I can't say about other makes, but it's definitely the way a Liebherr F-F works (or used to work). Seven years ago I got a new Liebherr F-F after the old one went down unexpectedly (it was only four years old).
After allowing it to stand upright for a while, I turned it on. I was monitoring the temperatures of the fridge and freezer from switch-on continuously with separate electronic temperature probes. Neither part showed any cooling for over 20 minutes, when the fridge started to cool down. But as it took almost an hour for the freezer to start cooling, I was so concerned that the freezer section might be faulty that I phoned their Customer Services to check that this was as intended! I was informed about the diverter sending coolant to the fridge first, but still find this a strange choice to cool the appliance for first use.
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A
Andy Burns
I'm not sure what type of "diverter" mine has, it clearly does have something, every few hours you hear it "do something noisy" ...
J
Jeff Layman
Is it possible that the diverter is getting partially stuck in the freezer position when it should have moved back to the fridge position? That might account for the very low freezer temperature, and perhaps the noise is it physically trying to move back but failing.
M
mm0fmf
My Kenwood single compressor fridge freezer did this (side by side layout). There is a single compressor that makes all the "cold" for the freezer and a big fan that blows the air in the freezer over the cold pipes and around the freezer compartments. To cool the fridge, a flap about 6x6 cm opens at the top of the fridge/freezer dividing wall and the freezer fan blows cold air out of the freezer into the fridge. The fan circulating air would run independent of the compressor. Often you would hear the fan start and blow air about for some minutes then stop. Or the fan then compressor would start. The flap had distinctive sound when getting to the end position.
On several occasions, when there was steamy stuff in the fridge, the vapour would freeze jamming the door open or shut. Once you knew what the issue was, fridge had ice in it at top or it wasn't cold enough it was a case of removing trim, removing flap assembly and warming it with a hairdrier to thaw it out and then dry it when ice fell off. It did this 4 or 5 times over 9 year life.
NEVER needed defrosting and never had ice in freezer or fridge apart from when door stuck. The fan circulated the air and dried everything. Veg in the salad drawer lasted for ages as the humidity was normally low. Absolutely brilliant item. It's now at my son's house as we have a a new built in separate Bosch fridge and freezer. They both work and have 5 year warranties. I don't like the fridge, there's a plate at the back that gets cold and moisture condenses and freezes on that. During the regular defrost cycles the ice droplets melt and run down to a drain at the bottom. From their it runs out and the compressor heat evaporates it. Just something to check regularly that it is draining free which was not needed on the Kenwood (Beko) unit.
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