frost free freezer faulty compressor

78daniel

bought beko freezer from john lewis about 4 years ago , so 2 year guarantee has run out.

it has now developed a fault , seems like its the compressor, i have googled and all the info seems to say compressor should last at lease 8-10 years and maybe more.

is it worth contacting beko or john lewis to try and get them to repair it , as i realise compressor is very expensive.

thanks for looking

eskbanker

If you get an expert technician to inspect it and the verdict is that it's a latent flaw, i.e. a manufacturing issue present at the time of sale, then you can pursue the retailer under the Consumer Rights Act.

Bradden

eskbanker said:

If you get an expert technician to inspect it and the verdict is that it's a latent flaw, i.e. a manufacturing issue present at the time of sale, then you can pursue the retailer under the Consumer Rights Act.

Could the retailer not reduce the refund due to the 4 years of use? I believe Beko is a value brand and therefore they may state 5 years is a reasonable lifespan.

eskbanker

Bradden said:

eskbanker said:

If you get an expert technician to inspect it and the verdict is that it's a latent flaw, i.e. a manufacturing issue present at the time of sale, then you can pursue the retailer under the Consumer Rights Act.

Could the retailer not reduce the refund due to the 4 years of use? I believe Beko is a value brand and therefore they may state 5 years is a reasonable lifespan.

Yes, I wasn't trying to imply that a full refund would be on the table!  OP is seeking a repair, which I agree is a more realistic expectation if there's a faulty component that can be shown to have been so at the time of purchase....

Undervalued

eskbanker said:

Bradden said:

eskbanker said:

If you get an expert technician to inspect it and the verdict is that it's a latent flaw, i.e. a manufacturing issue present at the time of sale, then you can pursue the retailer under the Consumer Rights Act.

Could the retailer not reduce the refund due to the 4 years of use? I believe Beko is a value brand and therefore they may state 5 years is a reasonable lifespan.

Yes, I wasn't trying to imply that a full refund would be on the table!  OP is seeking a repair, which I agree is a more realistic expectation if there's a faulty component that can be shown to have been so at the time of purchase....

It is a case of risk against possible reward.

The OP would need to pay for the report initially and would only get that back if it finds that the fault was inherent. If it does it should indicate the normal expected life and as you say JL's pay out could (would?) be reduced pro rata.

Anecdotally, JL seem to take a much tougher line with these sort of claims that they once did, so it could be a bit of a battle.

With an old fashioned fridge or freezer there was little else to go wrong apart from the compressor and thermostat. It may well be that these frost free marvels (I certainly like mine!) have much more to go wrong?

Grumpy_chap

78daniel said:

it has now developed a fault , seems like its the compressor,

Undervalued said:

With an old fashioned fridge or freezer there was little else to go wrong apart from the compressor and thermostat. It may well be that these frost free marvels (I certainly like mine!) have much more to go wrong?

The OP needs to prove that it is the compressor or not.
Modern fridge freezers have more to go wrong.

Our fridge freezer has developed an intermittent fault in the run up to Christmas last year. 
We called the local repair shop, but once we described the fault over the phone and gave the make plus model number, the shop simply said they knew exactly what it was - ice build up on wherever they said - and the solution was to turn it all off for a day and turn it back on and repeat every six months.
We did that at Christmas and, right enough, it went wrong last weekend so we decamped everything and switched it all off overnight and back on and everything is fine again.  Unbelievable how much water pooled out of the fridge freezer.

The OP can't lose much by switching everything off and doing a manual defrost.  It will, if nothing else, help to prove whether it is the compressor or something else.

Our fridge freezer is not a BEKO but I'd imagine the principal around possible cause is exactly the same.

CliveOfIndia

Are you sure it's the compressor?  Have you given it all good clean, and in particular checked that the door seals and the frame they close up against are undamaged and spotlessly clean ?  I'm not saying it's not the compressor, but giving it a thorough clean costs nothing, and replacement seals (if needed) are cheap and simple to replace yourself.

Grumpy_chap said:

The OP can't lose much by switching everything off and doing a manual defrost.  It will, if nothing else, help to prove whether it is the compressor or something else.

This is well worth trying as well.  Over the years I've had a few issues with various fridges/freezers (including so-called frost-free ones), where they appear to have given up the ghost.  Switch it off, defrost it, give it a good old clean, good as new.  I've no idea how or why it works, but very often it does.  And again, it costs nothing to give it a go.

Oh, and while you're at it, you may as well give all the cooling fins/pipes/gubbins at the back a bit of once-over with a soft brush, they always seem to attract plenty of dust which I always think must surely stop it cooling as efficiently.