Hello

I have a 6 year old Samsung American Style 'Twin Cooling' FF. A few days ago I noticed a burning electrics smell in my kitchen but couldn't be sure where it was coming from. I thought it was the fridge but when I opened it the light was on and all seemed well and the display panel on the front remained on ok. The next day I noticed the display panel for the freezer temperature was flashing. I had never seen this before and the instructions manual did not mention it. I opened the freezer and realised that it was barely freezing in there and the fridge too felt way too warm. I went to unplug the whole thing but as I did so it shorted out all my electric supply tripping the safetly cut out on the main fuse box.

I reset this and tried plugging in the fridge again and it started up OK - I could here it making all its usual noises and the temp display now showed just how warm it had got - it was 16 degrees C in the fridge and 1 degree C in the freezer - things were just starting to thaw. I left the fridge running and the temps dropped back down but a few hours later it shorted out my electrics again....and then would not start without shorting out.

I called in the repair company and they have diagnosed a failed defrost heater and have disconnected it whilst they get parts. They left the fridge running (they said this would be OK for a couple of days) and again it got cold. Then, next morning the freezer temp display was flashing again and I realised it was all warm again........so it appears that there is something else going on here.

I am loathe to pay for the new heater and the labour to have it replaced just to find out then that the 'something else' that is wrong is going to cost me lots more money......certainly more than the fridge is now worth at second hand value.

Any ideas what's going on here and is there anything we can try ourselves - my husband is quite handy!

Thanks in advance

Helen

Thanks Gene for your swift reply.

I am happy for them to come do the repair but my worry is that this is just the start of what could be a very expensive exercise. I have already paid them a call out to come and diagnose why the fridge was shorting out....they diagnosed a failed defrost heater in fridge (which they have now disconnected to stop the shorting out) and have quoted me to come back and replace that...labour and parts. They have said that once they have done that, they will be able to see if anything else is wrong. They will then attempt to diagnose any further fault and then quote for fixing it. This will need another visit as they don't carry parts and have to order them. So suddenly I am into 3 visits and more parts and a bill that exceeds the value of the fridge....in which case I'd rather cut my losses and sell it for spares on ********, and buy a new fridge. They only accept cheques or cash - no c/c.

I switched the unit back on last night and again it ran perfectly for about 7 hours and reached temperature and then went off.....it seems that it is then 'forgetting' to start back up again so just sits there and I wonder if it may be going into defrost mode as the freezer side warms up again very quickly. I switched the power off and on again this morning and again the temps then showed the true temperature and not what the display had been reading just before I switched it off....and it was way too warm again. So off it went again running fine and cooling down....but I expect it will be off again when I get in from work.

I guess what I am really trying to summise is does anyone think it's worth repairing....it is in excellent condition cosmetically with not a mark, scratch or dent on it. But so far I have spent £40 (USD60) call out, have been quoted nearly £90 for the heater repair (USD135) and then maybe looking at new board?????

This is the first problem I've had with it.

Thanks for any further assistance,
Helen

Hi again

Well, I have run the fridge freezer for the last few days without it cutting out again so I think any other problems have resolved themselves. Was probably just me keep pushing all the buttons on the control panel confused it. Left it off for a couple of hours, plugged back in and now working fine, keeping temperature and making all the right noises!

Thanks again for your help.