Hi Leccy,
I worked through the check list you kindly provided and am embarrassed to say that what I found was a large build up of ice along the pipework at the top/rear of the freezer, particularly so where one of the pipes enters the freezer compartment. My only lame excuse is that being hidden at the rear of the cabinet, I'd simply never noticed it before!
Checking the freezer door seal also showed that there was a small gap at the mid/top position of the door. The frame of the cabinet seems to bow inwards slightly here so that the seal is well compressed at the door edges but less-squashed (or not squashed in my case) in the mid/top area. The seal itself was not physically damaged anywhere and if the freezer door was closed firmly, rather than gently, then the seal seemed to be compressed everywhere. I suppose that seals get 'tired' with age, so it may be worth me replacing it(?).
Anyway, having defrosted it all, cleaned it out and checked that there were no gaps in the freezer door seal when closed, I restarted it from room temperature. The compressor ran for about 2 hours and then stopped. Measuring the fridge and freezer compartment temperatures, I found the freezer was nearly -30 degrees C but the fridge was a bit high at around +8 degrees C. Increasing the thermostat setting didn't restart it but operating the switch and leaving it for a while, did. After a short time the temp in the fridge was down to about +4 and I turned the switch off. That was 2 days ago and the empty fridge/freezer appears to have been maintaining proper temperatures ever since.
The experience has made me realise that my knowledge of practical refrigeration is very weak, ie little more than the basic evaporator/condenser circuit that I covered way back in my schooldays! If you have the time, can you help me out with the following please.
My understanding of the Classixx is that its a pretty basic single compressor unit with the freezer evaporator in series with the fridge evaporator (plate). The thermostat, mounted in the fridge compartment, actually monitors the temperature in the freezer but there's some sort of duct arrangement between compartments such that a 'warm' fridge will warm up the freezer slightly and hence start the compressor until the freezer is back down to its setting. The aspect that I cannot understand with this concept is how a thermostatically controlled freezer temperature translates into a much higher, but controlled, temperature in the fridge.
Anyway, many thanks for your time and invaluable advice which prevented me from wasting my money on an unnecessary spare..... but I must do something with the door seal!
