Frozen Fridge - Faulty?

[jeromewilson]

The fridge compartment of our fridge-freezer gets a huge buildup of ice at the back, to the point where it's pushing the shelves outwards and welding jars of mayo solid. We can turn the temperature control down so that it doesn't do it anymore but then the freezer doesn't actually freeze anything.

It's a Proline (cheap) and well within the one year guarantee so we've just had an engineer out but he says it's perfectly normal and happens with all makes of auto-defrost fridge freezers.

This seems insane to me - surely this is not right. I don't want to have to chisel things off the back of my fridge and defrost them to use them.

Any thoughts? Thanks :)

[paul_h]

You should have a thermostat for the compressor in the freezer to keep the compressor going and the freezer cold. (Is that the one that you are adjusting that makes the freezer not cold enough?)
And an air control damper for the fridge which maintains fridge temp by limiting freezer air into it. (is there a control dial at the back of the fridge as well?)
So:
1) You are adjusting the wrong control to stop the fridge freezing up if the control you are adjusting is in the freezer and stops the freezer from being cold enough.
2) There's obviously something wrong with the fridge air damper control if the fridge is icing up.

edit:
Honestly, I don't know what controls you freezer has or what the fault could be (many to choose from). But icing up the fridge is not normal.
I'd say the fridge air flow control ( often a simple thermostat operating a flap to shut the freezer off) is jammed open or something like the knob shaft is broken and not adjusting the damper correctly. That's just a guess because I don't even know if there's a control in the fridge and that you have tried adjusting it.

[fridge doctor]

"we've just had an engineer out but he says it's perfectly normal and happens with all makes of auto-defrost fridge freezers".

Correction my friend you have NOT just had an engineer out... You have in fact been sent someone who clearly knows j**k s**t about refrigerators.

If the ice build up is in a particular area, the chances are it has lost some refrigerant. (Needs leak fixing and re-charge). Other possibilities include
Failing compressor (not pumping efficiently) and / or therefore evap temperature not reaching required range of thermostat.
Erratic thermostat (for this the whole back panel would be heavily frosted/iced).

Hope that helps, get your guarantee out and ask for a proper engineer.

Trevor

Paul, I don't think this manufacturer has anything as sophisticated as a modern damper type control (I could be wrong), I suspect that its a basic one compressor job, fridge section evap behind the plastic at the back, one thermostat controlling both sections (located in fridge).

[jeromewilson]

Thanks very much for your replies guys. It is a very basic fridge and there does only appear to be one control.

My first thought was that it was some sort of leak (not that I know anything about fridges) because of how the ice was localised.

However, the guy was still at my house when I wrote my post and subsequently I spoke to my wife and apparently before he left he said he's cleared a blockage and it should work better now. Not sure what was blocked, what he did or whether it's likely to happen again.

I guess we'll just have to wait and see how it goes but now, if we have to call someone out again, I'll make sure we don't gut strung a line of bullsh*t :)

Thanks again!

Jerome

[tonto33]

sounded like you have blockage in drain hole which the engineer should of unblocked for you

[fridge doctor]

Unfortunately, those last lines of yours opened up a new possibility to throw into the equation...

You said that your "engineer" mentioned a blockage.

In refrigeration terms a blockage first and foremost means... moisture in the system, difficult and time consuming to remove, and not always possible.

However, as your FF seems to be working (after a fashion). I think we can rule this out. A 'blockage' in this case I think might well refer to an iced evaporator probably caused by a failed defrost timer... that is assuming your Proline is one step away from basic... who knows, frankly we are stabbing in the dark here with limited non-tech information, and even if we came up with the answer there really isn't much you can do with it except embarrass the "engineer".

Buy a cheap thermometer, and put it into the fridge section.... monitor it reguarly. If over the next few days things are amiss- temp gradually rising on average. As I said previously - Get them back and insist on a qualified engineer.

Tonto, sorry that is bollocks... read his post again.