Fridge Freezer Fault advice please

[John]

My daughter called me to look at her Zanussi Fridge Freezer - ZEBF 249 W

The fridge wasn't cold.

I removed a panel at the back of the freezer and found the chiller thing choked with ice - I assume the fan (which is working) would be unable to pull any air through - to spill some into the fridge.

Below the chiller (and above the drain hole) is a tubular heating element - I assume it isn't working - but I haven't done any checks.

Can anyone advise on what the normal failure mode is (it is about 5 years old). Is the heater normally worked on a timer or some other arrangement?

I have defrosted it with a hairdryer and put it back together for now. Hopefully someone can advise on what checks I should do.

I recall from seeing earlier discussions that some are triggered by the number of times to door is opened. The instructions don't help!

Thanks

[Mike Dodd]

hit from google.

[John]

Thanks - some slightly confused responses - but I am hopeful about the response about the timer - will go armed with tools tomorrow. It seems a more likely fault than a heater failure.

Appalling cheap construction - but I guess it is almost fit for purpose -if left alone. Held together with tie wraps.

[meow2222]

as long as it works. Some appliance parts are held with sellotape. People always assume I'm joking when I say that.

NT

[John]

Any experience of the timer - is it sufficient to give it a turn with a screwdriver - can it be opened up and sorted out?

[John]

Thanks for the tips. I turned it with a screwdriver - the compressor cut out and the heater came on.

Not sure how long it should stay on for and my patience ran out and I advanced after about half an hour it to bring the compressor back on.

I have put a bent cocktail stick into the hole in the spindle to see if it is rotating. Will go back in a few hours to see. It was making slight clock sounds - but I guess gears can strip at a point where they encounter the load of the switching contacts

[meow2222]

in most cases of freeze up of frost-frees, all thats needed is to defrost the thing and it then works fine. The cause of this is more icing than a timed system can handle, usually due to a door being left ajar, consequently the timer then doesnt run long enough to deice itself, and gradual ice build up occurs until the machine function fails.

NT

[John]

.

Thanks for the encouraging comment. The chiller did seem to have fairly solid ice at the bottom - as though it had started to melt and then froze again. However, advancing the timer seemed to leave the heater of for over

30 mins (didn't time it though)

I can get a new timer of e-bay for £7.95. it gives 20 mins each 8 hours.

[geoff]

In message , [e-mail] writes

On a related note

My freezer (not fridge/freezer) for a while now will only get down to about -6C even having defrosted and cleaned the HE

This would indicate to me that the compressor is worn out or that its dumped some compressant

Is there anything else I should look at before ditching it ?

The thermostat seems to be working

[meow2222]

Is it switching on and off over time, or running the compressor continuously? If the latter, and you've ruled out any other cause, then its loss of refrigerant. And thats terminal, they can be refilled but theyll only leak out again, and finding such a slow leak is a hopeless task.

• Other causes include a gone door seal, door not closing properly, water saturated insulation, and frost frees have additonal failure modes such as a bad fan, iced up chiller etc.

NT

[geoff]

Good point, well made

No - the compressor isn't running continuously

Thats what I was thinking, but, as you said, it would be running continuously with a loss of compressant

nope

nope

No reason for that

No fan

Been defrosted after noticing the problem and the problem hasn't gone away