Samsung American Style Freezer SR-S20 -

tvirus

Bear with me - it's a long post!

Samsung sr-s2028dvw
S/N :887343CWA00458 L

Freezer not freezing - reports wrong temp - confirmed by turning off and on - reports true temp then tells me lies!!

My woes began asat week when I noticed that some of the food didn't feel frozen. A few days ago I noticed a bag of ice I had was melting. A forum suggestion to turn it off for half an hour only helped it to rise to 4 degrees and stay there.

I had a look at the back by the condenser coils and it was very dusty - hoovered most out but haven't popped the back off yet.

All food was transferred to the spare.

Since that started to cool very slowly - a rate of 1 degree each twelve hours.

Holding the top two buttons for 8 seconds gives no error codes - it just lights all lights then goes blank for a few seconds then back to displaying the actual temperatures. Although after I got the panels off it will remain blank if I do the second thing.

Fridge compartment is operating flawlessly.

I've stripped her back and there was an ice build up at the top of the coils but it hadn't affected the fan.

I de iced with a hair dryer and set about testing what I could.

I followed a guide on testing of all the components - on a site called u kan fix it - no links allowed apparently so can't post it but it comprehensive I think.

The only one that came back with a reading inconsistent with the guide was the defrost heater giving the wrong resistance

This is all assuming the guide I followed was correct.

Resistance across the two wires that disappear into the silver thing seemingly stuck on the back of the freezer was 1.27 rather than 2.

So could this be the problem - I reassembled and it appeared to be working well but I suppose it will just happen again and again and again.

If those readings do indicate an issue then what next? Replace the component?

it looked to be behind the coils and not something I could easily remove . . .

One other thing - the thing under the blue bit at the back - I assume that's the temp sensor? Its resistance rose as I warmed it so that seems to be functional. Be nice to know what it is. Is there an engineer's manual anywhere?

Now the annoying bit - I was hoping my manual defrost might be the only kick it needed but . . ..

Well came home today and the temp was at -3

Hmmm

Opened freezer and held door switch - fan came on - scratched head - walked off

Ten minutes later it was minus 7 - ten minutes later at -14

Turning her off and on again shows a temp of minus 1 in reality - so what am I up against here??

Its the twin cooling model according to the text on the shelf.

I did post on a refridgeration engineers forum but only one guy got back to me so far but by then I'd found a few posts and started fettling.

Does this sound familiar to anyone? Do I buy a new Fridge freezer? Replace something? Call an Engineer (reluctant because I can handle most jobs myself unless it calls for real specialism)

Cheers!!

EssexExile

Good luck! I don't know the model & I've been out of the trade for years but in the absence of any other offers I'll have ago. Fridge is OK, freezer not, so how does this model force the cold air into each? Does it have separate fans for the two or are there temperature operated paddles to direct the air into the right compartment? Whichever it has could be the problem, or is it that the cooling action is good enough for the fridge not not good enough for freezer temperatures? In which case it could be a gas problem.

tvirus

It seems the fridge isn;t playing ball either now.

Separate fans for each

No idea how it circulates air - Only identified a drain hole when I dismantled her.

I'm taking her apart again tonight to see if the frosting has reoccured.

I'm trying to wrangle a cheap spare for the meantime as I'm without a fridge atm. It does appear this fault is common across similar models.

EssexExile

Ah, so could be the defrost heater that you mentioned, although as you got a resistance reading I'd guess that's fine. Could be the timer that tells the defrost heater when to come on. Both of these of course would cause the evaporator to ice up completely, that would take hours/days so it should be OK until it gets solid. The temperature sensor you mentioned probably just tells it when all the ice has melted so the heater goes off & the compressor starts up again.