I appeal to the great knowledge of the group. Hotpoint FFA 71 about 7 years old, high temp light coming on for hours at a time for no obvious reason. Pulled out from between units to check, heat exchanger almost cold except top inch or 2 just slightly warm, compressor is very hot,can only touch it very briefly, no odd smells from it. Have I got a problem, if so what is the best/cheapest option??
John Gifford
Angle grinder.
Worth checking that the temperature really is too high with an independent thermometer.
Sounds like the compressor may be running almost continuously so maybe there is less working fluid than there ought to be - ie a leak.
At a guess I would say the frost free timer has stuck in the cooling position, and never gets to do to heating phase. The result here is that the heat exchanger will slowly turn into a solid block of ice that no longer allows much (if any) air to be blown through it and cooled. So the stat keeps the motor running to try and meet the target temperature.
Well it sounds to me like the gas is leaking out. I'd say the compressor is working a lot but the cooling is minimal ie not much of the coolant to condense hence only part of rear warm. Brian
Presumably this can be tested by switching the thing off for a few hours (or overnight) which will allow the heat exchanger to thaw but may not trash the contents of the fridge/freezer as the doors say shut.
This is a "frost free" device, switched off and with doors open it could well take a day or three for the solid lump of ice hidden inside to thaw. With the doors shut it won't thaw at all in that time.
I suggest the OP empties the thing, switches it off, and remove as many access panels etc that they can and see if it is frozen up. If it is leave a fan heater on it's lowest setting blowing into it from a few feet away. It'll still take a while to thaw and be prepared for a bucketful of water to slowly emerge.
Once fully defrosted switch back on and see if it now behaves itself.
Its easier to pull all the draws out, and remove the cover at the back of the compartment to expose the HE. Then 30 mins work with a hairdrier will usually sort it.
My grandfather did that with a nice new Hotpoint (decades ago), just as he had with his previous fridges. However, the Hotpoint fridge liner turned into something Salvador Dali would have been truely proud of, big loops of melted plastic. The Engineer who came out said "Never seen one go like this before" ;-) Of course, the previous fridges all had enamel liners.
That's why I said lowest setting and few feet away...
It's how I defrost our freezers, just the door open will take all day. Fan assisted it's only an hour or so (yes they don't get done as often as they should...).
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