What's wrong with this fridge freezer?

For the last few weeks our getting-on-for-20-year-old Bosch fridge freezer has periodically emitted a loud thudding clunk and then shuddered momentarily. It still seems to be working OK.

What's likely wrong with it? Or what fault is this a prelude to?

Are items of this age worth repairing if it's possible?

Reply to
mike
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If there is a serious fault, the parts are likely to be more expensive than a new fridge freezer.

Reply to
Nightjar

Check the compressor mountings. The rubber bushes could be worn or fixing loose. The problem is that when power to the compressor is switched off by the thermostat, it stops almost instantly ( minimal flywheel effect in the motor) and the shock of that is normally taken by the rubber mounts. I suspect then are now allowing enough movement for the body of the compressor to hit a fixed part of the freezer and make the noise you hear.

Maybe even a piece of foam rubber in the right place will reduce it but makesure air can still get to the motor to cool it adequately.

Reply to
Bob Minchin

Is it one of those with only control for the freezer and a fan for the b fridge bit?. I have seen fans that get the knocking noise issue or seize up. is it a frost free model? Other than that there is only the compressor, and if that goes its probably not worth fiddling with it. Brian

Reply to
Brian Gaff

Inside the 'pot' the motor is suspended on springs. It's unlikely that one of the springs has broken or come adrift (I've butchered a pot and the springs are (were - about 30 years ago) quite hefty for the job), but if it has...FUBAR.

Reply to
PeterC

It's frost free with separate controls for fridge and freezer. It has an e co function which it's usually set on that keeps the freezer at -18 and a s uper function that you can activate if you load up the freezer with fresh/w armer food that pretty quickly will knock the temp down to -26 if you're no t keeping an eye on it to cancel it again.

Anyway, between my last post and the replies there's some new information t o add.

Just after I posted the original question, I heard the temperature alarm so unding. The freezer temp had got up to -13. So I put the super function o n, got the temp back down to -18, cancelled it and it's already back up to

-13.

So it seems like something else is going on apart from any damaged springs or mountings.

Any additional pointers or advice welcome.

Reply to
mike

Rare I agree but IF that has happened the internal pipework from the compressor valve to the wall of the pot will be sharing the weight of the motor and that will be a catastrophic failure characterised by continuous running of the motor and no freezing effect. Unless the freezer is something special then it is rarely worth fitting a new compressor and cheaper to buy a replacement.

If you investigate as per my previous post and don't find evidence of external mounting problems then...

Start reducing the contents if possible and have a strategy for borrowing freezer space from neighbours.

Reply to
Bob Minchin

Have you had a look at the cooling matrix inside the freezer? If there has been a problem with its defrost cycle, it can end up a solid block of ice.

Chris

Reply to
Chris J Dixon

This will be when the compressor shuts down. (?) If so the clunk signifies a worn and tired compressor. It is very unlikely to be the mountings. It is not worth replacing the compressor.

Reply to
Mr Pounder

Frost frees are way less reliable. I've gone back to frosting ones.

NT

Reply to
meow2222

eezer has periodically emitted a loud thudding clunk and then shuddered mom entarily. It still seems to be working OK.

OK, thanks for the message, Bob. This is what I found:

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I assume the mountings are the bolts bottom right etc. The compressor is a ctually fairly solid. If I grab it and rock it pretty hard, I can get it t o make the clunking noise which appears to be the copper drain tube (top, r ight of centre) tapping against the plastic evaporation bowl above the comp ressor, as it seems they are built to be almost touching. (Am I identifyin g these parts correctly?)

Chris JD, I'm not sure what you mean by the cooling matrix inside the freez er but am I right in saying there's no drain hole inside the freezer compar tment in a frost free and instead any moist air is fanned into the back, co ndensed and drained through the copper tube mentioned previously? There wa s actually drip of water from that as I took the photo so I guess it's not frozen or blocked.

The compressor appears to switch on for a little over a second and then tur n off again, and repeats every several minutes. It's not currently clunking as it does so, just clicking as it turns off. I can see that, at twenty y ears old, it may well be worn and tired.

Having bumped it up to super and then off again, the temperature now seems to have stabilised at -18 and shows no signs of rising --- so I'm not sure what's going on there.

I'll keep an eye on it and see what happens next.

Regarding frost frees being less reliable, it's been fine for nearly twenty years and I haven't had to muck around with bowls of boiling water or hair dryers while food defrosts on the kitchen surfaces so, to me at least, th at counts as a success.

Reply to
mike

Reply to
Mr Pounder

OK, thanks for the message, Bob. This is what I found:

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I assume the mountings are the bolts bottom right etc. The compressor is actually fairly solid. If I grab it and rock it pretty hard, I can get it to make the clunking noise which appears to be the copper drain tube (top, right of centre) tapping against the plastic evaporation bowl above the compressor, as it seems they are built to be almost touching. (Am I identifying these parts correctly?)

Chris JD, I'm not sure what you mean by the cooling matrix inside the freezer but am I right in saying there's no drain hole inside the freezer compartment in a frost free and instead any moist air is fanned into the back, condensed and drained through the copper tube mentioned previously? There was actually drip of water from that as I took the photo so I guess it's not frozen or blocked.

The compressor appears to switch on for a little over a second and then turn off again, and repeats every several minutes. It's not currently clunking as it does so, just clicking as it turns off. I can see that, at twenty years old, it may well be worn and tired.

Snip.

If it is doing as you say, the comp is demanding too much power and the overload is cutting in. This is a classic sign of a knackered compressor. I used to repair them in a past life.

Reply to
Mr Pounder

The way the freezer compartment is cooled is to have what I have termed the cooling matrix, through which coolant flows, and over which air is generally circulated by a fan.

This will probably be hidden behind a plastic cover, but as air flow is necessary, you should be able to peer in somewhere.

As it obeys the laws of physics, a frost-free still causes frost to form on the cooling matrix. However, every 24 hours, or so, the compressor turns off, small heating element(s) warm up the matrix, and possibly the drainage route, and the water runs out to the evaporation dish on top of the compressor.

So, there are a number of ways this can go wrong. The timer may fail to turn on the heat, or the heater may fail. This will cause a slow build-up of frost on the matrix. The drainage pipe may become blocked, so ice builds up here. The fan may fail, or be blocked by ice build-up. All of this would mean that the ability to cool would be severely hampered.

I'm not sure a single drip would convince me that all is well, but I personally would be peering, in with torch and mirror if necessary, to check that you don't have a big lump of ice.

Chris

Reply to
Chris J Dixon

eezer but am I right in saying there's no drain hole inside the freezer com partment in a frost free and instead any moist air is fanned into the back, condensed and drained through the copper tube mentioned previously? There was actually drip of water from that as I took the photo so I guess it's n ot frozen or blocked.

Thanks, Chris. I understand now. I took the back panel out from the freez er compartment and it's not iced up or blocked although I was already think ing Mr Pounder had called it right...

Reply to
mike

Thanks for that. The freezer is now only working if it's left on the super setting and the temp in the fridge part won't now go below 7C so it looks like it's new freezer time.

Are Bosch still good? Anyone know if the Logixx, Excel and Classic ranges are made by Bosch or outsourced?

Reply to
mike

+2
Reply to
The Medway Handyman

I honestly do not know of a decent manufacturer these days. My repair days ended in 1999. When we modernised and moved into this house 6 years ago we just got a Hotpoint. The stat is set on number 2 as this is quite sufficient and will tax the compressor less. I would not consider buying a frost free fridge.

Reply to
Mr Pounder

which means that in this case its not the compressor's cutout stopping it

or new thermostat for not much. FF parts can be overpriced, but if you can identify which part's needed it can still be far cheaper than replacing the machine.

NT

Reply to
meow2222

Would you like to add something to this fridge repair article?

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NT

Reply to
meow2222

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