Fridge freezer temp alarm issue

If you are happy that temperatures in both freezer and fridge compartments are as they should be (you can check this with a suitable thermometer), it could be that the alarm function is faulty.

At 20 years old it probably doesn’t owe you anything and it is probably consuming much more power than a new machine would. Fridge efficiency has improved a lot over the last 20 years.

I’d be tempted to suggest cutting your losses and just replace it with the most efficient new machine that you can afford. Some white goods are worth nursing along but fridges are significant power consumers and a new one should be considerably cheaper to run.

Tim

At 20 I'm guessing it's not frost free. Cold air never gets to the freezer section, so that isn't the problem. Possibles, assuming not frost free: High room temp results in radiator not cooling as well, limiting freezer cooling ability. Will resolve itself. Likely in this weather. Partial loss of refrigerant, hampering how much it can cool. Will slowly worsen until failure. Temp alarm is off. Poor cold air access to rear or sides, wherever the radiator is, or buildup of fluff. Failing compressor that stalls often. Will worsen & die.

High ambient temp is the most likely. Help yourself by reporting the temps in fridge & freezer sections.

Check to see if their is a circulation fan inside cooling channels. If these fail then it can't properly shift air past the cooling fins.

He did say he thought some things are softer though. Is this an auto defrost device or just the old ordinary type you have to spend half a day defrosting?

I was wondering if its doing auto defrost too often? Also one of the main failings of older devices is water getting in the insulation area and then its a thaw away job. Yes most fridge freezers seem to be encased these days to stop the little pipes in the back from being damaged. In some it seems te motor area has the radiator in it. I guess this gives more room to make the freezer bigger and add the fans etc, that often are used to manage the cold air. Could one of the fans be knackered?. If not enough of the cold gets into the freezer, then the maintaining of the low temperature is harder. Brian

I wonder if this is an observation for the first time rather than wrongly attributing it to a freezing problem. Certain items do appear to be "softer" and require less time to fully defrost, and this is normal. There is also the problem with items becoming a solid lump which is often caused by partial defrosting on the way home from the supermarket and then re-freezing.

As a side note, I was did some shopping at a well known supermarket at 1 am and when the were just re-stocking the freezer cabinets. A lot of the items had already reached the point of near defrosting, presumably sat in hot warehouse for hours after being delivered and before transferred to the freezer cabinets.

I have one of these wireless temperature monitors for my fridge and freezer. It can record the minimum and maximum temperatures (since last being reset)

For the freezer sensor I would recommend a couple of 1.5V AA lithium batteries which are specified to -40C operation rather than alkaline batteries which are rated to only -20C. I've found that alkaline batteries are unreliable in this application.

Cut your losses. After 20 years of continuous use I can't see how it can't have lost refrigerant and motor lubrication so the compressor will be running slow.

If things are at all soft then its not maintaining the temperature. My alarm kicks in at -5c but it should be at -18c for safety and at that level most every thing is rock hard so its 99% certain its been running warm for a while.

If you really must check get a freezer thermometer from Amazon or Wilko (£2.50)

Dave

So after 20 years a motor, contained gas system still working but a solid state detector failing? Implausable. The alarm usually cuts in around -5 but you should be at -18 for safety. I suspect its been running warm for years...

Dave

You missed "old age". Still working to -18 after 20 years?

That is nothing to do with reality.

not entirely true, and one can't expect a domestic ff to maintain -18C under all circumstances.

Fwiw refrigeration circuits are far more reliable than consumer electronics.