Watched a fridge compressor oil change turn a 5 hour job into 90 minutes

Been doing this 12 years. Always replaced whole compressors on old fridges, 5 hours minimum. Last month a guy I met at a parts counter showed me his before and after on a Whirlpool from 2019. He did a proper oil change on the compressor instead of swapping it. Said it went from a 5 hour job down to 90 minutes once he got the hang of the vacuum procedure. Tried it myself on a Kenmore last week and same thing. Has anyone else switched to just changing the oil on these newer sealed units?

2 comments

2 Comments

piperbailey1mo ago

Just a humble brag from a guy who can barely find his 10mm socket half the time, but I gave this a go on a beat up 2017 Samsung. Pulled the oil through the low side with a hand pump (fancy medical syringe I nicked from my vet brother) and yeah, it took maybe two hours total including flushing the old gunk. The vacuum held steady at 500 microns for 15 minutes so I called it good. Only hiccup was realizing I used the wrong oil weight the first time - had to drain it again and start over (felt like a real genius there).

jamie9401mo ago

You've tried this on a Kenmore already, and it actually held vacuum? I was skeptical too but a buddy of mine whos been doing this for 20 years showed me his process on a 2018 Frigidaire. He pulls the oil through the process port with a syringe setup, then runs the compressor on low speed for a couple seconds to flush any crap out before adding the new stuff. Biggest thing I found was making sure you get the right viscosity oil for the compressor model, some of these newer units use a thinner weight than the old R12 stuff. I've done three now and only had one where the seal was already too far gone to bother with the oil change.