Smeg fridge freezer FA421XS not cooling

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Hi, I have an approx. 10 year old Smeg. It was fine until suddenly started not getting cold , both the fridge and freezer. In fact it now gets hot so there is no cooling at all. The fan seems to be OK, there is air blowing into the freezer at the top fairly fast. The compressor seems to be getting pretty hot. I contacted Smeg, they said it is too old to repair. A local company also said that it would be too expensive to repair. I don't mind paying a 200 pounds or so, as it will cost over 1000 to replace. So, do I really need to through this away and buy a new one? It seems crazy that it cannot be fixed. Any help appreciated Thanks
 
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from the instruction book, plus you don't usually have to turn it off to defrost the freezer once a year or so.
 
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You say fan running so would guess on frost free. In the main frost free has all the evaporators in the back covered up with a circulating fan and non frost free has the evaporators between every draw in the freezer with no fan.

Since motor is running I would guess for some reason there has been a loss of gas and to refill is not a DIY job.

I looked to get my freezer repaired and my mothers freezer repaired.

In my case seemed likely it would need new motor which would involve brazing and employing some one to re-gas. Checked on price of motor it was £80 and to just get a fridge guy to visit would be £45 new freezer same model would cost £200 so seemed only option was to replace whole unit.

Mothers was very different all it required was a new thermostat easy to fit so new one ordered over the internet and while waiting for it to arrive I have used my beer brewing controller to keep it at -18°C.

As I looked for a replacement for my freezer I found the EU rules on the energy used has seriously limited the options. The A+++ to D rating is based on the standard annual energy consumption (SAE) and this was devised when most units were around the B and C rating. This SAE is different for chest freezer, upright freezer, fridge, and fridge/freezer with the fridge/freezer having much higher value to others so for a manufacturer to produce a small freezer it costs more than adding a fridge on top of it because the SAE for a freezer is so much lower than fridge freezer.

So today because of the SAE fridges are larger than the freezer it means they can get the A++ rating where if the freezer was larger than fridge it would be harder to get.

But on saying that the manufacturers have improved the energy efficiency and with it also the control today there are often devices which allow the fridge and freezer to control their temperatures independent where with the older units the fridge just got a percentage of heat removal from the freezer.

I sat down and worked out if it was worth replacing a fridge/freezer because of the energy used. With a old C rated fridge/freezer replacing it with a non frost free A+ rated fridge/freezer then it would pay for its self in about 2 years assuming a rather cheap replacement. However with an old C rated frost free and replacing with A+ rated frost free because the unit costs more it was more like 10 years to pay for its self which is about the life one expects to get from them so not worth changing purely to save running costs.

I replaced my freezer with a RZ80FDMH Samsung freezer which is designed to be used as a pair with the RR82FDMG refrigerator both have a A+ rating but this configuration is unusual because as two separate units to get A+ it needs to be less than 495 kWh/annum for the two units but if they were combined they could use 543 kWh/annum and still be A+.

So the A+ and A++ rating are really no good to compare units with it's all down to the SAE which changes between types of refrigeration device. Personally had I realised what was going on I may have bought the RR82FDMG refrigerator but did not realise how the rating was warped by the SAE so got a fridge/freezer with large fridge A++ rating.

If you go and look at a under counter frost free freezer and note price you will find you can get a fridge/freezer with same size freezer as under counter one for the same price it would seem your getting the fridge for free. But this is all because the SAE rating allows poorer insulation to be used on a fridge/freezer.

It may not have been designed that way but it has worked out to be a con with before I could buy a 230vac/12vdc fridge for car and house today you get a 12vdc fridge with 230 - 12 volt adaptor as if the adaptor is built into the fridge it would not comply. You also get duel gas/electric fridges which are never designed to run on gas but being duel fuel is gets around the regulations.

Happy hunting.
 

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