LG Fridge Freezer not cooling plus smells bad

[nheather]

Hi,

My LG American style Fridge\Freezer suddenly stopped cooling on both sides.

The failure was accompanied by a strong odour, not burning, not food, but more chemical\oily.

The control board is on the top - looks like all the relays and start capacitor are in there - nothing looks burnt or mis-shapen.

At the bottom is the fan, compressor and evaporator grid.

There is a catch tray under the evaporator and this has a fair amount of water but on touching it, it is quite oily.

The failure was sudden. Was working perfectly one minute and then making a terrible smeel with temperature dropping the next.

Any idea what it could be?

Cheers,

Nigel

 

[JohnD]

might be a leak of refrigerant gas in which case it needs either professional repair or a skip.

 

[nheather]

By refrigerent gas, I assume you mean Freon. But as far as I have researched this is odourless.

It definitely seems like there has been an oil leak - from the smell and the oily water below the evaporator.

Cheers,

Nigel

 

[rocks1]

Yep classic fault oil from the comp as leaked from the condenser, which will cause a blockage and has to be vaced out but a very slim chance it will work again plus the joint will need to be lock ringed if it can be found it will only be a pin hole leak as well. Time to scrap it or spend alot of money getting a potman / system eng to fix it.

 

[nheather]

A difficult call. The fridge\freezer is only 3 years old. This type of fault would certain be uneconomic to repair for a normal freezer.

But this is an American Style side by side and will cost over £1000 to buy a new one.

Cheers,

Nigel

 

[rocks1]

Ask lg if they have a fixed price to repair it. Poss your best bet.

 

[nheather]

Very disappointed with LG. Will never use them again.

Their website looks very promising

http://www.lg.com/uk/support

https://wws.lg.com/uk/support/repair-service/schedule-repair

Whether your product is in warranty or out-of-warranty, use our convenient online scheduling to request a repair.

Sounds excellent. It is a few months out of warranty so I went in happy to pay rather than shouting and quoting SOGA.

But I was shocked with the response. The telephone is answered quickly by very polite staff, but the summary response is "your appliance is out of warranty, it's nothing to do with us". When I pointed out that their website actually invites out of warranty repairs they replied yes we know but it shouldn't because we don't get involved at all.

All they were prepared to do was to give me the telephone number of two companies that might be able to help. The first number was incorrect or dead. The second was to a company called JTM who immediately say that they don't have staff in your area so what we do, is to take payment for the call (£75) and we sell it off to a local independent who will contact you with 24 hours. It is over 48 hours and we have heard nothing since paying over our £75.

So extremely disappointed with LG who simply wash their hands of out-of-warranty repairs despite all the caring words on their website, and potentially worse, forward customers on to someone that takes money upfront and then fails to deliver.

From what I have read, it does sound like my fridge freezer is a gonner. I've read a lot of would be lawyers on forums spouting on about the SOGA telling people to take back their hairdryer that died after 4.5 years and pretty much dimissed them. I'm not a litigious person by nature, but just because of LG's attitude I'm seriously thinking of taking this one up, and through the courts if necessary. I will have a new fridge\freezer by then (and it won't be an LG) so by that stage it will be compensation of loss and rectification rather than getting them to repair.

Cheers,

Nigel

 

[Maxx2]

[Mine packed up only had the damm thing over two years contacted currys should i say currys know nothing which is what the should call themselves a couple of their engineers tuned up nice vans came in sniff around a bit when back to van came back and guess what you have a gas leak unrepairable. After several emails to lg they sent one of their contractor in london area agsrefrigeration out who attended and found their was no leak the problem was a blockage in the drier which he fixed he also pointed out to me that unless the engineer breaks into the system who can he tell that a leak of gas has definately ocurred and that its a easy get out clause for a lot of guys who don't know what they are doing this is what i confronted currys with along with the engineers report in the end they coughed up.

 

[JohnD]

Beware of a company called agsrefrigeration, they have some very shady practices.

For example, I wouldn't trust anyone who made multiple posts on DIY and consumer websites, using numerous false names, dishonestly pretending to be satisfied customers.

Would you?

Do your own search on agsrefrigeration and make up your own mind.