'American Style' Samsung Fridge Freezer (merged threads)

Andy_1974

Hi all,

I've got one of the later models of this type of fridge freezer brought in December 2010, from boots appliances.

I had the same problem a few days ago with the water dispenser stopping working and the fridge freezing up.

Spoke to Boots, and told them they were liable under sales of goods act, they said I needed to get an engineer out to establish that it was a fault rather than user abuse, they provided me with contact details of a samsung authorised repair company near me, range them explained the problem, engineer came out and diagnosed the issue with the fridge defrost heater unit behind back panel, new parts required heater, temp sensor, and evaporator cover required, total cost £207.60...

Paid for repair, went back to Boots appliances with invoice and they duly refunded the cost of the repair once I sent a copy of the invoice, couldn't be happier, awaiting for the repair company to get the parts in and come back and fix it, for now defrosting the fridge ever few days until then, so all I can say is know your rights and the retailer is responsible for the repair.

Have to say impressed with how boots handled it, samsung themselves didn't want to know, does make me wonder though if the rsh5 series has the same issues ash rsh1 & rs21 etc.. Looking at the design of the fridge cooler / evaporator / fan assembly etc.. They look very similar,

Thanks all

Natt1

[Boy mine has being nothing but a nightmare nothing less and samsung had drag their heels and in the end told me certain models are no longer under the extended warranthy they finally gave in and gave the contact details agsrefrigeration.co.uk of a repair company near me in london who came out and repaired the damm thing think when this one finally dies will go out and buy a good old fashion fridge freezer no gimicks.

grumpyandproud

Version:1.0 StartHTML:0000000187 EndHTML:0000005490 StartFragment:0000002768 EndFragment:0000005454 SourceURL:file://localhost/Users/rogerparker/Documents/SAMSUNG%20MSE%20FORUM.doc I too have had a Samsung "American Style" fridge/freezer Model RS21DCSV since 2008, which apparently was actually manufactured in 2006. I am now experiencing the loud whirring noises from the back of the appliance which stops as soon as the fridge door is opened, but re-commences with seconds of closing. Also it failed to deliver water months ago. These symptoms have been well documented in this forum for several years, and appear to be ongoing even now.
I understand Samsung offered a free "service upgrade" to fix this.
However there was also a "Watchdog" fix for another issue, to cure a fire/safety hazard.
I have just spoken to Samsung to get them in to fix the current noise problem and was told "I've used up my free service call out for the "Wachdog" fix!"
What a rip off - I have had to forfeit my "free" service call for the noise problem because I used it to fix a potential fire hazard!
Anyone else having the same problem?
They also told me their fridges "only last about five years" (funny they don't mention that at point of sale!)
I am sure I am not alone in having owned "classic" fridges, Kelvinators, Frigidaires etc when first married (almost 50 years ago) which seemed to last forever [IMG]file://localhost/Users/rogerparker/Library/Caches/TemporaryItems/msoclip1/01/clip_image001.gif[/IMG]:(

hitman

Just want to say thanks to gfb for the excellent instructions in post #53.

I recently experienced poor Samsung RS21DCNS performance of the fridge when the fridge door was left ajar overnight. Following this it appears that the fridge may have tried to "overcool". This seems to have resulted in the fan freezing over and symptoms included the fridge not cooling sufficiently and the water dispenser not working (probably frozen pipe).

I pushed the top 2 buttons to see the error code showed rear fan error as per the guide at ukwhitegoods (sorry can't post links).

I used gfb's excellent set of instructions in post #53 to dismantle the fridge and remove and clear out the rear panel fan cavity over the sink with hot water (thanks gfb's wife for the tip!) and result has been a success so far.

Water dispenser started working immediately and the fridge started cooling again from 18 to 15 degrees within the first 10-15 mins of powering on. Now 30 mins after putting things back together it is down to 10 so looking good so far.

Just wanted to say a big thanks for the guide

Hitman

blackwidowz

I also have got a very noisy freezer, when the door opens it stops. will try what has been said before. Mine is out of warrenty and i think we will all have to contact watch dog as this surely is a design fault .

sansanp

Hi all. Just been reading lots of your posts with interest. My samsung F/F is quite old now. - RS21 bought in 2007. I today have the noisy vibrating sound which stops when I open doors. Water dispenser is also not working! Def sounds like a fault - My hubby is going to take a look tomorrow, thanks for the great advice, We are going to see what we can do ourselves to fix it. Must say though apart from the safety recall, which I found through here also - after My fridge and freezer thawed and I lost all of my food in it. We have actually been very pleased with F/F. . Think we may have been quite 'lucky' compared to some horror stories I have read. .....

DomSez

I posted on here a while back when having problems with my Samsung RC21DCNS, and the guy seemed not to do much more than fit a fuse block, apparently a safety thing.

However, I've recently been getting the noisy fan which stops when I opened the fridge door, then that stopped happening after a while, then the fridge part doesn't feel as cold as it used to be (it's usually on 3C, but since this, I've knocked it down to 1C), and that helped a bit.

I tried to see if I could see or clear any ice blockage, but didn't see any coming through the air holes on the back panel, and I haven't yet tried taking it off.

However, after reading on here about unplugging it for 10 mins as a possible temporary solution, I switched it back on and the freezer said -12C, which has now returned to -18C, yet the fridge started on 16C, then went to 14C and after doing a 'power cool' is now sitting on 15C! :eek:

I keep telling it to go back to 1, but the number's not really moving.

I did the unplugging about 3hrs ago, so surely if it was that warm inside, then I'd have noticed it by now, but the fridge hasn't changed noticeably from when the noise stopped happening, so it's workable, but not as cool as it should be.

I have a feeling I'm not going to be able to sleep if I'm thinking that everything in there's going to go off overnight, or is it just the panel readout that's being a pain, please?

Edit: Around 9pm I switched off the 'power cool', and now (just after 10pm) I checked again and as I walked in the kitchen, the fridge temp changed from 4C to 3C, so it seems to have normalised. I've tried to ring the Samsung number (01932 454358) but on a Sat evening all I can do is leave a message, hoping someone will contact me before they open again on Monday morning at 9am, but I'm not hopeful.

Edit: Approx 8.45am, I went downstairs and found it was now reading 14C!

I put on 'power cool', just in case it worked, went back at 9.45 and it hadn't changed, so I've taken 'power cool' off.

No-one's phoned from Samsung - so much for getting back to me "as soon as possible" outside of opening hours if I have an urgent request.

My only hope is that the fridge inside is still as cool as it was when the problem first began, so I'll put a beer can up to my cheek (the one on my face) and it'll be cool enough to be drinkable.

DomSez

Sunday 4pm and clearly no substance to the message on Samsung's answerphone that they'll get back to you "as soon as possible" when leaving a message out of hours.

I contemplated getting a cool box today, but after looking them up and getting some advice, they'll only keep the food cold 4-7hrs, and not at least 24hrs.

All I can try at the moment is to get as much ice as possible, stick it in a colinder, which is in a tray for when it melts (and some paper towel underneath just to protect the shelf) and it's on the second shelf down. Not sure if this will help any, as the temp is now down to 19C when I left it.

DomSez

Update:
No-one bothered to ring me back from Samsung, so god knows what the point of their 'emergency call back' thing on the answerphone was all about.

After about 10 mins this morning, I got through to a lady who took all my details and gave me a ref.no, and a number for the local engineers I needed to speak to. I asked to be put through, which she tried to do but then I got cut off! Good job I got the number first! (but given the amount of time it took to get hold of anyone, I had a feeling things would go tits up)

After several attempts trying to get through, I realised this was the company I spoke to in 2011, as they've booked it in for "AM if possible" tomorrow, but the engineer will call in the morning to give me a rough time, and also when he's on his way from the job before me. (I'll also ask him to ring when he arrives since someone nicked my infra-red doorbell recently!)

The whole thing caused me to have a bad night's sleep, but since I filled a colinder with ice and put that on a tray (to catch the melted water), I woke to find the fridge had gone down to the usual 3C, although it's back up to around 15C as of an hour ago.

Samsung told me I'll have to pay for this repair as the unit is out of warranty (I bought it in April 2007) but since it's a known fault, I'm going to pay up first and then argue the toss with Samsung later.

More news as it happens.

boomish

After reading this I am so glad I didn't buy a Samsung Fridge/freezer, I did pick one out many years back but they ended up not having the model we wanted with the ice maker etc so we got an LG that was over ten years ago! I was gutted at the time , but we've had many freinds get Samsung versions over the same time , all of which they have had trouble with! one freind is on his third! the last he bought wasn't a Samsung
I came to search the form to see what's recommended as although our LG is working fine, it's getting on a bit & I wonder if the new ones are more energy efficient . Looks like Samsung haven't improved much lol