Fridge Freezer problem

[planenut]

Hi Guys, I have a LEC T434W fridge freezer which sadly the other night, I left the door ajar and it defrosted. Since, I have cleaned it, dried it and allowed it to sit.
When I put it back on, it stays on, and on and on..... and though the fridge gets cold, and the freezer appears to be at a freezing temperature it does not go off, unless I turn the temperature control down to "1" from the "3" I had set, I then put the control back to "3" and a quarter of an hour later it starts again and will not go off, unless I repeat that sequence.
The vanes at the rear, the compresser and the underside get extremely hot.
Thought it might be the thermostat but I've read that there would be a build up of ice, which there is not.
Any suggestions (apart from the tip) please?

 

[big-all]

i would leave it for 24 hours as it may take time for for the contents to get up to [down to ] the correct temperature

if you load a freezer you should leave it on fast freeze [working constantly] for several hours

 

[planenut]

i would leave it for 24 hours as it may take time for for the contents to get up to [down to ] the correct temperature

if you load a freezer you should leave it on fast freeze [working constantly] for several hours

Thanks for that, it (whispers) seems to be behaving at the moment, shhh!

 

[big-all]

i would leave it for 24 hours as it may take time for for the contents to get up to [down to ] the correct temperature

if you load a freezer you should leave it on fast freeze [working constantly] for several hours

Thanks for that, it (whispers) seems to be behaving at the moment, shhh!

 

[JohnD]

is it a frost-free freezer?

 

[planenut]

is it a frost-free freezer?

Now that is a good question, I don't know.
It is not a recent item, I have owned it (second hand) for over sixteen years, and I cannot find any specs. online.

It now seems to stay on for a very long time, I've not noticed it going off for many hours now. If I turn the control down, it goes off for about twenty-five minutes. The freezer compartment appears to be freezing and the fridge appears cold.

 

[JohnD]

do you have to manually defrost the freezer about once a year?

old FFs use much more electricity than modern ones. You might try counting the flashes per minute on your electricity meter with it unplugged, then plug it back in, though really you need to measure over a typical day to start to see the pattern.

 

[planenut]

do you have to manually defrost the freezer about once a year?

old FFs use much more electricity than modern ones. You might try counting the flashes per minute on your electricity meter with it unplugged, then plug it back in, though really you need to measure over a typical day to start to see the pattern.

I would say then that I manually defrost, occasionally. Not sure what information the observation of the electricity use would provide.

I am inclined to replace the thermostat/temperature control, as that will be the cheapest option, whilst I keep my eyes open for a replacement.

 

[JohnD]

I mention it because I had an old fridge and an old freezer. When in Nov 2012 I traded them in for two new tall FFs, I was shocked to find that my daily summer electricity usage dropped by 4kWh per day

i.e, 4x14px365 = 20440p per year = £204 a year

I should have chucked them out years ago.

I had not realised how inefficient old appliances can be. I hope yours will not be as bad.

My new ones are also bigger.

 

[planenut]

I mention it because I had an old fridge and an old freezer. When in Nov 2012 I traded them in for two new tall FFs, I was shocked to find that my daily summer electricity usage dropped by 4kWh per day

i.e, 4x14px365 = 20440p per year = £204 a year
.

Thanks for that John, this is not a new unit, and with the current current fault, it's using loads of lecci!

 

[ericmark]

Running for too long can be either something like gas loss in the circuit or thermal insulation failure.

Many years ago I had one which was OK until turned off and then it would not cool down again. Lucky it was second freezer so turned off and saw the water running from the insulation as it sat there.

Realising what the fault was I did not want to be caught out again so bought an energy meter and with the other unit measured and noted the power it used so I could in the future repeat the exercise and know if this should happen again.

However best laid plans after a few minor faults we go insurance on the fridge/freezer and we had to call on them a few times with various parts being renewed.

Nearly 10 years latter we again were having problems and the Hotpoint guy picked up on the ice build up in the fridge. It had always done that and around once every couple of months I would remove it thinking due to door left open.

It transpired this also had an insulation failure and insurance paid out. On replacing I realised this fault had been there for years but all those years ago you did not see stickers saying how much a fridge/freezer used per year so I did not know how much it should use.

It would seem around 300 - 400 kWh/annum so around 1kWh per day so with a 150W motor should run around a 1/4 of the time approx. With replacement it has an inverter drive and fridge and freezer have separate temperature control so have to use the energy meter in the main it uses just 48W when running and clearly my electric bill will drop.

Out of interest we have a very small Woolworths 12 vdc or 230 vac fridge solid state would hold about 4 pints of milk only it's that small and on 230 vac it uses as much power as the new large fridge/freezer. Clearly I will only use in car if ever now.

 

[planenut]

Went to change the thermostat this morning and found that the recieved item is slightly different, i.e. there is a horizontal terminal between the earth points? on the original there is a combined connector on one terminal apart from the obvious switch terminal.
(hello drawing board again)

Original thermostat has earth connect to chassis terminal; white wire and blue wire to duo terminal other upper terminal brown to brown wires.

New thermostat has centre terminal as well.

Any suggestions, or have I actually got the wrong thermostat?

 

[ericmark]

Likely the two thermostats are interchangeable I would measure with meter to be sure of course but the major question has to be what makes to think the thermostat is faulty?

I had the same problem after turning a freezer off. Frost or snow is reasonable good insulator as it has loads of trapped air but water and ice are not.

So if the thermal insulation has failed it would build up a frost like barrier until turned off when unless off for long enough for water to fully drain it will re-freeze as a block of ice. Since inside the insulation there is no way to see what has happened.

So step one has to be measure the temperature rather than simply swap thermostat only if the temperature goes too low in both compartments would you swap the thermostat.

My fridge freezer has independent control of fridge and freezer but this is something rather new and only found with inverter control so motor has variable speed. In the main each time freezer runs it also cools fridge but it's a bit hit and miss. Should be -18 in freezer and + 4 in fridge likely only freezer is controlled.

Do check temperature first only if below -20 C should you be thinking about changing thermostat. When mine went it started to use around 4 times the power it should have used so if faulty then really does need renewing.

Using an energy meter one of the simple plug in units you should be looking at less than 1.35 kWh per day for a good unit. A new fridge/freezer around the 0.7 kWh per day but an old faulty unit can go to 2.7 kWh per day and still keep food cold but clearly cost you money in extra running costs.

I have had both my fridge/freezer condemned as being faulty and insurance paid out and my freezer failed altogether within a month second one not insured. I as a result switched the condemned one back on while we get second replacement even with fault insulation and food which was clearly too warm filling it top to bottom if started to cycle within 6 hours.

I tried to use electronic temperature gauge but too cold for it to work so way I judge is by how soft or hard the ice cream is. New one has temperature gauge built in.

 

[planenut]

what makes to think the thermostat is faulty?
So step one has to be measure the temperature rather than simply swap thermostat only if the temperature goes too low in both compartments would you swap the thermostat.
Do check temperature first only if below -20 C should you be thinking about changing thermostat.
Using an energy meter one of the simple plug in units you should be looking at less than 1.35 kWh per day for a good unit. A new fridge/freezer around the 0.7 kWh per day but an old faulty unit can go to 2.7 kWh per day and still keep food cold but clearly cost you money in extra running costs.
I tried to use electronic temperature gauge but too cold for it to work so way I judge is by how soft or hard the ice cream is. New one has temperature gauge built in.

Very helful comments, thanks.
Main reason I went for the thermostat, it's the only bit I can see I can do anything with. Well I wired it in and got the same results, so it may well be what you have suggested.

Now going to get a new appliance as the advice seems to be that it's old and costing more to run than a new one. Now got to figure out where from.
Thanks to all for the comments.

 

[ericmark]

My freezer motor failed and as a result I had to re-instate fridge/freezer in garage while I get a replacement this has a know thermal insulation fault, but out of interest, once fully down to temperature the power meter was put on the supply.
Time under test 43H 45M 55S
Power used 2.72 kWh
This equates to 1.29 kWh every 24 hours or 542 kWh per annum.
The unit is quite old likely 15 years old so was likely a B rated unit to start with and it has auto de-frost and options to adjust the temperature High Med Low as a comparison new Samsung fridge freezer measured not manufactures data uses 294.92 kWh per annum and that is rated as A++ the manufacturer says it uses 277 kWh per annum so since measured in summer not far off.
Again out of interest the power factor of know faulty fridge freezer was 0.75 but with the new fridge freezer (inverter control) it was 0.99 clearly a lot has been done to improve new models but at around £35 per year extra in fuel costs had the old unit also not have had other electronic control faults which meant it was not really reliable I would have not replaced it.