HELP IDEAL 55 ISSUE

[ciawarrior]

I have had my Ideal 55 for a few months, the only issue ive had is the occasional water leak when the machine would stop running, the machine would eventually turn back on and everything would be fine again.  This morning I walked into the garage and noticed a large puddle of water and the machine was off.  Looks like it shut down sometime yesterday due to the amount of water and the drinks inside were not cold at all.  The machine is still plugged in, but not running.  It was pretty hot yesterday, so im sure it got warm in the garage, but this is the first time this has happened.  Im not super-handyman and still learning how these old machines even work.

Any help would be nice

thanks

[ciawarrior]

OK, it just turned back on and its cooling!  any reason why it was off for so long?

I would say it was off for about 15-20 plus hours

[johnieG]

All machines produce condensation & will drain out the appropriate drain tube provided it's not plugged up with crud. they will pee all over your floor unless you have a drip-pan underneath to catch the water. older slider type machines have dry-rotted & cracked gaskets, if the top lid is bent/warped it wont sit squarely on the lid gasket & allow lots of hot-humid air into the tank to make even more sweat. on a slider, a big culprit in the air-leak department is the side loading door that wont snug down tight because of a damaged door screw and/or nut, or is missing its gasket entirely.  a quick check for air-leaks is to temporarily stick a battery powered camping lantern or similar light source inside the cooler, and in a darkened room. look for light peaking out of the door/gasket areas.

If the machine wont turn on , this may be another separate issue with the thermostat of an over heating compressor, etc.

[indymanjoe]

does the compressor on this unit have a condenser fan?if its off next time slightly "bump"the thermostat and if it starts running its likley the thermostat(cold controll)

[ciawarrior]

this was a serious puddle, looks like everything defrosted on the unit.  the bump thing raises a flag for me, I did move it a little and right after that it turned on.  Ill take a look

[johnieG]

Yes, check the T-stat, if it was stuck "on" due to the extra hot weather & that coupled with an air-leak, you could have had a real nice chunk (sheet) of Ice on the inside walls, which melted into your small lake you found. ( after the T-stat got stuck again only in the "off" position, thus the warm pop.  it's probably time to replace the thermostat.

[zadd]

You should have a blk tube coming out if the bottom that curves up creating a P- trap and it should have a round Bracket it slides into . Shouldnt have any water dripping out .

[ciawarrior]

i dont think I have that???  but a lot of the water was from the ice on the coils that melted

[johnieG]

There you go..probably a stuck/sticky thermostat as I mentioned