Hotpoint Mistral 8596

[JED10]

Hi Everyone
I have read all previous posts regarding this fridge freezer but cannot find the specific answer to my problem. Last night the freezer would not go below
-8 but the fridge was fine. Upon reading the forum I have taken of the kick plate and hoovered, taken of the back bottom panel and hoovered - no change. I then have taken the panel of the back of the freezer turned it all back on and the fan was not working. After all this the fridge is now not cooling down but the freezer is starting to get colder althoug after an hour only still at -2. The fan behind the freezer panel is now working intermittently but the fridge is still not cooling down. Could someone please help me, I was wondering if it was the evaporator thermistor, after reading another thread, but as I am a sales manager and not an engineer I need some help. If you think it is the evaporator thermistor, could you please tell me where it is and if it i easy to change.

Thanks for all your help in advance.

JED

[chillin out]

Yes, it does sound like the evap thermistor has failed.

Is the evap frosting all over?

The probe is located on the top right hand corner of the evap secured be a ty wrap.
Make sure it is secured properly before buying a new probe.

Chillin

[Wandle]

Hallo Everyone,

This is my first ever post in RE, so please put me right if I have come to the wrong spot, or made any other error.

A couple of years ago, a neighbour let me have their Hotpoint Mistral Plus 8596 fridge-freezer as it was broken and they were replacing it. The temperature in the two cabinets was just fluctuating wildly, over +30 and below -30.

I noticed the fridge interior light was not switching off when the door closed. The switch lever was not fully engaged by the door. A piece of plastic taped on top of the door cured that, and, bingo! both cabinets began to work ok.

Then the problem came back from time to time, though fluctuating less wildly, and the rest of the time normal. Then I read posts in this forum and cleaned out the accumulated fluff deposits on the condenser and the door grille. This seemed to do the trick.

Then over time the freezer door became hard to close and eventually refused to shut at all. The back panel was bulging out, forcing the trays forward, which stopped the door closing. Removing the panel revealed a massive frost build-up. After a defrost, and now ensuring the ice box is kept nearly empty, normal service appeared to be resumed.

However, the freezer now takes a long time to cool fully. It easily goes down to -15, -16, or even -18, but it can take a week to get down to -22, which used to be the normal reading. Still, it is functional.

Meanwhile the fridge occasionally fails to cool, the temperature runs up to +10 for a day or so, then after I switch off and on again a couple of times it seems to reset and return to normal.

Latest news is it failed to cool for two days and ran up to +20, ignoring my switching actions, then overnight it mysteriously corrected itself and at time of writing seems normal at +6, which is its usual setting, though the freezer is only at -17.

Can anyone please advise me what could be the problem now, as I am baffled.

[nike123]

Ice (water) in capillary tube is melting and frosting. Therefore you have intermittent cooling action.

[Wandle]

Brainiac: Thanks very much for the info. But this suggests some more questions: what could be the cause of this capillary problem? what would it take to cure it? and could there be any additional fault besides the capillary tube?

Thanks again, any further advice would be much appreciated.