Fridge Freezer stopped working!

Nurselayer

Sorry, I don't know if this is Techie or not. To me it is, but then I'm an idiot. ;-)

So, we bought a Kenwood KFC60SS15 Fridge Freezer in July last year. We were offered an extended warranty but turned it down because we believed that white goods were covered on our home insurance. Freezer is supposed to have an alarm that beeps if it goes below a certain temperature.

Woke up this morning to find that everything in the freezer is defrosted. There's still power to the appliance and the fridge is working fine, it's just the freezer that's packed up. The alarm never went off.

So, we got in touch with Curry's who sold it to us, of course it's out of warranty as the guarantee is only 1 year. Got in touch with our home insurance who said that as it's a "failure" they don't cover it, although they will cover the contents of the freezer, with £100 excess but if we claim it'll put our premiums up next year.

Is there anything we can do? To have a brand new fridge freezer only last a year and 3 months is really annoying. We can't really afford to buy another one.

Are there any known problems with this make/model? Have we got a claim against the manufacturers because the alarm didn't go off and so all of our food is ruined?

Any ideas/help much appreciated.

Lanzarote1938

Nurselayer wrote: »

Sorry, I don't know if this is Techie or not. To me it is, but then I'm an idiot. ;-)

So, we bought a Kenwood KFC60SS15 Fridge Freezer in July last year. We were offered an extended warranty but turned it down because we believed that white goods were covered on our home insurance. Freezer is supposed to have an alarm that beeps if it goes below a certain temperature.

Woke up this morning to find that everything in the freezer is defrosted. There's still power to the appliance and the fridge is working fine, it's just the freezer that's packed up. The alarm never went off.

So, we got in touch with Curry's who sold it to us, of course it's out of warranty as the guarantee is only 1 year. Got in touch with our home insurance who said that as it's a "failure" they don't cover it, although they will cover the contents of the freezer, with £100 excess but if we claim it'll put our premiums up next year.

Is there anything we can do? To have a brand new fridge freezer only last a year and 3 months is really annoying. We can't really afford to buy another one.

Are there any known problems with this make/model? Have we got a claim against the manufacturers because the alarm didn't go off and so all of our food is ruined?

Any ideas/help much appreciated.

Is it a frost free one? i ask because I have just had to buy a new one because the freezer bit wasn't working. Since then I have read that sometimes the drainage bits get iced up. Solution was to turn it off with doors open for 24 hours so it all defrosted.. Wish I had known, would be worth a try.

billy2shots

Has it got one thermostat or two (one for fridge, separate one for freezer)?

Has it got one compressor (motor) or two?

Normally an easy fix to diagnose if you let me know the answer to the above.

unforeseen

Woke up this morning to find that everything in the freezer is defrosted

That implies that it has been off for a few days. A modern freezer should keep stuff frozen for about 10 hours on power failure

that

looking on youtube this model has a wiring loom issue, causing the door pannel not to work and possibly this is where the buzzer is.

if this freezer is a fully frost free one and not an auto defrost one, it should have a fan, that fan should be spinning and the compressor going, but it is on a timer. the coincidence of the fan and compressor dying at the same time to me would suggest the timing circuit or relay hich i would not think has anything to do with the door

JJ_Egan

Might be out of warranty but Consumer Rights may still cover it .
See sticky top of the pages .
Basics CR are against the vendor and nothing to do with warranty .

Nurselayer

billy2shots wrote: »

Has it got one thermostat or two (one for fridge, separate one for freezer)?

Has it got one compressor (motor) or two?

Normally an easy fix to diagnose if you let me know the answer to the above.

I don't know if it's got one or two thermostats, nor whether it's got one or two compressors? How do I check.

Found out that the fridge has now stopped working too.

Nurselayer

JJ_Egan wrote: »

Might be out of warranty but Consumer Rights may still cover it .
See sticky top of the pages .
Basics CR are against the vendor and nothing to do with warranty .

I couldn't find this in the sticky on the top of this page. Please can you pop a link on here for me? Thanks.

that

https://www.moneysavingexpert.com/shopping/consumer-rights-refunds-exchange/

billy2shots

Nurselayer wrote: »

I don't know if it's got one or two thermostats, nor whether it's got one or two compressors? How do I check.

Found out that the fridge has now stopped working too.

Has it got a temperature dial in just the fridge or one in the freezer as well?

Can you see behind the machine? If you can, is there one black motor at the bottom with small pipes coming out of it or two?

I will skip to the next stage anyway and dune you have one compressor/‘motor’.

- Turn the thermostat ‘temp dial’ down slowly to the point it gets to zero. If the stat is fine then you should hear and feel a fairly pronounced click as the stat switches between on and off. If there isn’t a pronounced ‘click’ then 9 times out of ten it’s the stat. Look up the model number and order another.
Easy to fit just a few little screws ,take it slow and swap the old wires to the new one at a time so they are in the right place.
Tools needed, small screwdriver and pliers.

If the stat clicks and feels and sounds good.

- It’s probably your ‘relay’ which connects to the compressor at the back (bottom) of the fridge/freezer. Again, simply look up your model part and order a new one. This is easier to fix than a stat and will take 2 minutes. You need a screwdriver to take the relay cover iffy, pliers for de -wiring and a flat head driver to gently lever the relay away from the compressor. If the relay is the fault you may find that it’s melted a little on the outside or rattles when you shake it.

3rd option is the compressor itself but that a 500/1 shot given the units age. This is not a home fix unless you have gas to recharge it and are good at welding.

Nurselayer

that wrote: »

https://www.moneysavingexpert.com/shopping/consumer-rights-refunds-exchange/

Thank you so much for this. I rang the "helpline" who, on Saturday, had told my gf that because it was over a year old that there was nothing they could do. I mentioned the Consumer Rights Act and that I didn't consider a year to be a "reasonable length of time" to expect a fridge/freezer to work, and now they have referred it to management and it looks as if they will send someone to repair it FOC. Fingers crossed.