I know what you're thinking.... another "old guard" geezer posting about how bad things are with nothing but anecdotal evidence that this is actually the case. Before you judge me, please watch the video.  I don't believe unhappiness is unreasonable when one is forced to accept concepts such as "throw-away society" and "poor value / high overall ownership costs" and "bad ownership experience" in the name of "progress."

The back-story to this video is as follows.  A couple years ago a local gentleman brought his 1947 GE fridge to me for rewiring and re-gasketing. That job went well and he has been using that fridge ever since as a beverage fridge. 

Fast-forward to last week, and his main kitchen fridge stopped working. Without warning, it started clicking on and off on the compressor overload, as if the compressor was stuck. I normally don't work on modern appliances; however this is local and the owner was able to bring it over in the back of his pickup with little effort on his part. So I agreed to look at it. 

The compressor would not start. I tried boosting with higher voltages, adding capacitors etc. and nothing would break it free.  So, I ended up putting in a salvaged compressor to get his going. 

Here is a video where I tear it down and inspect it for root cause of failure. Again, I need to repeat that I am not saying everything "old" is better just because it's "old."  I am saying that this compressor, and its application, show clear engineering choices made, which sacrificed its life span in the name of some modicum of energy savings.  These marginal design choices are not the only way to get an efficient unit, since the fridge compressors from the 1940's and 1950's era were very efficient, while having consistently longer lives. This failed unit is purely an example of doing just enough to get by until it is someone else's problem. When it becomes a problem, it goes to the dump where all the foamed-together plastic parts will not be feasible to separate nor recycle.

Sincerely,

David

Hi John. I do remember that compressor! That one was a slightly older model, with a larger body design. I remember the cast iron cylinder frame in the compressor was different and much larger than what this failed one has. The one I salvaged to get this fridge going was also like yours you cut open. It is the older model. I think it was marked 1998.

While I do agree that compressors are generally very reliable, it's clear that some poor engineering choices were made in the one I took apart.  Thankfully the ones like you cut open and the one I installed into this fridge rarely ever go bad. If I have a bad one of similar size, it will be interesting to compare the surface area of the main bearings versus this 2009 failed one. 

The very early (30's and 40's) ones were less consistent in their life spans. I've seen a document on this somewhere and will share it if I run across it again. They didn't have the automated and consistent manufacturing processes like we have today. Some of them did go out early. The ones we still have today from the early days are the ones which were especially good, and are still in the long flat bottom of the failure bathtub curve.

What I foresee killing off many of the 2000's compressors are the lower engineering margins in the design.  It takes less of an incident to go beyond that margin into the region of damage and failure; as compared to earlier compressors with a larger engineering margin.

All things being equal, eventually something will go wrong with the whole system. Things like condenser fan failures, leaks and running without refrigerant, voltage excursions, etc.  The larger engineering margins in the early designs allowed them to better tolerate system fault conditions.  They can survive a certain amount of abuse, before catastrophic damage happens.  With a larger surface area in the bearings, the oil could be overheated or diluted to a greater degree before lubrication film failure occurred.  With a larger stator-rotor air gap; even if there was wear in the bearings, it would have to be much more severe before a rub appeared. 

I'm sure you're right that some of these post-2000's compressors will still be around. However I expect it will be the ones which have not been exposed to any abnormal operating conditions.