Old timer taught me about compressor oil on a service call in Ohio

I was fixing a 30 year old fridge outside Dayton and this guy comes out to watch. He says you gotta change the oil in the compressor every 10 years or the bearings wear out. I told him nobody does that anymore and he just shrugged. He showed me his own fridge he rebuilt in 1987 that still runs cold. Has anyone else heard about doing oil changes on sealed compressors?

2 comments

2 Comments

the_lee16d ago

Ha, I had a buddy who used to swear by this same thing. He was a total old school HVAC guy, worked on those big commercial units. He had this ancient fridge in his garage that he said he'd changed the oil in twice since the 80s. It still froze everything solid until he moved a few years back. He told me he'd just tap into the line, drain the old stuff, and refill it with a hand pump. Said it was a pain but it worked. I never tried it myself, seems like a lot of trouble for a modern fridge.

gibson.nathan16d ago

Jump right into that. I've seen this done a few times over the years. It's not common knowledge anymore, but those old sealed compressors were built different - they had real oil ports and drain plugs that you could actually get to. The newer ones are all crimped shut and sealed for life, no way to service them without destroying the case. The old timers had it right though, the oil breaks down and gets acidic over time, especially in a fridge that runs year round. My buddy tried it on a 1970s Kelvinator he picked up at a flea market, drained out this black sludge, put in new ISO 68 refrigeration oil, and that thing ran another 5 years before he sold the house.