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Frequently Asked Questions About Domestic Refrigerator Repair:

Rusted out refrigerant lines in the shelves of an upright design

I've got a six year-old Imperial upright freezer, coils in the shelves and all. Last year the coils in the back (inside) of the freezer iced up. We shut it down, but did nothing else. It sat like that for a year. When I got back to it this year, it wouldn't get cold. We called a local appliance store who recommended a technician. The man who came out said that since the coils corroded and actually ruptured, it would be more expensive to repair it than to replace it.

I've got a hard time tossing a perfectly good shell/compressor/shelves, etc. What do you think?

So I’m thinking if the door was left shut with the moisture left on the shelves for a year, this caused the lines in the shelves to corrode out.

Yea, basically if he were to find one leak and repair it another could surface soon and cause more trouble. The thickness of the lines in the shelves is fairly consistent so if it corroded through in one spot there may be many others nearly as thin and ready to rupture as soon as the first one is repaired.

I think every tech gets into a spot like this one at least once. It's not something you want to take on the second time because some customers may think you should do the return call for free.