Can A Fridgie Confirm Something For Me?

[Sammus]

Howdy. My fridge doesn't get cold enough anymore. It's a fridge on a freezer, and in the freezer at the back I can see a bunch of coils through a little gap that ice up a heap. If I take a heatgun to it and melt all the ice, it works good as new (or better) for a few weeks or months, till theyre all iced up and its not getting cold enough. The defrost timer is fine. I read somewhere that these fridges have an element to aid defrosting. Could it be the defrosting element is not functioning properly? I'm kind of imagining these coils being iced up and not cooling as efficiently as it should...then when it tries to defrost it cant... does that make sense? I don't really get how it works... Also while I'm picking your brains, there is a 'low ambient temp' switch in the fridge... what's that do? I had this idea that it might defrost it better if it's on, since in a low ambient temp it would work harder to defrost...

Cheers

Sam

ps...just realised a type in the topic.. as you may have guessed it should read "Can a fridgie..."

 

[jayse]

ps...just realised a type in the topic.. as you may have guessed it should read "Can a fridgie..."

fixed!

A fridge can't confirm much for you but milk will confirm if the fridge doesn't work :unsure:

 

[ausdb]

Howdy. My fridge doesn't get cold enough anymore. It's a fridge on a freezer, and in the freezer at the back I can see a bunch of coils through a little gap that ice up a heap. If I take a heatgun to it and melt all the ice, it works good as new (or better) for a few weeks or months, till theyre all iced up and its not getting cold enough. The defrost timer is fine. I read somewhere that these fridges have an element to aid defrosting. Could it be the defrosting element is not functioning properly? I'm kind of imagining these coils being iced up and not cooling as efficiently as it should...then when it tries to defrost it cant... does that make sense? I don't really get how it works... Also while I'm picking your brains, there is a 'low ambient temp' switch in the fridge... what's that do? I had this idea that it might defrost it better if it's on, since in a low ambient temp it would work harder to defrost...

Cheers

Sam

ps...just realised a type in the topic.. as you may have guessed it should read "Can a fridgie..."

Quite possibly a problem with the defrost element if it works good for a few weeks after you do a manual defrost, what brand and model fo fridge is it?
It is pretty common on some of the Samsungs and Whirlpools that are rebadged by Samsung.

 

[Sammus]

"Heller" brand - i'ts a factory second my mum picked up a few years ago... the defrost timer went on it and apparently that was causing it to constantly tripping the circuit breaker, so I got it replaced and it wasn't tripping anymore, but now it does this...

Jayse - cheers for the rename

 

[ausdb]

"Heller" brand - i'ts a factory second my mum picked up a few years ago... the defrost timer went on it and apparently that was causing it to constantly tripping the circuit breaker, so I got it replaced and it wasn't tripping anymore, but now it does this...

Jayse - cheers for the rename

I don't know about Hellers, is there a circuit diagram on the back?
The defrost heater could have been causing the circuit breaker to trip but once the heater goes fully open circuit or is not shorting on anything it no longer causes the fault. My own freezer at home did it a while back, the c/b for the power in the back part of my house tripped one night and I went round and unplugged every appliance and plugged them in one by one and the c/b no longer tripped. I thought nothing of it until a few weeks later I noticed the freezer wasn't working properly and there was no airflow out of the fan. I stripped it apart to defrost it and it was only when I had it all apart that I found the blown defrost heater.

Then the penny dropped about why the c/b had mysteriously tripped earlier!

 

[Sammus]

Hmm interesting... so I wonder if the defrost heater died when the timer was replaced? OR if it even needed to be replaced? would be a fair coincidence I reckon..I guess I'll replace the heater and see what happens.

 

[riverside]

Hmm interesting... so I wonder if the defrost heater died when the timer was replaced? OR if it even needed to be replaced? would be a fair coincidence I reckon..I guess I'll replace the heater and see what happens.

Sounds to me like there was nothing wrong with the timer (timers rarely play up) It is either your defrost heater or Evap fan playing up !

 

[kegpig]

id check the defrost timer power output to the heater element for a signal and if ok check for a cicuit through the element and rerplace if faulty. Those cheap fridges are not normally worth repairing Cheers

 

[lukeyw]

sounds like the defrost heater could be down to earth..

 

[kegpig]

sounds like the defrost heater could be down to earth..

that would trip your safty switch

 

[Sammus]

cheers guys.. looks like my defrost element kicked it in. old mate replaced the timer and it stopped tripping.. a month later refrigeration became less effective, with the only cure being to manually defrost it. Fan is working.

 

[Sammus]

aight so the defrost element was definitely bung and I got a new one put in. Now its being weird again. The defrost timer is new - looks like this, a cheap generic thing I'm assuming. It seems to get caught in defrost mode though, like I have to advance it to cooling mode manually. I've tested it and it seems to be switching OK, at some point through the day I notice the fridge is strangely silent. An hour might pass and it doesn't switch on, so I click the timer over and it starts, cools down, then the next morning or whatever I notice its off again, so I click it over again.

Is that the timer that's dead - it advances to defrost but not to cooling. Could it be anything else?

Cheers.

 

[Sammus]

aight so the defrost element was definitely bung and I got a new one put in. Now its being weird again. The defrost timer is new - looks like this, a cheap generic thing I'm assuming. It seems to get caught in defrost mode though, like I have to advance it to cooling mode manually. I've tested it and it seems to be switching OK, at some point through the day I notice the fridge is strangely silent. An hour might pass and it doesn't switch on, so I click the timer over and it starts, cools down, then the next morning or whatever I notice its off again, so I click it over again.

Is that the timer that's dead - it advances to defrost but not to cooling. Could it be anything else?

Cheers.

bump incase someone willing to help missed it. Sorry guys, must be a pain people trying to mooch free advice but hey, no harm trying eh?

 

[riverside]

aight so the defrost element was definitely bung and I got a new one put in. Now its being weird again. The defrost timer is new - looks like this, a cheap generic thing I'm assuming. It seems to get caught in defrost mode though, like I have to advance it to cooling mode manually. I've tested it and it seems to be switching OK, at some point through the day I notice the fridge is strangely silent. An hour might pass and it doesn't switch on, so I click the timer over and it starts, cools down, then the next morning or whatever I notice its off again, so I click it over again.

Is that the timer that's dead - it advances to defrost but not to cooling. Could it be anything else?

Cheers.

If it is getting stuck in defrost mode and you have to manually turn the timer to get it off defrost it is def a faulty timer (very rare) as said in previous post.. Sure when you had timer replaced last time your friend got the pin configeration right ?

 

[Sammus]

If it is getting stuck in defrost mode and you have to manually turn the timer to get it off defrost it is def a faulty timer (very rare) as said in previous post.. Sure when you had timer replaced last time your friend got the pin configeration right ?

I guess that's possible. It was a fridgey who replaced it though. What do you think? I just notice that it looks like 1 and 3 are backwards according to the diagram.. its unlikely that the internal wiring of the fridge was changed... but surely someone in the trade wouldn't have made such a mistake?

 

[riverside]

I guess that's prossible. IT was a fridgey who replaced it though.

View attachment 30584
View attachment 30585

Can you give me better pic (closer) so i can see wiring diagram ? Will tell you if wired correctly

 

[Sammus]

Can you give me better pic (closer) so i can see wiring diagram ? Will tell you if wired correctly

If you click on the pics they come up pretty big, not sure if I could do it bigger. the one of the timer is a little blurry, I could maybe get a clearer one if you need it.

Cheers for this mate.

 

[riverside]

Swap the orange and the white.. and your good to go (wired incorrectly)

 

[Sammus]

I think this is a new timer in the freezer my mum got replaced when she was using the fridge. I was just looking at it spinning out because the colour of the wires and the pins on the timer don't match up with how it should be on the wiring diagram, but it looks like the pins are labelled differently to the wiring diagram.

live goes through the thermalstat to the common point, normally closed circuit runs the timer motor, fan motor, compresser. Normally open circuit runs the defrost heater.

 

[riverside]

I think this is a new timer in the freezer my mum got replaced when she was using the fridge. I was just looking at it spinning out because the colour of the wires and the pins on the timer don't match up with how it should be on the wiring diagram, but it looks like the pins are labelled differently to the wiring diagram.

live goes through the thermalstat to the common point, normally closed circuit runs the timer motor, fan motor, compresser. Normally open circuit runs the defrost heater.

Check last post