Samsung American Style Fridge Freezer RS21 Advice pls

[petetobin]

I have reposted this with a clearer title. Hope that’s ok. My model number is RS21JLBG which has the cool zone boxes.

We seem to have been lucky with this model in that it has operated fine with only a couple of issues for over 10 years including a fan replacement. However, the same thing is happening again and it is not that easy this time as I have been told that Samsung don't make parts any longer. I believe it's the same fan issue as the fridge is noisy and when you open it the fan stops and makes a death rattle kind of noise. The fridge shows the temperature is ok but when I rebooted it, it was much higher at 10c. When I call big repair companies they tell me they won't touch it with a barge pole.

Question I have is can I source the part, second hand or aftermarket and if I do are their tradesmen who would fit it or would I be able to do it myself? I am pretty handy but no DIY god like some people on this forum, I have changed a fan on an oven before. At a minimum I think I would need someone to help me move it as the door doesn't open wide enough to get the shelves fully out. That said, I wonder if I could change it by pulling out the shelves as far as they would go?

It's not so much the cost of the new appliance but the grief of getting the old one out and a new one in!

 

[ericmark]

I know Samsung are good quality so could last 20 years, but I looked at the repair manual and I can see why no one wants to repair it. It was only sample pages I thought it may show how to renew fan, but it seems there are three fans all controlled by main circuit board, and some big lumps need removing to access fans

I would be looking at a replacement, however you can try one thing first. I found with my old Hoover fridge/freezer over time ice would build up behind those big covers, and the fan would catch on the ice, it needed a second freezer and to run down stock, but I would empty, then switch off at socket, open doors and aim a fan (not fan heater just a fan) at the compartment and defrost for full 12 hours, problem one can't see ice behind the cover so one can only guess if all ice melted. Once fully defrosted, when turning back on again it would work for another couple of years.

It was under a maintenance plan, so had a few repairs in its life, and knowing in past the guy had found a large lump of ice normally tried a defrost first, then one time other things stopped me from defrosting it. The guy arrived looked at ice build up and stated insulation gone not economic to repair. However at 20°C you don't get ice build up, so still working keeping my home brew at correct temperature. I think my fridge/freezer likely faulty from day one. But unless some one use to working on that model sees it faults like insulation failure are hard to find.

I found the old paperwork which came with it, this has the average power used per year. So measured power used in one week and times by 52 and found it was using nearly twice the power it should have used. So yes good reason to change.

 

[petetobin]

Thanks for the advice Eric. I think mine is a bit different to the picture you have posted as it is a Coolzone model and seems to have two sets of removable panels rather than 1. I could take one off but the problem I have is that I can’t open the door fully as it is next to a wall. The defrost seems a good plan though as the fan is still operating just a bit noisy and grinds when it slows down. Any idea if you can defrost the fridge but leave the freezer operating. I suspect not. I did find how to put it into manual defrost mode but that didn’t work as it relies on the defrost heater which is notoriously bad.

I am pretty annoyed as I explained the problem to Samsung gave them the model and serial number and they charged me £100 for an engineer to come out and tell me they didn’t make parts anymore.