funny smell from fridge

eas

hi

we have a small fridge (no freezer) and there is a funny smell coming from the back of it around the tubing and heat grill.

Anyone have any idea what could be causing it? should we turn it off and head to powercity? AFAIK they dont put freeon (?) in them anymore...i'd say it's 10 years old max.

thanks in advance

crosstownk

Even though freon is no longer in fridges, it could still be the refridgerant gas thats leaking. Is you fridge still operating (cooling) as normal? If it is the gas thats leaking eventually the smell will disappear once all the gas has leaked and your fridge will no longer be cold inside. Get it checked out just in case.

eas

thanks for that crosstownk.

I guess what i wanted to know was if the gas (whatever it is) is harmful.

In any case, I decided to remove the fridge from the house (the smell was really getting to me) and ordered a new one.

thanks again
cheers

dingding

What does it smell like.

eas

the smell is quite hard to describe - I guess stale with a hint burning would be the only way i can think of describing it.

We did complete wash out of the fridge before we realized that the smell was coming from the back, so it wasnt food odor.

Victor

The heat smell is from the grille which heats up when the fridge is cooling. Is it dusty?

eas

it was dusty, and after realizing that the smell was coming from the back I gave the grill a good washing as well.

I did notice the grille was quite warm, and thought it would have something to do with the fridge cooling after we had cleaned it out but wasent sure.

I was quite sure that the smell was coming from a pipe that came from the compressor area, up the back and into the fridge. The smell seemed to be leaking from where the pipe entered the fridge.

The smell started without any obvious reason during the evening, persisted while i was at work and was quite strong when I came home in the evening.

Like i said we have a new one on it's way. It will probably pay for itself in the long run anyhow based on energy effecientcy.

miju

dont suppose you checked the drain hole at the back of the fridge where the water goes into the evaporator tray ?

you'd be amazed at the amount of people who forget about this when checking everywhere for bad smells only to then realise it was food trapped in there

eas

evaporatoe wha?

I did look for a tray of some sort, but could not find one. I suppose it's possible that I overlooked something.....:o

miju

the evaporator tray is a white / grey / black colored plastic housing thats sits on top of the compressor , you can access the drain hole from the inside easier than the outside

if you get the inside of a biro or a straw and push it through the drain hole it will rule out anything in there , where you by any chance getting a large build up of water on the inside of the fridge before the smell appeared?