>christofire wrote:
>>
>> >
>> > Androcles wrote:
>> >>
>> >> Old wives' tales still abound. I was recently told that my new
>> >> fridge/freezer
>> >> should not be turned on for 24 hours because it had been tilted
>> >> horizontally
>> >> bringing it in through the front door and I should wait for the fluid to
>> >> settle.
>> >
>> >
>> > It's not 'fluid', it is the oil needed to keep the compressor from
>> > destroying itself. If enough had drained into the freon lines, the
>> > compressor would have seized up, and you would be out the price of the
>> > repair, since stupidity isn't covered by the warranty.
>> >
>> > As always, there is no accounting for know it alls.
>>
>> You mean the lubricating oil that surrounds the compressor, which also keeps
>> it cool by conducting heat away to the surrounding steel can, is free to
>> pass to the other side of the piston that is usually compressing the
>> refrigerant (i.e. freon, pentane, or whatever) and to have 'drained into the
>> freon lines' if the fridge is held horizontally? Then, (assuming there
>> isn't a one-way valve for oil into freon - and if so, why?) wouldn't the
>> freon have access to the other side of the piston so the compressor would be
>> 'short circuited' - and wouldn't work?
>
>
> The oil isn't compressible. Think about it: What would happen if
>you filled a cylinder in your car's engine with motor oil when it was in
>the compression stroke, and tried to start it? You would burn out the
>starter motor, but not tun the engine over. Now think about a tiny
>compressor with a small electric motor in the same situation.
>
>As far as Androcles, he has the story wrong, as usual. If a
>refrigerator or freezer is transported horizontally, it is in that
>position more than a few minutes, and has vibration that helps the oil
>flow where it doesn't belong.
>
> Have you ever looked at what is inside a small Freon compressor? It
>is sealed to reduce the chances of a Freon leak, but is identical to the
>50+ year old designs that had the exposed compressor mounted on springs.
>The oil is inside the compressor, not the outer housing. I've seen a
>lot of them scrapped, and not one had any oil in the outer housing,
>unless the compressor's body was damaged.
>
>
> Owners manuals used to have that warning on the front, the back, and
>sometimes two or three more places, along with a plastic bag taped over
>the AC plug with another warning you to let it sit after delivery. They
>figured that a 24 hour wait was no big deal, compared to 20 or more
>years of useful product life.
Actually i have gotten intimate with the innards of a small refrigerator "sealed unit" enough to have rewound the coils of the of the induction motor. There is a pool of oil in the bottom for lubrication that takes a different path from the "working fluid" through the unit. It is also splattered against the sealed housing and windings to improve heat dissipation.