Is my American Style Fridge Freezer repairable?

54and56

Hi all,

I've a Whirlpool side by side 25ri-d4 American style Fridge Freezer originally purchased in 2008. A few days ago whilst the freezer compartment was packed in readiness for Xmas I started to notice that the items closest to the front didn't feel as frozen as normal but put it down to the fact a lot of the products had been recently added and the freezer would just need a few hours to get them all down to the normal level but the next day when I checked again lot's of the items were mushy and we ended up having to throw out about €200 worth of food Xmas eve

At that point I thought the problem was that we had over packed the freezer and blamed myself so once we had thrown out about 70% of what was in the freezer we were left with a freezer which looked half empty.

I have a manual freezer thermometer so I hung that from one of the shelves and decided to leave the freezer closed for 24 hours in order to get back down to operating temperature but on opening the freezer this morning (36 hours later) the temp is only -5c (although it states -24c on the digital read out on the freezer panel) and whilst the items in the freezer feel cold and hard they do not feel "really" frozen. They feel like they are in a fridge ice box rather than a proper freezer and I'm concerned that the food in there isn't being properly frozen.

Apologies for the windy post.

Anyone got any comments/suggestions as to what's going on and what can be done to fix it or am I looking at a freezer that is just dying of old age (9 years?) and needs to be replaced?

Thanks for your input.

The Red Ace

ideally plug it out open both doors and let it defrost, if ok when you plug it back in the problem may be down to a faulty defrosting element, if so the problem will manifest itself again in a few weeks, otherwise I would think that you blocked off the circulation within the cabinet causing it to run on and clog itself

54and56

Thanks TRA, I appreciate the advice.

Since more or less emptying the freezer on Xmas Eve (and making sure the circulation vents inside are completely clear with nothing near them) the freezer has continued to struggle to freeze below -5C and is mostly at around -2C.

Given the vent is free would that mean the likely cause is a faulty defrosting element and if so is that something an appliance engineer could diagnose and replace on a single visit? Are these parts standard across various makes and models so commonly carried "in stock" by engineers?

tyney

Is the fan in the freezer compartment running?

54and56

tyney wrote: »

Is the fan in the freezer compartment running?

Yes, it is and when I put my hand in front of the vent I can feel pretty cold air coming out.

tyney

I'm not sure about that model, but if there are vents from the freezer into the fridge compartment, are these closing?

elperello

Non technical suggestion.
Check your home insurance policy, you may have cover for freezer contents.

54and56

tyney wrote: »

I'm not sure about that model, but if there are vents from the freezer into the fridge compartment, are these closing?

No, there are no vents going from the freezer to the fridge, they appear to be independent units.

Here's a few photo's of what's going on:-







The freezer is working away (I can hear the motor) and producing very cold air through the vents which as you can see is free to circulate around the entire space but as the analogue thermometer shows it's barely getting below 0c.

I'm very confused.com about what's going on.

54and56

elperello wrote: »

Non technical suggestion.
Check your home insurance policy, you may have cover for freezer contents.

Thanks for the suggestion elperello but I have a €250 excess so not worth the hassle claiming I'm afraid.

tyney

There's a small fan behind the panel at the potato waffles.
I would bet it's not running..

tyney

The panel is very thin, and has two vertical tabs locating it. You can pull it out to check the fan. It's 220volts in there, so be careful. Unplug it.

54and56

tyney wrote: »

There's a small fan behind the panel at the potato waffles.
I would bet it's not running..

Thanks Tyney, I'll have a little root at it tomorrow to see if I can remove the cover and see if something is restricting the fan. Given the freezer was heavily stocked coming up to Xmas Eve it's possible something got wedged in there.

tyney

The fan has 2 bronze bearings. They wear, cause the motor shaft to vibrate and sieze.

https://www.4whirlpool.ie/fridge-freezer/25ri-d4-pt-858642215000/fan-motor-type-f64-12/product.pl?pid=1095039&path=600160&refine=Fan&model_ref=549904

Again,,,,,, it's live 220v.

54and56

tyney wrote: »

The fan has 2 bronze bearings. They wear, cause the motor shaft to vibrate and sieze.

https://www.4whirlpool.ie/fridge-freezer/25ri-d4-pt-858642215000/fan-motor-type-f64-12/product.pl?pid=1095039&path=600160&refine=Fan&model_ref=549904

Again,,,,,, it's live 220v.

Wow, that's deadly info.

There's definitely some air being circulated through the vents but I guess it could be much much lower than required and mean the fan motor has to be replaced? Would be a great outcome if the repair was that straight forward.

tyney

Fan has 2 push on spade connectors. It's held in place by a plastic u shaped clip.
Push base of fan upwards, squeeze sides of retaining clip, and remove downwards.
Motor should be sitting in a rubber mount.
I'm a bit rusty on the specifics. They are all different.
Fan blade just pulls off.