AEG frost free freezer freezes up

I've had an AEG OKO ARCTIS 3192-4 GA frost free freezer running since November 1998. It has never needed de-frosting until last weekend. After several weeks of erratic temperatures from -24 to -18 (normally reads -20) I noticed that the heat exchanger at the top of the freezer was totally frozen up, restricting the air flow and causing the temperature fluctuations. Eventually I took the plunge and de-frosted it with a hair dryer. After some 20mins the drain hose un-blocked and I completed de-frosting. I guess I will know in a couple of weeks whether there is a problem or not.

My questions are. Should a frost free freezer freeze up? Is there a fault in mine i.e. the de-frost heater has packed up? Should the fault be reported on the display with the error codes? Does anyone know what the error codes are and what they mean? Can I obtain the servicing manual for it?

Robert Basingstoke

Reply to
The General
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If the circumstances are right then this can happen. The external temperature may have done this. The draining tube not allowing the moisture to escape from inside may have caused it to become frozen further than the heater had time to melt it again.

You will have to keep an eye on it, but I think you'll find it was external circumstances that caused this to happen. Fingers crossed for it.

Reply to
BigWallop

FWIW, mine froze up after the door was left open....its in the garage so it was not spotted for a while. Rgds

Reply to
Alec

We had the same problem with a Samsung frost-free FF that decided to freeze the contents of the fridge and thaw the contents of the freezer.

Nothing was reported on the display, it didn't make any untoward noises and all the servicing and technical manuals said it shouldn't happen.

In the end it was leaking its gas to such a degree that it needed a

50% top-up every 3 to 4 months so the engineers condemned it and we got a new one. Not bad for a (at the time) 2 year old fridge-freezer! Basically we had the same symptoms - frozen heat exchanger etc.

Oh, you're not supposed to defrost modern appliances like that apparently. I suggested that to the service tech that came out and he said summat along the lines of causing more damage because you heat the delicate heat exchanging stuff too quickly. We'd already lost the contents of the freezer at that point so I didn't argue and left it for 24 hours to leak all over the kitchen floor :)

cheers

witchy/binarydinosaurs

Reply to
Witchy

Did you get any compensation from the manufacturer?

One would expect a freezer to last more then a couple of years!

Sparks...

Reply to
Sparks

Yep, a new fridge that's a complete redesign over the old one (funny, that) and the insurance we had on it paid for the contents of the freezer.

Hell yes. I just hope we don't have a similar problem with the new one :) To be fair the service bloke said he hadn't seen that problem before so it's hopefully a one-off.

cheers

witchy/binarydinosaurs

Reply to
Witchy

I have just fixed the identical problem on my AEG Arctis 3194-6 G freezer and yours is probably similar.

The problem is caused by the defrost-water-collection-tray heate failing. This means that the defrost water does not run away - i re-freezes when it falls on the tray. The exit pipe then gets blocke with ice and some defrost water overspills into the freezer while th rest builds up as ice. Eventually (3 - 6 months) the freezer freeze up so much that that it won't cool when you put new food in it.

You can check this by opening the grille at the top of the freeze (depress the top and pull forward - it hinges from the bottom). If yo see a thick sheet of ice on the floor the defrost water is not runnin away. When running properly, you see little bits if ice where drip have frozen, but not a continuous sheet. Defrost water in the freeze is also a symptom.

Step by step solution as follows:

1 Get exploded view of freezer.

Go to

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and navigate to SERVICE CUSTOMER SERVICE - ON LINE ORDERING - SPARE PARTS - ON LINE ORDERIN SYSTEM. Key in your Product Number (PNC - mine is 928341144) an search. Choose INTERNAL PARTS FREEZER and click on SHOW EXPLODED VIEW You now have an exploded view of all the components. You can orde parts from them. I have tried to attach the picture here...

2 How it (probably) works

I think it works like this. When it wants defrosting, it stop freezing, and heater 240 heats the freezer unit to melt the frost, an heater 240B heats the underside of the defrost-water-catch-tray 523. The water then flows out of the pipe at back left. The diagram doe not show it, but a 6" loop of heater wire from 240B gets pushed down i to the entry of the drain pipe to keep the drain pipe free of ice.

Heater 240 and heater 240B each have a resistance of about 400 ohms my heater 240B was open circuit when measured at the connector tags. new one was £50.

3 Disassemble the Freezer unit

I uggest you let it defrost naturally (circa 12-18 hours) first as th fin_to_cooler-pipe_welds are are VERY fragile and if you bash the fin you are likely to cause a (expensive!) leak.

a) unclip the tags with the grill door hinges and remove the door b) Remove little white plug at bottom right (Item 501D) with smal screwdriver - it just pulls out. c) Slide the white metal strip 523C to the left and remove it d) Grasp the whole freezer unit and pull it forward about 3-4 inches. As it comes forward the back slides down a sloped ramp and lowers abou

2". The unit rests on the shelf supports in its pulled-forwar position.

DON'T pull it too far! It is still connected to the freezer by th pipe carrying the freezer gas at the back right side and you do no want to damage the pipe.

e) Separate the upper (523A) and lower (523B) trays. There are clips (see the one at front centre). The diagram only shows 5 bu there is a 6th at the back left pointing upwards . Push up a meta strip (I used 2 x Meccano strips but something about 12 mm wide and 2- mm thich will do it) and disengage the clips and drop the lower tra

523B downwards. NOTE that when you remove the lower tray you lose th support for the front of the freezer unit - I put the metal bar 523C across the shelf supports and under the freezer unit to support th front.

4 Rmove/replace the heater unit

Feel up at the back and remove the loop of heater wire which goes dow the drain pipe. Push it through the hole in tray 523B and pull i through to the botttom. Remove the old heater mat - it is glued on just pull it off.

The new heater unit has 4 wires - the two large ones are the heate wires and the two smaller ones are (probably) a temperature sensor - they were short cuicuit on mine so I expect they go open circuit (or send another signal) when the heater gets hot enough.

5 As the Haynes car manuals say "Replacement is the opposite of removal". Points to watch are

a) I tore gasket 501 (seal betwen tray and drain pipe)when I pulled the drawer forward and replaced it (£10)

b) make sure the loop of heater wire goes down the entry of the drain pipe - judicious pushing with a pair of fine nose pliers as you push the unit back worked for me

c) don't forget to put back temperature sensor 502B at the front right before you clip the two trays together - the wire runs above the insulation 523A.

6 Testing

a) Re-route the outlet end of the drain pipe away from the collection tray (which is heated to evaporate the defrost water) and let it drain into a separate container. You can now check to see when it defrosts by looking for water in the container.

b) pour a little water into the tray at front left - make sure it runs into the drain pipe

c) Leave it operating normally. I get half a cup of defrost water down the pipe about every 24 hours or so.

d) Finally - reroute the defrost pipe outlet so it drains into the heated tray

e) Remove a beer from the fridge and enjoy...

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Reply to
John_Ha

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