Fridge Freezer Issues

R.C.Anderson · 2 Jul 2019 at 16:43

I've got a cheap fridge freezer (Bush BSFF50144S) which I bought 2nd hand off FB almost 2 years ago, and it's been fine up until recently... Over the last week or so, it's not been cooling the fridge properly (circa 12C) (although the freezer is plenty cold enough (<-20C)).

I've done some googling of the most likely suspects, and I've ruled them all out, so I'm a bit stuck on what else could be an issue, and how it could possibly be fixed (although from the design, I don't think it was ever intended to be fixed).

These are the possibilities I've rules out:

Thermostat broken - It still cools the freezer fine
Cold air duct from freezer blocked/frozen over - There isn't one, this FF seems to be different to most, in that there's no designed airflow. I presume there's a smaller cooling coil on the back of the fridge section to cool the fridge by a set % of the freezer cooling.
Faulty air distribution fan - see above
Faulty compressor/starting cap - The compressor runs fine, as the freezer is cooled correctly
Frost free heater fault - it's not a frost free freezer, so doesn't apply
Poor door seal - Seal looks to be OK & failure seemed to be too sudden to be due to wearing of the seal.

Does anyone have any thoughts on other possible failures/how to fix it? As an added pain, everything seems to be glued/sealed together, so it doesn't look like it's going to be easy (if at all possible) to take it apart to fix.

The only other thing I can think of to help with the diagnosis, is before it started not cooling enough, it was getting excessively cold (below freezing) in the fridge, even at a very low cooling setting. I defrosted the freezer, and it's not worked properly since.

krooton · 2 Jul 2019 at 17:04

If it was cheap, I'd just buy a new cheap one, not worth risking £££s of food trying to DIY it.

Mel_P · 2 Jul 2019 at 17:27

I had hotpoint FF and this used to stop working properly. The issue was that it wasn't auto-defrosting properly and this was confusing the controls. The solution I found was to empty it and ensure it was totally defrosted and warmed up to room temperature (took about 24 hours but could be accelerated with a fan heater). It would them work for 6+ months when the same problem occurred. From the internet this seemed a problem that others had had.

If it is like this one, cold air from the freezer is ducted to the fridge. If the freezer bit isn't working properly the fridge won't cool.

SO - just turn it off - put everything in somebody else's FF, leave for 2 days. Switch back on!

Mel

R.C.Anderson · 2 Jul 2019 at 18:38

krooton said:
If it was cheap, I'd just buy a new cheap one, not worth risking £££s of food trying to DIY it.

It was cheap, but ths issue I have, is I would need to get one delivered (I have a saloon, so won't fit a FF), and as I'm planning on re-doing the kitchen in the near future, I don't want buy another one unnecessarily, so if I can get this to work, it would be best. I've got a chest freezer too, so my frozen stuff is fine, it's just the fridge stuff.

Mel_P said:
I had hotpoint FF and this used to stop working properly. The issue was that it wasn't auto-defrosting properly and this was confusing the controls. The solution I found was to empty it and ensure it was totally defrosted and warmed up to room temperature (took about 24 hours but could be accelerated with a fan heater). It would them work for 6+ months when the same problem occurred. From the internet this seemed a problem that others had had.

If it is like this one, cold air from the freezer is ducted to the fridge. If the freezer bit isn't working properly the fridge won't cool.

SO - just turn it off - put everything in somebody else's FF, leave for 2 days. Switch back on!

Mel

Mine isn't a frost free, so doesn't have an "auto-defrost", so can't be that. It also doesn't duct the air between the 2 sections, but the freezer section is working fine.

Mel_P · 2 Jul 2019 at 21:30

You could still try a total defrost over a couple of days? Nothing ventured, nothing gained?

R.C.Anderson · 2 Jul 2019 at 21:34

Mel_P said:
You could still try a total defrost over a couple of days? Nothing ventured, nothing gained?

That's my next thoughts... Currently freezing ice packs in the freezer compartment/chest freezer & transfering to the fridge compartmant in an attempt at keeping it slightly cooler :eek:

The_One · 2 Jul 2019 at 23:06

prolly needs cfc's topping up

R.C.Anderson · 8 Jul 2019 at 20:03

Mel_P said:
You could still try a total defrost over a couple of days? Nothing ventured, nothing gained?

As I was away over the weekend, I emptied the FF & turned it off to check (Friday morning). Came back Sunday evening & turned it back on, by 6:30am, the temperature inside hadn't changed at all, so think it's definitely dead!

Compressor still runs fine, but taking the thermostat out & measuring with a multimeter, it doesn't seem to turn off (I covered the temperature "pipe" (forgot what it's actually called) with ice packs to lower the detected temperature). This would tie in with it getting overly cold a little while ago. My theory, is that the temperature sensor broke, causing it to run 24/7, and this caused a pressure build up in the system greater than what it could handle & caused a gas leak, so the compressor would still run, but there's nothing to compress.

Time to find a replacement!