassed,
I've done it on older boxes. Have you serviced low temp cap tube systems before? There is not much room for error. Every phase of the repair is critical and has to be near perfect. The two places where most guys screw up are the dehydration and the refrigerant charging processes. You'll need a micron guage and a digital scale. How long has it been leaking? In warranty terms it's an irrepairable leak and IMHO Sears owes you a fridge. The second you touch it, all warranty is gone.

I repair lo temp cap tube systems in vending machines regularly. Normal cap tube system charges I work with are 7-8.5 oz, 134a systems. The refer system is very similar although the actual application (such as the Yoder Loop) is where I fail. I am hoping that I will be able to get the silver solder to flow enough to seal the pinhole without bypassing the tube. I usually don't work with stainless, how is that to solder? Sand, wire brush, flux, and Stay Silv 15 silver solder?

As far as the warranty, that is a story unto itself and I will gladly void it to ensure a proper repair.

While we are it, any idea on what the duty cycle is supposed to be on the unit?

Copper to steel requires a high silver content brazing alloy. I always used Harris Safety- Silv 56, Sil-Phos 15 doesn't have enough silver. Harris recommends using Stay-Silv black flux on stainless steel. I have always used the white stuff. Black is for situations where localized overheating may occur. Frankly, I think you'll be just fine with the white flux. If you've ever replaced a compressor where the discharge stubout was steel, you know that the steel heats up much faster than the copper does, so you'll want to keep most of your heat on the copper. One good thing about 56 is it flows very nicely and at a little bit lower temp than Sil-Phos 15 does.

here is a page from the JW Harris website

The Harris Products Group - Brazing, Soldering & Welding (http://www.jwharris.com/consumables/alloys.asp?id=30)

I'm not sure what you mean by duty cycle; do you mean run time? Like any other box, run time depends on the # of door openings, ambient temp around the box and such. Domestic boxes use some form of adaptive defrost which means the defrost timing only advances when the cooling cycle is running. Boxes usually defrost 2 to 3 times a day. I always recommend setting the controls at the middle of the range, that's what they are designed for. Let us know how you make out. Thanks.

daddyjohn,

You were right on the money!! The safety silv 56 and white flux worked perfectly. I had never used the 56 before and didn't expect it flow so easily. It made easy work of sweating the stainless. Thank you very much for the tips. You saved me a lot of time, money and aggravation.


Thanks again to a great forum!

Bill

You're welcome. Yeah, 56 is the best for copper/steel connections. It flows real nice. Sometimes instead of trying to hold the roll while brazing, I'll snip off the amount I think I'll use and use small vise grips to hold it. I also do that with 15 rod sometimes when working in a tight spot.