Fridge-freezer is dying

Just what I need! My 15-year-old fridge-freezer seems to be dying. It starts up, runs for about 2 seconds with a maybe slightly lower-pitched hum than usual, and then a cutout on the compressor clicks and it stops. A plug-in energy meter suggests it takes 3-5 Amps while it tries to run.

So far the freezer seems to still be cold but I don’t think that will last long. Does anyone have any clever ideas, e.g. “give it a tap with a hammer here and it will run for another week” ???

I doubt that a compressor replacement is economical for a fridge-freezer than can be replaced for £350. It’s just typical it fails on a Friday evening with most deliveries unavailable till Monday…

Thermostats are common fault. Cheap enough to swap if you can find any information on it

When was it last defrosted properly.

Plenty of next day delivery's available but you will obviously pay a premium for next day and a Sunday delivery.

jj4091 said:

When was it last defrosted properly.

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April.

freddiemercurystwin said:

Plenty of next day delivery's available but you will obviously pay a premium for next day and a Sunday delivery.

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A lot of them say “next day” until I enter my postcode, then it days “Wednesday”

endecotp said:

April.

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May be worth trying it again. Especially if you don't keep it full

endecotp said:

April.

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A plug in energy in my 17 year old fridge/freezer (see below) also shows very high inrush "power" of ~ 700/800 watts, sometimes I can hear a click from the fridge/freezer which I'd say is the thermal overload operating, it then restarts itself about a minute or so later and runs away fine. A equally old undercounter Whirlpool AGB 601 Freezer also has pretty high starting power of ~ 5/600 watts for a few minutes but doesn't trip anything so I would think that its fairly normal for all these type of freezers/fridgefreezers to start up with that high power requirement?

The OP states that is is still running cold even though now exhibiting the same symptoms as mine above and probably restarting shortly after so I wouldn't be in any hurry to throw it out just yet

I have a 17 year old Hotpoint HM315 NI Fridge Freezer which, from day 1 used to overcool even though under warranty the stat was replaced a few times, a friend of mine was throwing out a old Frigidaire so I replaced my stat with the one from his, a Rohs WDFE28K-920-328, this worked perfectly for about 12 years but packed up, I couldn't source another one like his so got another (cant remember the model) allegedly the same as my original K59-L1816 stat but back to squareone again to overcooling with almost continuous running, I just went away and bought one of those cheap mechanical timers with the little setting pegs and just run it now on the timer, almost perfect temperatures now for the past couple of years, mine is a manual defrost fridge/freezer which I religiously defrost every 5 weeks, only takes ~ 20 minutes with a few pots of boiling water placed inside the freezer compartment.