Samsung Fridge owners in here please, is this normal?

[krooton]

We bought a new Samsung RF24HSESBSR fridge/freezer a few weeks ago, but it had a coolant leak that meant the freezer couldn't work as intended.

We got a replacement a few days ago, and being extra cautious, I have been monitoring the temps.

It seems the temperatures being read by the fridge don't match what standalone thermometers are reading. This morning the fridge was saying -22ºC for the freezer and 1ºC for the fridge, but my thermometers said -19.5ºC and 6ºC.

When I turned the power off for 30 seconds to reset the fridge, suddenly the fridge readings match the thermometers.

Has anyone experienced similar? Is this just down to how the cooling systems cycles? Or should the readouts on the fridge always match the actual internal temps?

 

[rhysduck]

Have you calibrated that temp probe to check it's actually displaying the correct temperature?

I had one exactly the same and it was nowhere near accurate... Ended up binning it.

 

[krooton]

Have you calibrated that temp probe to check it's actually displaying the correct temperature?

I had one exactly the same and it was nowhere near accurate... Ended up binning it.

My stand alone thermometers?

Yes, the clock-looking one in the freezer, as well as the 2 meat probes I have all read the same, which incidentally is the same that our mercury-based thermometer reads.

The fact that the fridge is accurate directly after being reset is what bothers me, afterwards the temp displayed on the fridge continues to drop to the set target, whereas my thermometers don't agree that that is even happening.

 

[ElliorR]

I have a Samsung fridge freezer, RB37J5230SS, and I have it set at -19. I’ve had my meat thermometer probe in there for about 30 mins and it’s reading -18.

 

[Simon42]

I used a calibrated data logging device in my Samsung fridge freezer as I suspected it followed a cycle of cooling and I wasn't wrong:



This was from a 24 hour period with the fridge set to 3 degrees (excuse the odd scale values, this was a zoom from a much longer period and the devices software isn't friendly). This was not impacted by opening the door either.

So quite clearly it goes through cooling cycles and a couple of times a day for a longer period. I suspect this behaviour helps with efficiency but the variation is 8 degrees which is way more than I expected.

 

[eviled]

I guess air temp isn’t the same a food temp though

 

[Simon42]

For my tests I put the measurement device in the centre of a sealed container to avoid the cold air blast (its a frost free fridge so has a fan) from making the variation appear worse than produce would suffer from.

 

[krooton]

Thanks. It's mainly my freezer that I am concerned about (the largest risk of food loss if it goes boobs up).

When I got home yesterday, the max/min recorded on the thermometer that was left in there all day was -4ºC/-19ºC, which is unacceptable imo (would kill ice-cream).

This morning it read -12ºC/-19ºC which would be acceptable if it was consistently ranged in those lower temps.

 

[Psycho Sonny]

whack it on it's highest setting (lowest temperature). i believe mine goes to minus 23 or even lower.

my fridge i have on 1 and i find soda water will freeze at times if kept in the bottom drawer (meat).

my samsung fridge freezer has a special button to chill stuff faster. for example if you have just put a shedload of stuff into it you can press the button and it will ramp it up to get it all cold quicker. this will make stuff go insanely cold in the fridge but once up to temperature it goes back to normal.

 

[Simon42]

I did also test my freezer and it exhibited similar behaviour but I didn't keep store the data as I was mostly interested in the fridge due to medications I need to store and the manufacturers warn of poor temperature control in domestic fridges.

I'll pop the data logger in the freezer tonight to get some data and a chart to see how mine compares.

 

[Teknobry]

This is worrying, i somewhat naively assumed that fridges would have good temperature control. Going to have to check mine now!

 

[Simon42]

Another graph, this time from the freezer of our Samsung RSG5UCRS fridge/freezer:



The freezer was opened once during the spike at 11.30pm (second spike). The first spike coincided with the one for the fridge so this appears to be the cooling system shutting off for a longer period around twice per day as per my fridge graph above.

 

[krooton]

Thanks so much, deffo something wrong with mine then, overnight swing was - 20 to 1!

 

[Simon42]

Yes that swing seems far too wide, I thought what i see is bad enough!

I think the variation I see is due to programming to keep running costs down and hence better efficiency ratings, and I wonder if the bigger spikes are a period to help with the frost free system.

 

[Dangerous Dave]

Another graph, this time from the freezer of our Samsung RSG5UCRS fridge/freezer:



The freezer was opened once during the spike at 11.30pm (second spike). The first spike coincided with the one for the fridge so this appears to be the cooling system shutting off for a longer period around twice per day as per my fridge graph above.

The twice a day extended shutdown will be the system going into a defrost cycle where it melts any ice build up on the evaporator coil with a small heating element.

 

[jpaul]

deffo something wrong with mine then, overnight swing was - 20 to 1!

When I got home yesterday, the max/min recorded on the thermometer that was left in there all day was -4ºC/-19ºC, which is unacceptable imo (would kill ice-cream).

where are the probes though ? I thought the frost free mechanism with the fan , was blowing near 0C air and even had a heater, so if the -4 just lasted 30s, that would not impact goods quality. (compressor can't be reversed temporarily afaik)

... you do have to pack delicate stuff sympathetically too, to avoid freezer burn