Cutting open a failed LG refrigerator compressor

hey guys this is one of those infamous LG refrigerators with the inverter scroll compressor and the compressor has failed and we determined that just by lack of cooling the compressor is running everything else in the fridge operates fine but if you look at that model number right there I do a Google search this is one of the infamous compressors that always fail so in this video we're going to take it apart and see why it's a piece of junk okay so we evacuated the refrigerant now we're going to pull the compressor out got the compressor out the bench cut all the refrigerant lines and again we evacuated the refrigerant we did not bend it to the atmosphere then we just have to cut this weld along the top we'll do that with a grinder and that will expose the internal guts of this steaming pile of crap I'm gonna use my trusty Milwaukee foreign half-inch angle grinder with a cut-off blade to cut the top of this thing off right above the weld [Music] it's probably enough of that picking up when we're done I wised up a little bit and clamped the thing to the bench and I switch the guard it was getting old for Carius so uh safety first right all right so I think we got it you capitated here see if we got let me gotta tell me a little bit right here let's snip that off ears [Applause] [Music] she is officially decapitated so this is what we're dealing with inside lots of metal shavings butts probably from the grinding process let's get it taken apart so I think the way these things work is that control board in the fridge controls how much current and voltage goes to through a magnetic coil here and these Springs are like return Springs so there's no rotating parts like there isn't a traditional refrigerator compressor it's all linear I believe what typically goes wrong on these things is under here so let's get this pump assembly out we'll start taking it apart get a cup of water I take it outside and blow off all the metal shavings took these two screws out here seven millimeter and this whole spring assembly kind of came loose they said you'll figure out where this thing failed I'm not too sure what I'm looking at yet and we'll take these out [Music] got a nice bolt I'll save these looks like this whole assembly might come apart now some shims here let me pry it apart when apart just yet let's take off these seconds here too something magnetic is in there see if I could set you guys down take the vibrations out of the equation try this off maybe not yet maybe not sure this thing is pretty tricky it's held together with bolts and when you take them out it's a mystery there we go so something came up on the top screwdriver there's your different line this looks like a piston of some kind in there it's at the inside of the head looks like sure exactly what that is it appears to be springy it's dirty but I don't see any obvious signs of failure yet you can kind of see I think how this mechanism works here's it there's a coil in this section that energizes and pulls this whole assembly this way towards me what's this way and I'm guessing that the control board is responsible for turning this magnetic field off and on really quickly hence the term a linear compressor there's no rotating parts everything just moves in a line yes and that's how this is supposed to work but again what failed so would have some more there's some tiny screw well it's here maybe that's what we need to remove they are pretty tiny let's hope the plate comes out I think there were five and a half six I guess this cleat comes out too I'm not entirely sure what this whole deal is here come on one more these last two walked buried down there something came loose okay you know that whole assembly came off let's see what that is okay now this whole deal comes apart you can see the feel coil wire there now what what do we do now [Music] around in here there are piston right there okay I'm moving it back and forth of my finger now [Music] so still what went wrong very dirty [Music] and a really flimsy piece of metal on here and this piston [Music] there's some oil in here too so what next how does this come apart I'm not going to come out with this way this will level assembly didn't go anywhere [Music] if you look carefully at some of this too you can see that they see those trails there one if this thing was leaking somewhere obvious odor I think smells purged [Applause] boy this is a tough one what was wrong with this thing and say one thing that might come next to this piece problem might just lift up I don't see any bolts loose oh yeah it's loose okay so then this whole thing needs to come out of field coil definitely a 200 operation so this whole thing came out we got these uh magnets here came out with the assembly put it back it's permanent magnets fairly strong they actually just like a look look like a laminated course but they become magnetic after years of use to come apart now another two-handed operator is that hole right off as a shim on there and this looks like a piston right here number six on it maybe that's a details how it was machined you can see no ring there is some noticeable scoring or not scoring but just wear and tear on the base of the shaft you can see it's kind of shiny there there's some wear and tear right there too but overall doesn't look bad and I wonder if this plate right here is what failed I don't see anyone on it though there's strange there's a snap ring right down here I don't know what it holds in but let's take it out did you shoot across the room that's a good sign [Applause] these things look like cooling fins here [Music] not sure what that retained though again no obvious sign of failure yet let's keep digging and go found the failure I don't you guys can see this but this is part of that cylinder head that I took off and noticed there's a small tear in this seal this came apart didn't you get a better view of it now you see it see light through it right there so this tiny what 25 cent part is what caused this $1,200 refrigerator to go kaput the shame I wouldn't be surprised that this is a fairly common failure mode what a shame anyway hope you guys found this interesting obviously this is not going back together it's gonna go in the trash these things are sealed hermetically and they're not designed to be serviced I had to cut mine apart with a grinder as you saw so this was just uh just for my own edification on how these things work and hopefully you guys got some use out of it - oh wow this spring is pretty worn flats worn on it just a bad design anyway take care guys if you like that video please subscribe

Channel: Joe's Garage

Views: 229,230

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Id: RbG75a6u4bU

Length: 13min 40sec (820 seconds)

Published: Sat Jan 18 2020