Unless the fridge puts out some power spikes, the RF interference will, in my opinion, hurt the radio.
Lewis
"thermostat that transmits the nastiest heterodyne "
Now.that just don’t sound right to me…no that ‘jus don’t sound right to me…..as Red Skelton used to say.
I define a heterodyne effect as a shifting tonal type of response, and with no specific fill in on the age of the “fridge” I would probably not expect it to be a newer one incorporating microprocessor electronics in its control circuitry. Even in that situation, I would be expecting the RFI / shielding / line filtering attenuation characteristics being so tight that even that would not be a problem unless you might have an AM, receiver sitting atop the unit and playing while tuned to a weak station.
If your “fridge” is an older unit I would be expecting it to be old design and using electromechanics for the electrical switching, with the type of interference produced by that unit to be a strong, broad band damped wave signal such as is produced by contact arcing.
You know what I mean ….should I also refer to like sourced interference….such as produced by your electric razor, electric drill motor. Dremel tool motor, electric saw motor, or Mama Cass’s blow dryer, vacuum cleaner , mix-master or sewing machine motor.
NOW in my situation I have a like static / electrical interference and it relates to my fridge, in my case the”real” Frigidaire brand circa ’73. .
I detected that the unit was loosing its frost free function and troubleshooting the situation found that the slooooooooooow Telechron timer motor that drives the defrost timer gear train had failed. .
A teardown of the Telechron motor……..(Edd….people DON’T tear down motors !).......well if you can’t get its replacement timer motor any more…probably $149 wholesale….. and if you are as enamored with that otherwise PERFECTLY sound second Fridge as I am…you do.
A cutting wheel mounted in a Dremel tool with a fiber washer , 1/16 in smaller than the cutting wheel clamped in to the side of the cutting wheel enabled a precise thin peripheral limited depth cut into and all around the “aluminumyum” housing to then let me inspect the gear train mechanics, where I found that the 8 or so serially meshed aluminum gears were initially receiving their continual 60rpm drive from a cut urea phenol Bakelite gear that had 8 teeth that were just flat mechanically impaired after spinning for 36 years. Assuredly, that softer materiel selected was associated with affording a mechanical buffeting of noise coupling from that initial higher speed that the motor produced…....with that total gear train ending up in producing ~ 1 revolution per week. .
The units defrost procedure is to would shut down power to the compressor at that defrost time and switch in a defrost heater plate under the cooling plate inside the freezer section of the unit. At a prescribed time of melt down as is monitored with an internal plate thermostat, the timer motor is re-powered and one waits for another week or so for the cycle again. .
That ties down to the situation that I found with in the unit, the geared down mechanism slowly rotated an eccentric cam that pressed against a leaf switch that moved upwards to engage into a contact that normally powered the fridge or is pressure was let off of the leaf switches extended lever , it moved downwards to make contact with the defrost heater contact. If you can imagine the slow speed that the pressure on the leaf switch is applied, you can see the possibility of a set of contacts veeeery slowly opening with an arcing across for a period of time…thus the BAAAAAAAd burst of static mentioned for a few minutes….(definitely not the placid “heterodyne” type of noise). .
The sneaky mechanical design that they used on the ~1 1/2 dia hard black Bakelite cam was to have it so that its outer diameter made a right angle inwards drop in diameter for about a ¼ inch, in that manner the leaf swich lever resting upon it , fell like a rock at that point and made a drop of contact action and a quick turn off of the compressor (if it was even running) and engaged the heater.With that quick mechanical switch movement...no arc time .
As it stands I have the timer mechanism loose under the “fridge” and do that one turn rotation to the “fall off point” and let all go until week or so later when I se the onset of frost again.
In the future, I probably will get one of the 24 Hr timers for lighting / sprinkler systems with the tabs that let one set ANY on and off timing sequence in 30 min increments for 24 hours.
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That way, I will just be using a much shorter time…. daily …..on the wee morning hours.
So much for that adjunct radio interference "Frigidaire" info….but it just might help someone analyze their “Frost Free” Frigidaire problem.
"Could that interference ruin anything in my old trans-oceanic if it strikes while radio is on?"
If it is the particular situation which I described, I would only expect it to be effecting ONLY your radio reception and your sanity at its time of occurrences, with the “damage” aspect more being related to the particular “fridge” to which it is associated.
Sir Looo-eee,Looo-eee, Looo-eye…. Lewis....wrote:
Addenda :
NOT
hurt the radio.
73's de Edd
::I have a refrigerator with a thermostat that transmits the nastiest heterodyne across the entire radio spectrum to the point that it trips on the sub-woofer in the living room! Funny thing is it's the most efficient best running fridge I've ever had. My question-could that interference ruin anything in my old trans-oceanic if it strikes while radio is on? I'm always nearby so I can kill the radio until it stops, but I wonder if it's necessary.
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:Unless the fridge puts out some power spikes, the RF interference will, in my opinion, hurt the radio.
:Lewis
Regarding the Telechron motor, if the gear actually was worn out, then I guess you'd have to make a new gear. With many Telechron motors, however, the lubricant dries up. The fix is to drill two small holes in the unit so that new lubricant (3 in 1 or similar thin oil) can be injected into the unit. The lubricant level shouldn't be so high as to fill the rotor compartment, or else the oil will slow down the rotor.
T.
You may have a thermostat that is arcing as it opens, much like the old auto ignition points, which was solved with a capacitor across the points. It may energizes a relay or some solid state device, which activates the compressor. I strongly suggest that it is a solid state device, and the source may be the powerline vs radiated energy. Try powering the radio from a distant socket or one known to be on a different circuit than the fridge. And NO it won't destroy your radio like a lightning bolt or large electrical discharge near the antenna.
marv
:Thanks for those responses! The fridge is a Whirlpool-built 11-01. Sorry about the misuse of the word "heterodyne". Borrowed it from my c.b. days-the noise it makes sounds like what you could imagine a miniature electric chair would sound like...kind of a rrrripping voltastatic annoyance that starts out medium and winds up loud at about 20-30 seconds then dissapears. Anyway, thanks again. By the way- nobody out there noticed this noise anywhere on radio?