Please can someone help with fridge/freezer query as matter of urgency?

littlewren

Can someone help as a matter of urgency please? Please excuse the post in advance, it's very long.

Last week, every few days, I heard quite a loud noise coming from my Hotpoint frost-free fridge/freezer, which stopped after about quarter of an hour. It was working perfectly, but I thought I should call out British Gas (as part of my servicecare agreement) in case there was an imminent problem.

The man came out yesterday and told me that frost-free fridge/freezers still need to be defrosted every now and then because tiny bits of ice can build up near the fan and if they aren't defrosted they can hinder the fan and that's what causes the noise.

He told me to wait until the cooler weather and turn it off for a bit to dislodge any little pieces of ice.

Then he said 'if you've got a hairdryer, while I'm here we'll sort it out.' He then took the panel off the inside of the freezer by removing all the screws, then used the hairdryer to dry it off and then put it outside to dry off more. He put my freezer drawers on top of each other and covered them with his British Gas thick sheet and said the food would be ok.

He then used the hairdryer to defrost the remaining little bits of ice that were on the inside of the freezer at the back (which was covered with what looked like tin foil). He said he would do it rather than me as you had to be careful not to damage the sensors.

About three quarters of an hour later he put it back together, and put the food back.

He told me it would take a while for the freezer fan to kick in again, so it wouldn't sound like it was on. He then asked me if I was going to be in for the rest of the day. I told him I would be and he said he would ring me later to make sure the freezer was running ok. He never did. This was around 3 o'clock.

The low temperature warning buzzer came on, which I expected. About an hour later, the temperature of the freezer - as shown by the display - was the required -21 degrees, so I thought it was fine. Then about an hour after that the warning buzzer started again and I watched the temperature display while it went from -21 to -10 and then it went backwards and forwards between -15 and -7.

I phoned British Gas to tell them the problem but they were unable to send anyone out by that time and said the earliest they could send someone was Tuesday afternoon, which I had to accept, but when I said I was worried about the state of my frozen food - about £30 worth - and said it seemed that the engineer must have done something wrong as it was working fine before, she said that they would not accept liability for frozen food and asked if I wanted to put in a complaint, to which I said yes.

I was really worried about the food in the freezer but knew that if I opened the door it would be the wrong thing to do. It finally reached -21 for the final time around 10 o'clock last night. I don't know what happened during the night of course, nor today as I was out all day.

After this really long essay (sorry about that!) could I ask a few questions please:

* With the temperature going up and down between -15 and -7 what are your opinions about the safety of eating the frozen food? When I looked on the back of a packet earlier, it said to keep it at -18. Of course I don't know if the temperature was wrong because of something the engineer did, or whether it was just displaying the wrong temperature.

* Is it right that I can't hold British Gas responsible even though, if there is now something wrong with the freezer, it will be because of something he did?

* Is it possible he damaged a sensor while he was using the hair dryer? (Just as he said I might do if I tried to use the hair dryer on it).

I don't know anything about how fridge/freezers work, with the sensors etc. and I'm really hoping some kind person can answer my queries.

At the moment I'm very upset at the thought of losing all that food, it's the first time I've managed to stock up for ages. The food is mainly chicken, smoked salmon (a snip at £1.30) and mince.

I really appreciate you reading this really long post and will be grateful for any replies.

Many thanks,

Carrie

affordmylife

i dont know for sure but i would say as long as it didnt defrost then you have no worries at all.

amcluesent

I'd say that the use of the hair-dryer caused the refrigerant in the pipes to turn into gas where is shouldn't and it took the compressor a few hours to cool everything back down again and get the refrigerant circulating properly.

Since the frozen food was kept insulated and then but back into the freezer, it wouldn't have a chance to defrost to any extent IMHO.

littlewren

Thankyou for your replies.

Amcluesent, what I don't understand is why it went up and down for a few hours, surely it should steadily (even slowly) have got to the right temperature, not cooled to -15 and then back up to -7 several times over the course of a few hours, should it?

The BG man didn't insulate my food in their drawers, he simply threw his thick(ish) sheet from his van over them after he stacked them on the kitchen floor. The kitchen was quite warm yesterday, even with the windows open, because it was so hot outside.

littlewren

I haven't a clue now whether I should eat the chicken that's in there, and also the smoked salmon, which of course is thin so stands more chance of having thawed to a certain extent.