Hi there, I've a Samsung side-by-side American-style fridge-freezer, which was only used for about a year and then, due to unforeseen circumstances, ended up in storage for years. The thing looks like new; I'd always looked forward to getting it working again, but it doesn't!!
It has a display on the front which indicated that the fridge was down to temperature and that the freezer was remaining pretty much at room temperature. I wrongly accepted this as the truth for a few days, but eventually realised that the fridge isn't cooling. It sounds fine, the cabinet and compressor fans are working fine. I've stripped off the panels covering the evaporators and it all looks like new. There are no signs of a leak anywhere, no oil stains/drips etc. The pipes coming out of the compressor are at roughly room temp, maybe a little higher. Neither are hot or cold which I believe they should be.
Initially, I didn't know who to call, so I ended up contacting a national repairer, who sent a local fridge freezer expert from a local company for a £100 call-out fee. That was to include labour, no parts. He's had a look at it, loads of head scratching, checked the electrics, fans etc, but didn't seem able to get any further with any diagnostics. He says he can't get the parts needed for it anyway, including the Schrader valve particular to this fridge freezer, so that was that. Licking my wounds, I thought maybe it needed more of a specialist, so I called someone who advertises locally as just a refrigeration expert. 3 mins after being with me, he said the system is empty of gas and must have a leak somewhere. It'll need a valve, pressurising with nitrogen and then soapy water spraying to find the leak.
So that's where I'm at, if there are any fridge freezer experts out there who can comment to either confirm the diagnosis or have an idea of where it's most likely to leak, that would be great. If it's sprung a leak somehow whilst being stored, I would guess that's due to corrosion from the gas/oil somehow? Is there somewhere it's most likely to have done that?
I'm also a bit hacked-off that the first guy who came out didn't seem to be an expert in refrigeration and left me £100 down and still at square one. Is it unusual to find someone to work on the sealed system of domestic fridges? Are they just mostly written off, if the sealed system needs work? Is filling it with nitrogen to find the leak likely to be time-consuming and expensive, or is that a half hour's job? The gas inside is r600a, would you expert a refrigeration expert to carry nitrogen, r600a gas, Schrader valves etc all the time and be ready to sort out systems on arrival? I just seem to be hitting a brick wall on this. The last guy has said he'll come back in the New Year, so we'll see.....
Many thanks for any comments on this.
It has a display on the front which indicated that the fridge was down to temperature and that the freezer was remaining pretty much at room temperature. I wrongly accepted this as the truth for a few days, but eventually realised that the fridge isn't cooling. It sounds fine, the cabinet and compressor fans are working fine. I've stripped off the panels covering the evaporators and it all looks like new. There are no signs of a leak anywhere, no oil stains/drips etc. The pipes coming out of the compressor are at roughly room temp, maybe a little higher. Neither are hot or cold which I believe they should be.
Initially, I didn't know who to call, so I ended up contacting a national repairer, who sent a local fridge freezer expert from a local company for a £100 call-out fee. That was to include labour, no parts. He's had a look at it, loads of head scratching, checked the electrics, fans etc, but didn't seem able to get any further with any diagnostics. He says he can't get the parts needed for it anyway, including the Schrader valve particular to this fridge freezer, so that was that. Licking my wounds, I thought maybe it needed more of a specialist, so I called someone who advertises locally as just a refrigeration expert. 3 mins after being with me, he said the system is empty of gas and must have a leak somewhere. It'll need a valve, pressurising with nitrogen and then soapy water spraying to find the leak.
So that's where I'm at, if there are any fridge freezer experts out there who can comment to either confirm the diagnosis or have an idea of where it's most likely to leak, that would be great. If it's sprung a leak somehow whilst being stored, I would guess that's due to corrosion from the gas/oil somehow? Is there somewhere it's most likely to have done that?
I'm also a bit hacked-off that the first guy who came out didn't seem to be an expert in refrigeration and left me £100 down and still at square one. Is it unusual to find someone to work on the sealed system of domestic fridges? Are they just mostly written off, if the sealed system needs work? Is filling it with nitrogen to find the leak likely to be time-consuming and expensive, or is that a half hour's job? The gas inside is r600a, would you expert a refrigeration expert to carry nitrogen, r600a gas, Schrader valves etc all the time and be ready to sort out systems on arrival? I just seem to be hitting a brick wall on this. The last guy has said he'll come back in the New Year, so we'll see.....
Many thanks for any comments on this.
