UTMC

Right, technically, this would be something for "Tech Stuff", but it's SO un-mc related I decided to put it here.
Thing is, I bought a new fridge. Fridge-freezer combo, refrigerator on top, freezer below. Now that I can no longer just drop by any grocery store I like, the tiny freezer compartment of the fridge that comes with the apartment was becoming just way to small, hence the new one. Bought it from amazon and got it delivered this morning.
So far, so good.
While I was rooting around the compartment with the compressor and stuff, looking to the bloody cable for plugging it in, I noticed the rear of it looked like cardboard.
Like this:

http://www.der-gute-erfahrungsbericht.d ... kseite.jpg
Image embed not working so clicking is required, sorry.
Up close, it looks like the reinforced cardboard with a corrugated layer between two flat layers.

Any fridge I had owned before, or helped someone move, had a big radiator at the rear. I check the manual and there was no mention of how it should look or any safety measures particularly pertinent to the rear of the things, it does mention that one should remove the styrofoam protection that may or may not be mounted between the fridge chassis and the cooling body.
So I reckoned that this was just part of that packaging, shoved a finger underneath and started ripping it off. Only then did I notice that
a) it was in fact glued to the fridge chassis and
b) wasn't cardboard but a hollow sheet of plastic.
Like this, only in gray and much flimsier looking:

I didn't immediately notice it was plastic since I had, at times, encountered cardboards that were just as tough.
I didn't rip all of it out, far from it, about the surface area of a hand and a half, from the bottom edge. I duct taped most of it back on for now.
It's the first energy-saving fridge I ever owned and is clearly decades ahead of the simple refrigerators I had known in the past.
So I plugged it in and, after about an hour or so, it was already as cold as it should be, both the refrigerator and the freezer compartments seem to be working fine.
No aberrant noises, it's fairly quiet, as it should be, no weird smells or anything. The coolant is R600a, Isobutane, so there wouldn't be any smell from that anyway. I didn't notice any condensation forming when I ripped off that plastic, so I doubt I directly damaged the parts of the cooling system in which it would be under pressure.
Instead of a radiator it uses the metal side-walls to get rid of the heat, darn clever bit of engineering.
Now the company that does technical customer service for the manufacturer couldn't help me out, they could take my details for sending around a technician (pricey) but any technical questions can't be answered before someone from the spare-parts department comes back in on monday.

My question is: Did I merely ruin some cosmetic covering of no further consequence or did I break something vital to the fridge's operation?
I'd like to know since today would be optimal for a trip to the big-box grocery place to a month's worth of the frozen food I can't get in my neighborhood, which is the reasons I did buy this thing.

Not a problem. It is just cosmetic with a dash of insulative qualities and concealing some "non-user servicable" components. (They actually use *cardboard* on many of the fridges i have dealt with here in the same way--the plastic corr-board is a step up...)

Enjoy your new fridge!

Thank you, that brings serious relief!
Just a question though. Where I did tear of the plastic, there appears to be styrofoam or a styrofoam like substance underneath. Smooth, no big chunks like with the stuff electronics are packaged in. Mere insulation? I read online that in some of the modern energy-efficient fridges, rather than the old expansion chamber and metal piping going through the interior, they expand and pump the coolant through open-cell insulating foam. Is that indeed so for some models?
Of it is, and if it is so for mine (couldn't find that, unfortunately), that plastic may have in fact been there to seal the coolant in. Would it leak slowly enough that, initially, the fridge still works or is the working of my fridge a sign that this cannot be the situation? I know that, if anything, escaped, it didn't create a flammable atmosphere, as my father came by today and we both had a smoke right in front of that thing.
I sorta doubt that this would be the case, they would probably have used a sturdier substance to seal the thing, but it worries me still.

A wise investment is a cheap little refrigerator thermometer, so you don't have to guess if it's keeping stuff at a decent temperature.
I can't imagine that refrigerant is being contained solely by foam. My understanding is that these covered backs are just so you can push the thing against a wall instead of leaving a gap, and to keep the coils from accumulating dust bunnies (reducing efficiency, presumably more so than the barrier). But my understanding is anecdotal.

the plastic panel you messed with is just cosmetic, insufficient structure there for it to be involved with any pressurized coolant system.

Thank you! Much relieved!

About the only thing I'm worried about now is the noise. It's not noisy (when I'm in the next room, only about three feet away from it, I cannot hear it, unlike the old one which is more like 12 feet away and under the counter). It's like a very slight gurgling noise, like liquid flowing through a pipe, only it's constantly there, whenever I walk past it. It does make a slightly different noise when I open it up and rummage around and it's time for the compressor to kick in. Just as quiet, only slightly different. Is that what these modern energy-saving fridges normally act like?

Also, good idea HC, thank you! I don't know where to buy such a thing, I've never heard of it thus far, but I'm definitely gonna look into it, I absolutely love the idea of knowing the temperature.

DerGolgo wrote:Also, good idea HC, thank you! I don't know where to buy such a thing, I've never heard of it thus far, but I'm definitely gonna look into it, I absolutely love the idea of knowing the temperature.

In the states, you can find them in hardware stores and the kitchen supplies aisle of larger grocery stores. Online you can find absurdly sensitive digital ones, but I just have a basic analog one.
Or, you can buy these and slap one on the bike too.

Fun fact: when the thermostat or defrost timer dies, a programmable timer does a passable job of keeping temperature in a rough ballpark till the new part arrives.

Never mind, I found the cause of the uninterrupted noises. I had it turned up too far. After I found my salad to be...splintery...I turned it down. Now, the constant noise has become non-constant, rare even, it's dead quiet most of the time.
Thanks for the patient reassurance, kitkat!