Hi all,


About a week ago our Samsung RSH1DEMH side by side fridge/freezer stopped cooling one evening. The freezer as well as the fridge warmed up over night and they never got cool again. The next morning thefridge display eventually indicated near room temperature for both sections: 20 or so degrees C for the freezer and 16 or so degrees C for the fridge.

I noticed a clicking sound from near the back of the fridge and found it came from the relay/PTC near the compressor. I changed that part but it did not fix the problem. Most posts on the internet hint at the relay/PTC in case of such a clicking sound symptom, but in my case it turned out to be something else.

Since I have changed that relay/PTC part, the temperature of the fridge/freezer did not change. The following are my observations.
1. The upper side of the compressor is fairly warm to the touch and I can hear like fluid "rushing" from within the side of fridge.
2. The compressor itself sits quietly and does not vibrate at all.
3. The clicking sound near the compressor comes on (twice, as in click on and click off within a few seconds from each other) in cycles of 5 minutes or so.
4. The condensor fan near the compressor is working.
5. The condensor coils are not iced up and are totally dust/lint free.
6. The fridge display does not indicate any error modes when performing the auto diagnostics.
7. I measured the DC resistance of the compressor coils between its 3 terminals just before I fitted the new relay/PTC. I found the following values: 20 Ohms, 7 Ohms and 27 Ohms.
8. Once I had replaced the relay/PTC I have let the fridge running for about 15 minutes only to notice no change in temperature of fridge nor freezer. Also the condersor coils did not get warm during that time.

I have decided to switch the fridge/freezer off for safety reasons and it has now been sitting like that for the past few days.

This is where I found the service manual for this model: http://elektrotanya.com/. Just type in RSH1 in the search field, select "SM" (as in Service Manual) from one of the drop down menus and you will find it.

I am tempted to replace the main control PCBA as a last resort, although this will be quite expensive. My concern is that the compressor is waisted, in which case I do not want to have spent money on a new main control PCBA.

Any advice would be greatly appreciated. By the way, this Samsung side by side fridge/freezer is 2.5 years old.

Please help. Thank you.


Kind regards,
Stan