Help - fridge not working in fridge/freezer

JanM

JanM

JanM

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Location
Sheffield
Hi,

I have a hotpoint fffl 2000 fridge freezer.

Yesterday we noticed food was not getting cold in the fridge compartment.

There's not much ice in the freezer compartment so I don't think its a heater issue.

The circulating fan works as its still blowing in the freezer but the air is not
getting to the top fridge through the ducting.

Took most of the internal covers off. Thawed any ice that was present away to make sure there was no blockages in the ducts and they are all ok too.

Reassembled and same result.

No alarms are sounding even though the fridge compartment is too warm.

Any idea what controls the amount of air that gets directed into the fridge compartment on this model?

Temperature sensor issue? cant tell where this is in the fridge.

The air tech columb in the back of the fridge was removed to check for blockages. There is a wire with a molex connector going into this but don't know what it controls and most of it is sealed.

I'd appreciate any suggestions.

thanks.

below is an image of the fridge compartment


Hotpoint-fridge-freezer-Air-Tech-evolution-White-_57.jpg
 
Last edited:
We had a similar model with a similar problem last year though in our case the fridge "im getting too warm" alarm kept going off.

Turns out that as these are "frost free", they have lots of pipework that takes days, not hours to defrost. The only way to get at it is to remove some trim inside the top of the freezer bit and hack out all the ice and run a hot hairdryer over it all (making sure it's all draining out into the catch tray at the back) for quite a while. In our case the ice was stopping the main circulating fan from spinning which meant that cold air was never moving up into the "air tech" bit...

Couldn't tell you exactly how to do it all as we paid a block from Hotpoint to come and look at it.
 
Had a similar problem, the cold air vent was blocked by a block of ice around the opening.Meaning no cold air was getting to the top half of the fridge.
Defrost will fix it but problem will return.The heater matrix is supposed to melt the ice build up and the water drains into a small tank to evaporate but the hole gets block with ice build up because the heater does not extend far enough to melt the ice around the hole.
 
I manually defrosted it all.

The top fridge compartment was all ice free. Took the Air Tech columb out and it was all clear too. Its too warm in the fridge to have any ice anyway I guess.

Then went into the freezer, removed all the drawers, unscrewed and took out the back panel with the fan assembly. The fan was free of ice. There was a small bit of buildup on the metal freezer coils but took care of that with the hair dryer. All the ducts were clear of ice.

Reassembled and still the same.

The fan is working as I can feel it pushing air out the duct holes in the freezer. However I can't feel any flow coming out of the fridge ducting at all.
 
I opened it up and defrosted it with a hair dryer.

I'll try and defrost it for 24 hours then.

cheers for the suggestions so far.
 
I believe there is a censor in the fridge which tells it how cold the fridge is. If this breaks the fridge thinks it is cold enough.
This censor tells the fridge to pump cold air from the freezer upto the fridge.

I have had this happen on an old fridge, can't remember exactly what the part was called.

It lives deep in the freezer and a fair bit had to come apart to replace this part. It is, or was in my case a DIY fix.
 
if it is like zanussi (see previous thread) there is a timer that is responsible for frost free behaviour - turns off fridge once a day and runs fan to ensure no blockage on path to drip tray - my timer failed(was available on ebay)
when you said re-assembled and was the same - it was immediately too warm ? - if it was a gradual degradation maybe timer.
(agree you can defrost in a day removing internal panels and using hair dryer and checking free pathway with a wire or something )
 
Jpaul The fridge was the same the moment I switched it on after the first time defrosting. Not a gradual degradation. The bottom of the fridge is 15 degrees constant and the top of the fridge is room temp.

I will look at the thermistor if things do not improve after this other defrosting cycle.
Am I right in thinking its located in the little box with the slits in at the side of the second shelf from bottom?

Now that you point that out tnx i'm thinking this is quite likely as no high temp alarms are sounding so the fridge thinks its at the correct temperature.

Also just wondering if modern appliances still have a Damper door? Just wondering of that is the cause? if its stuck. However when I disassembled most of it I could not see one.
 
You say

I have a hotpoint fffl 2000 fridge freezer.
Click to expand...

Is that the year it was made ?

If nowt you do works and a new thermistor does not help it maybe time for a new one.

If you do order a thermistor make sure you get the right one, that link was for the first one I saw. That is the place I bought mine from though.

I had to take all the food out of the freezer, all the draws, unscrew the back panel , there I saw the fan which circulates the cold air. Then there was a couple of plastic covers to remove to access the censor. There was two, one for the fridge and one for the freezer. They were colour coded, easy to remove and replace. Yours could be similar. I am no fridge repair engineer;) but handy with the spanners, or screwdriver in this case. Not a difficult job, but work fast so not to defrost the food.:D

Hope you sort it.
 
tnx said:
You say



Is that the year it was made ?
Click to expand...

I have no idea if that was when the model was first introduced but we've had it since new about 4 years.

Yeah will try the thermister if the defrosting does not work.

I was going to order a new fridge freezer but want to try a few things rather then shell out £600 for the sake of a few hours. Thats new graphics card money !!!
 
JanM said:
.

I was going to order a new fridge freezer but want to try a few things rather then shell out £600 for the sake of a few hours. Thats new graphics card money !!!
Click to expand...

Ours is a Hotpoint and was only 3 years old when it began playing up.
Huge block of ice behind the back panel because the drain hole froze up.
Tried a few things and was going to buy another too but as a last resort i pulled the heater matrix down toward the drain hole and it's been fine ever since lol :D
 
Hi guys,

So still the same after defrosting. No Ice at all after the defrost.

Anyway did some more digging.

Found a service manual for a similar fridge freezer that has diagnostic check details.

The unit is checking ok via the diagnostics. No error codes when in diagnostic mode.

I found that the baffle door is located at the bottom of the Air tech evolution column. Its fairly easy to unscrew this columb and remove it or partially take it out fully. Just one molex connected wire that opens and closes the electronic baffle door when needed.

In diagnostic mode the baffle opens in the first minute of the check and this is working normally.

However the duct that directs cold air up to this the door is not venting. I can't feel any airflow coming up from this duct. I should be able to feel flow as the fan in the freezer compartment should be forcing air into this duct.

So

Either the duct is blocked (Its short just going from fridge to freezer compartment). Stuck my fingers down it and cant feel any blockage but need to poke a stiff wire through it to make sure.

Or

The fan on the freezer coils is not working.
In the freezer some air is pushing out of the vents so the fan seems to be working ok unless the flow I feel is some sort of convection current. It seems to be a strong-ish flow.

This fan is close to the duct that goes up to the fridge.

I can't figure out why air is not getting up to the fridge.

I am going to have to defrost again, dismantle and start poking wires in the vents and ducts.
 
Defrosted again.

Removed the back panel in the freezer compartment.

Heater working fine.
Sensors checked with multimeter and they are all within normal parimeters.

Went further and removed some foam covering the cooling coils.
Discovered a further vent/duct behind there. This was jammed full of ice.
The drain channel there was blocked so melted ice water could not drain and it just kept
building up inside the duct. As it was foam insulated the 24hour deforst did not work on it.

Melted it away with the hair dryer and cleaned out the draining system with a straw.

I'm hoping thats cured it.

Can't find anything else wrong with it.

Will update tomorrow.
 
JanM said:
Defrosted again.

Removed the back panel in the freezer compartment.

Heater working fine.
Sensors checked with multimeter and they are all within normal parimeters.

Went further and removed some foam covering the cooling coils.
Discovered a further vent/duct behind there. This was jammed full of ice.
The drain channel there was blocked so melted ice water could not drain and it just kept
building up inside the duct. As it was foam insulated the 24hour deforst did not work on it.

Melted it away with the hair dryer and cleaned out the draining system with a straw.

I'm hoping thats cured it.

Can't find anything else wrong with it.

Will update tomorrow.
Click to expand...

Hopefully cured :)
 
I have the same fridge and on average we are defrosting it every couple of weeks. It always happens when the fridge is full (i.e. after a sainsburys delivery).

We are getting a new kitchen in March so hoping to keep it going until then. We might invest in a backup for the garage.
 
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