Hacker News Reader

Comment by xkcd-sucks | Hacker News Reader

Dehumidifiers, refrigerators, and less so air conditioners, all have the same inherent risk of a big compressor that runs unattended for years. (For example, the Ghost Ship warehouse fire was attributed to a fridge compressor)

More than a recall of specific faulty models, it would be cool to know how to evaluate compressor health so one could periodically check whether something is at risk of overheating catastrophically

View on HN

In my experience, catastrophic failure is extremely rare.

An overheating compressor starts burning its oil. That burned oil sludge then clogs everything internally, and eventually the whole system stops being able to work. It will generally get so hot it automatically turns off on overload at that point.

So first context: I'm not OP, and as a matter of record the Ghost Ship fire was not caused by a fridge compressor. Electrical appliance is the most likely cause but the ATF investigators ruled the fridge compressor out. That being said, sparking near relay blades is common enough and same for sketchy wire bonding. It's not a failure mode of the compressor as much as the relay or the wiring is true, but no other appliance is wired like that and turning on and off autonomously in the average household except maybe AC which are usually less modular and wired at the factory to higher standards than some old fridge or a repaired unit.

every compressor I've looked at was thermally protected. If it gets too hot for any reason it just shuts off.

Might be a case where many of these fail every year, but sometimes they also have faulty thermo probe and catch fire. If a failed probe doesn't cause the device to stop working then it's entirely possible for both to be bad at the same time, especially if there is no indication that the probe failed.

Exactly. Modern double sealed compressors are super reliable and safe. Same thing used in every fridge and ac.

> it would be cool to know how to evaluate compressor health

The best way is probably to monitor low and high side pressure together with motor rpm and power. But I have never seen a fridge with manometers so ... I would listen for vibrations. Like, you can get to know how your machine should sound when happy. If it sounds unhappy, take it to the dump.

Also some refrigerants like R290 are flammable, so right sized leak with right mixing and spark can be cause of fire or small explosion.

R290 is straight up propane.

Desiccant dehumidifiers don’t use a compressor. The alternative may have risks however.

Grenfell was a fridge iirc

And it's a big irony that LG had to cease production of their otherwise excellent linear compressors globally because they were sued to death by legal trolls in USA.

Reply on news.ycombinator.com