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Why does nobody talk about how many fridge compressors fail right after the 3-year warranty ends?
I was reading a trade journal from the supply house and it said like 22% of sealed system calls are for units between 37 and 40 months old, which seems way too specific to be a coincidence.
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rowanbennett2mo ago
Yeah, that bit about the thermal overload protectors is the whole game. Davidwright nailed it. They use these cheap little parts that are basically a timed fuse, and the math on the failure curve works out perfectly for just after the warranty. It's not even a secret in the parts world, it's just cheaper for them to plan for a full unit replacement than to build something that lasts.
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That stat lines up with what I've seen on the job. It's not just random failure, it's the cheap thermal overload protectors they use now. They're basically designed to burn out right after the warranty, forcing a full compressor swap instead of a simple fix.
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jordan_webb4923d ago
Man, you guys are making me feel like I've been living under a rock. I used to think it was just bad luck or a bad batch of parts, like when your phone battery dies after two years. But reading about those thermal overload protectors being basically a planned failure point, that clicks. I had a buddy who replaced his whole fridge just because the compressor "died" and the repair quote was more than a new unit. Now I'm wondering how many of those were actually just a $5 part that could have been swapped out if the companies wanted to make them serviceable. You really think the data on those 37-40 month failures is that consistent across brands?
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