'American Style' Samsung Fridge Freezer (merged threads)

simondot_2

Hi all – first MSE poster here! Often browse this forum for the great advice and tips but this the first time i’ve posted so hi!!

I have a Samsung RSH1DBMH American style ‘side by side’ fridge freezer. Bought it from currys 2 years and 4 months ago....guess what.... fan is suddenly making a horrible buzzing noise that judders to a ‘grinding’ stop when the fridge door is opened. :mad:

After reading i took a closer look at my fridge and on closer inspection its clear to see that some of the vents on the inside back panel are clearly frosted up. So there’s a fair chance the noise is coming from a frozen, (or soon to be frozen) fan. Frost free fridge... i don’t think so.

As my product is a few months out of warranty was planning to attempt a DIY fix to clear the ice build up. Hoping that the excellent instructions posted earlier in this thread will apply to my model too!

What point i really wanted to make is that I find it incredible that Samsung have not issued any kind of advisory or information about this clear design flaw – they must surely be aware of it?? There is no mention at all on their website or the troubleshooter / FAQs in the user manual. The manual even suggests that odd noises from the fridge are normal.

Even an advisory note to do a full defrost every year would at least be some sort of help. If it were not for fantastic consumer forums like this one we’d have no info at all and have no choice but to fork out for expensive engineer visits, or worse to be blissfully unaware and leave the product until it totally packs up.

I’ve owned loads of great Samsung products in the past with no problems at all but i’d be tempted to steer clear of their fridges in the future.

ultramagnetic_commuter

simondot wrote: »

What point i really wanted to make is that I find it incredible that Samsung have not issued any kind of advisory or information about this clear design flaw – they must surely be aware of it?? There is no mention at all on their website or the troubleshooter / FAQs in the user manual. The manual even suggests that odd noises from the fridge are normal.

To their credit, notwithstanding the issues people have had, they have made the information available on their website http://www.samsung.com/uk/homevisit/

While I'm posting, mine is a newer model which I thought was getting noisy (buzzing more than anything). I took the inside back panel off and there was no ice. We now aren't sure whether it was always that noisy and we only just noticed - when working correctly, do people find it quite a noisy unit when it's going through it's cycle?

SORTITOUTKIDS

Dear All

My fridge is also suffering all of the problems listed. The back of the fridge on the left handside has frozen up. The sound of a small helicopter inside when the door has closed and the temperature guage flashing or stating 3 degrees when it is clearly much warmer than that (milk does not last more than a couple of hours inside).

We spoke to a friend of hours yesterday to come and sort it out, he is a white goods repairman who stated that our fridge (RSH1) had been on Watchdog and that because of the known fault that had extended the warranty period from 3 to five years.

He gave us the Samsung help number 0800 9880123, which I called this morning and it has now been booked in for a FREE repair (apparently there is a fix). Our fridge was bought in 2007.

I hope this helps somebody and saves them a couple of hundred pound.

Ange

silvercar

I totally agree with the above poster. Why try a DIY repair when Samsung will come out to you (in my case within 24 hours) and repair the fault free of charge? and then guarantee the repair for 12 months.

Plus your DIY repair may solve the fan freezing up issue it won't rectify the fire risk.

My RS21 was over 5 years old when I called them and they said that the repair would still be free.

The temperature guage flashing is a fault indicator ignore the number if it is flashing - it does not mean the fridge is still at that temperature.

kentblondie

Just had the Samsung repairman here. 18 mth-old fridge freezer with same problems as above. Took 40 mins to repair and he knew exactly what was wrong with it. The temp sensor was installed on the right-hand side but needed to be on left side to work properly. It was a design fault that only became apparent the machines were about 18 mths old. He said Samsung wouldn't have found this out with their normal testing procedures and he found Samsung to be very good for customer complaints. We bought through Argos and complaints procedure was painless. The first advice was to turn the fridge off for 2 hours and then back on again. After this, the fridge stayed warm at the top! The repair guy said he didn't know why they suggested this - it never worked. But on second call they agreed to a visit and could have come out within 2 days, but I wanted a specific day. They will do Saturdays if you ask! I think Samsung should repair outside the warranty period as it is a known fault. I wouldn't suggest doing it yourself as it needed a new part. Defrosting won't work in the long term.

jonnyrad

it's nice to have positive experiences here, so quick story of what happened when the fridge compartment of my Samsung f/f froze up and broke down:

• I googled
• found this forum, considered DIY option, but saw the kits cost £££
• found the Samsung page about the home visits
• called Samsung who were very helpful
• local engineer came out within days, fixed it within an hour (at no cost to us) and said just to get back in touch if any further problems.

no need to start quoting Watchdog or Sales of Goods Act or anything, I didn't even have the recipt to hand (it's probably 'filed' somewhere), just gave the s/n. Can't even remember when we bought it, other than 'a few years ago'.

so, it would have been better if the fridge hadn't broken down in the first place, but at least it got rectified quickly and professionally.

jr

June_S

I've got the RSH1 model, and had the dreaded fan noise and warm shelves. I
phoned Samsung, but they told me my fridge was out of warranty, and despite
my efforts, they would not back down, so I tried something else. I followed
the instructions that someone else had put on this forum as I thought it
wouldn't cost me anything so I thought it was worth a go, and even though it
worked to begin with, a couple of weeks later the problem was back again. I
did the same thing again - thinking I hadn't done it properly first time,
and then about two or three weeks later the fault was back again.



I then contacted Appliance DIY Repairs as they supply a Samsung fridge
repair kit that fixes these properly. They told me that the ice is there
because of a faulty component, and that just defrosting the fridge will only
fix the problem until the fault comes back. They told me that to do the
repair properly there are certain new parts that have to be fitted and a
small modification needs to be done inside.



I was still annoyed with Samsung, and annoyed with the fact that I had
wasted time defrosting my fridge twice as I thought just doing this would
work, but as I guessed from other customers comments who had fitted Samsung
repair kits bought from Appliance DIY Repairs, I thought I'd give that a go
before calling out an engineer.



The kit was really easy to install, and the modification was simple to do. I
waited a few more weeks before putting anything on this forum, as I wanted
to be sure it worked - and I'm happy to say that it has

steve_naive

Our American Style fridge freezer is having the fan problem but its serial number is not on the 'problem models' list at samsung.

It begins: RSA1N

There's a loud rumble coming from the freezer, when you open the door there's what looks like dry ice coming from the vent inside the freezer and the noise stops. It starts up again shortly after closing the door.

We've also heard bangs coming from the unit for a while now, like the sound of ice dropping?

No temperature losses that I'm aware of, but I'll be gutted if this unit isn't covered by an extended warranty.

dundernut

I have a Samsung Side by Side fridge freezer model RSH1DTSW. This is 3 1/2 years old and about 5 weeks ago started making the noise described by numerous people on this forum.( Loud clicking noise from the internal fan in the fridge compartment) This went off after a week or so and I left it. Then last Thursday , 8th Oct, I noticed that the fridge temperature had risen to 10 and wouldnt go any lower.After looking on the internet at all the forums for Samsung American style freezers I gave Samsung Customer Services a ring on 0330 7267864, not really expecting much sympathy. I spoke to a very helpful operator and mentioned during the conversation that I had looked online and that a lot of people were having the same problem and asked whether it was a design fault. Without hesitation the operator said that although the fridge was out of warranty they would, as a gesture of good will, repair it free of charge. Today (Monday) it has been fixed, the fan assembly replaced and now works perfectly. Thanks Samsung and I would suggest you give them a ring to try for a free repair.:T

simondot_2

Just wanted to post to update the forum on what happened with my out of warranty noisy fridge and Samsung. I tried the home visit microsite but unfortunately my model was not covered. I was going to try the diy fix but after reading the thread i thought it worth at least a call to Samsung. I’m so glad I did !!

I spoke to an advisor who immediately recognised and diagnosed the likely fault (ice build up) and straight away offered a ‘good will’ home visit to inspect my fridge. Within 24 hours i had a call to schedule a visit and within a matter of days the fridge was repaired and working like new. The repair involved clearing the ice that had built up and repositioning a thermostat that apparently was not located in the right place!? Anyway its all fixed and I’m pretty impressed how Samsung have dealt with the issue. Like other people have already commented there was no need for any fuss to get this done, i just needed to quote my serial number and that was about it so thank you Samsung! :T