'American Style' Samsung Fridge Freezer (merged threads)

andyfaint

What a useful thread to find! I have just had our 4 year old Samsung written off (luckily I had taken out 5 years of cover from Curry's). It did all the things mentioned above, but took 5 visits by different engineers to eventually find out what was wrong (the whole evaporator unit had failed).
Watch out though; when the last engineer stripped out the plastic inner of both fridge and freezer, the heating elements (which do the defrosting) had actually burned holes in the plastic of the inner. This does look like a fire hazard, and also cracks in the plastic stretched out from where it was burned.
Very unimpressed by the quality, now need a new one. Any advice on Daewoo??
Andy

Tigermaid

Hi Andyfaint
I've had a Daewoo, minus the water dispenser. Had it since last December and, touch wood, no issues with it yet. I wouldn't have another Samsung if it was the last fridge freezer available. As you have found they repair the fault but it's all the other damage it has done that causes further problems. Hope you get sorted.

ayudame

Our fridge freezer is about three years old and had been modified last year by Samsung engineer due to an electrical fault that some similar fridges had experienced.
We experienced exactly the same symptoms as yours, the noise that stops when you open the door which after a week or two disappears. We hoped that the problem had resolved itself but it was only evolving! Next the fridge temperature rose to about 14degrees, although the freezer continued to work properly, thank goodness!
I looked on this website and found the forum so helpful I thought I would pass on what worked for us...
I phoned Samsung Customer Service 0800 988 0123 two days ago, call centre in India answered immediately. When I explained what was wrong he arranged for an engineer to contact me within 24hrs to replace up to 6 items covered by the 5year (free) warranty that Samsung provided for previously modified Fridge freezers. Yesterday they phoned to arrange visit, today engineer came and removed the panel inside the back of the fridge and defrosted it all with a steamer, then replaced the 'defrost sensor' free of charge.
Give Samsung a call - I am amazed how easy it was to sort out and hope that the fridge will be fine now!:) Good luck!

busymumof3

HI there. Wondered if any of the sizeable number people on this thread experiencing recurring problems had managed to reach any kind of resolution with Samsung once their appliance is outside the warrenty period.

My RS21DGRS1 was purchased from Comet in May 2005 where we took out an extended warrenty giving us cover until May 2010. Over this period we have experienced all the symptoms detailed in this thread. One ruined fridgeful of food £100-£200, one ruined freezerfull of food £100 ish caused by rising temperatures and spontaneous defrosts. We have had two visits from Comet engineers over the period for the two seperate incidents and in February 2010 a new supposedly modified panel and new sensors were fitted. Today I became aware of a whirring noise and when I looked inside the fridge noticed that ice was protruding from the the lower vents.

Telephoned Samsung Customer Service in Gateshead and they did not want to know as the appliance was outside the 5 year warrenty. They kindly passed the telephone number for a local authorised service repair outlet which we would have to pay for! The Manager I spoke to simply reiterated what the first member of staff had quoted and was uninterested in the fact that this was a recurring problem which had obviously just had a temporary fix. Now normally I wouldn't be fussed over a 6 year old appliance but actually due to Samsung's attitude I am mightily irritated. We paid £170 for the extended warrenty from Comet whose engineers came out to the first two problems so actually have had no benefit from Samsung's free extended warrenty. Now the fridge freezer is outside this period they cannot wait to wash their hands of it even though they acknowledge the fault.

Forgot to add that we also had the safety modification (additional fuse) fitted as a result of the fire hazaard notification. What a good buy this fridge freezer was!

Have the details of the Complaints Department to write to but wondered if anyone else is in this position and what action you took etc. Any advice welcomed!

Tigermaid

See my previous posts, previous page. I managed to get compensation for new fridge freezer, lost food etc. Known problem for years but Samsung didn't want to know. Hundreds of people taken them to Supreme Court in America over the problem. Try calling Samsung on 01932455000. Don't give in. It took me months to finally get sorted. Good luck.

wen-tom

Hi all,
Just found this thread while looking for a repair agent for my Fridge freezer which seems to have the same probs as you all.
Production date was 10/2008 so we must have bought not long after although it was a gift and we have no receipt and no way of knowing where it was from.
The freezer failed around 2/3 months ago but the fridge was ok. I got a local repair guy out who told me to let it defrost for a few days and it should work again for a little while. He said he was no expert on these but if it was the same prob as he had seen it would fail again shortly after.
I called samsung at this time and they refused to do anything - only offering me the details of their repair agent some 100 miles from my home.

It has failed again and this time the fridge and freezer have gone. the temp recorded now is 23 on the freezer and 14 on the fridge. we have had it turned off for a week now and when i turn it back on it does nothing different.
Reading through some of the pages here it seems that samsung have offered a 5 year warranty on some FF. I know mine had 2 years. How do I find out if mine was extended?

Any other help would be appreciated as I have no funds for a repair. I have just lost my job

Thanks in advance

Washup

Samsung American Style Fridge/Freezer Model RSG5UCRS
Hi everyone this is my first crack at this site (which seems to hold a wealth of info!)
Has anyone bought one of these fridges?
I thought they looked really good but having read the threads on Samsung fridge/freezers I am having serious doubts.
Any info/advice would be greatly appreciated

rubber6145

figozz wrote: »

I don't know how old my fridge is exactly as I bought mine used from eBay, but it was having the same problem with the evaporator cover assy gradually freezing up inside and ice build up outside also.

Over the period of a week or so it was sounding more and more like a helicopter when the fridge door was closed with the sound stopping when the door was opened. Eventually the noise stopped completely and the fridge wasn't keeping the correct temperature, with it being cold at the bottom and warm at the top.

I have since learned that some of the parts inside the fridge had a design fault / flaw and were not suitable for the application they were intended for, eventually failing... quite commonly in fact... so much so that it was featured on an episode of BBC Watchdog because so many people were reporting the exact same fault. The helicopter sound is ice building up around the fan, so as the fan spins it catches on the ice and causes the noise. Eventually the ice will build up sufficiently enough to stop the fan spinning completely, therefore the noise is no longer evident.

I very nearly purchased a repair kit for my RS21 on eBay recently (for around £100) until I saw the above post and another post (which I can't find now) where someone mentioned ringing Samsung also.

You can contact Samsung free of charge (from landlines) on 0800 988 0123

Even though I had not purchased the fridge from new myself, I didn't tell Samsung this and made out that I had owned the fridge from new for 4 or 5 years and had not previously had an engineer out for the problem. I gave them the serial number (on a sticker on the wall of the inside of the fridge by the way) and advised them of the problem (not forgetting to quote BBC Watchdog). After a short conversation they said they would send an engineer to repair it. I asked if there would be a charge, considering the fact that it was a design fault, and they said no.

Sure enough, an engineer came out, swapped a host of parts (evaporator cover, sensor, drain heater, thermometer, defrost heater)... all free of charge and it is now working.

For the record, I had previously tried removing the cover and defrosting it inside myself. I had also widened the hole in the polystyrene beneath the fan (where it had frozen up) as per some of the suggestions made on this forum. However, although this did solve the problem briefly, it eventually began to freeze up again after a couple of weeks.

If you have the same problem, just ring Samsung, quote BBC Watchdog and be adamant that you are not prepared to pay for the replacement/repair of the faulty/defective parts.



Below is the URL to check if your Fridge Freezer needs modification:
www .samsung.com/uk/homevisit/

(remove spaces)


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We had exact same problem, our unit was only 2 3/4 years old and this weekend we all the diagnosis as described above. It was some comfort to read the many complaints on this site and even more comforting to see that so many had satisfactory resolutions.
I rang the number above quoted BBC Watchdog and the call taker agreed to have an engineer ring to arrange repair free of charge. Great!!!

Purple-flower

Hello everyone, this is a really helpful thread, I'm trying to get through all the pages because our fridge has just started making that horrendous buzzing noise! Temperatures are fine, I've turned the fridge off while I work through the posts here. Can anyone give me a quick link to the post which describes what to do? Oh just to add, there is some ice build up also poking through the back panel (where the screws are) thank you!!

steve.n.i

I had the exact same problem as you guys have been describing about the buzzing that came and went on and off when opening and closing the fridge door. only problem mine went one further and when i came home from holiday yesterday the fridge had completely stopped cooling and water no longer worked (though ice dispenser was fine). after reading your posts I decided to tackle the problem head on - and touch wood, good news! my machine now seems to be back to full working order. the problem was the fan and components behind the centre internal panel were completely frozen solid. I found this by simply turning off the power to the machine, taking out all the selves and drawer units, and then removing six screws to loosen the centre panel (there are 2 additional screws for the light panel which I did remove but found later that it wasn't required). here on my machine there were 2 cable connection plugs that simply unplugged and the whole fan unit came out. mine was frozen stiff so a quick blast from a hair dryer helped speed things along. once off it was apparent that things had really frozen up and the fan blades were jammed solid (obviously that was the buzzing sound building up as the ice grew and grew). at this stage to minimise any breakages to the unit I had to stand for about 20mins with the hair dryer again and melt all the ice away. some ice had also formed in the back of the machine and since the cover was off that got a good clean and defrosting too. re-assembly is simple enough and the whole process took about an hour to do. at first the machine seemed to still be broken but that was maybe down to the fact that I was so used to hearing strange noises and now everything was quiet again! water function worked straight away and hey presto 10mins later fridge was rapidly cooling down to set temp and working again. A handly tip that I am going to do in the future is a full 24hr defrost every 6mths to try and avoid such a big built up of ice. hope this is some help and saves you a few quid and needless worry.

steve.n.i