By Norm Christopherson
The heart of both an electric refrigerator and an air conditioner is the compressor; it’s most costly component. No other electro-mechanical device comes close to the reliability of the Semihermetic or fully-hermetic compressor. Consider the following comparison.
On the average it operates in a refrigerator at full speed almost half the time. That is about 4000 hours out of 8760 hours in a year.
In 15 years that would be 60,000 hours.
If your automobile operated 60,000 hours at only 50 miles per hour that would be 3 million miles!
That is 120 trips around the world at the equator, or 6 round trips to the moon.
It does this without a valve job, new points, new plugs or even an oil change.
Unless the compressor has a problem, neither lubricating oil nor refrigerant are added over the 15, 20 or even 30 years that many compressors operate.
Search your mind. Can you think of any other electro-mechanical device with a comparable record of reliability and operating life?
The next time someone states that they don’t make things to last as long as they use to, consider the compressor.
The majority of compressor failures are not due to the compressor but rather to a system problem causing the compressor to fail. It is important to determine the cause of a compressor failure when replacing a defective compressor or the replacement compressor is bound to fail as well. Don’t be too quick to blame a failed compressor on the compressor.
Learn the causes of compressor failures and make it a habit of checking the system for the potential causes of compressor failures.
Norm is a technical writer, seminar speaker and test proctor for EPA, 410A and ESCO & NATE certifications as well as a senior training specialist with Johnson Controls
He can be contacted at norman.christopherson@jci.com
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