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We have a Samsung refrigerator. Worst purchase ever. The condenser coil in the fridge portion accumulates ice all over the fins and fan, and causes the fridge/f

by kefka 10y ago

We have a Samsung refrigerator. Worst purchase ever. The condenser coil in the fridge portion accumulates ice all over the fins and fan, and causes the fridge/freezer to gradually lose cooling. Samsung refuses to honor the warranty about this issue. I've jury-rigged 2 temp sensors with a photodiode to my existing IoT infrastructure (https://hackaday.io/project/12985-multisite-homeofficehackerspace-automation https://hackaday.io/project/12985-multisite-homeofficehacker...). As of right now, if the temp goes over a set point for more than 5 minutes with door closed, an alarm will be sent to our lights and my laptop (wherever it may be). But this alarm means I have to take out the bottom shelves, unscrew the panel, and clean out the ice with a heat gun. It's better than having spoiled food.

userbinator 10y ago
I think you meant the evaporator; ice on the condenser would mean it's running backwards! Was it advertised as having automatic defrost/"frost-free"? Not all are. If you live in a humid climate, even the auto defrost may not be sufficient to remove all the frost.
- kefka 10y ago
  I'll certainly not correct you! I'm not a pro by any means on HVAC and chiller technology. I just came up with a solution, albeit not a "good" one. I do know one thing; I'll never buy Samsung again. I know, whatever it's called, has copper pipes hooked up to a heatsink, with a blower fan that spreads the chilled air. It's in the bottom of the fridge side, inside the refrigerator chamber. The failure mode, which is evidently widespread online, is that condensation seizes up the fan blower, stops the fan, and temps rise gradually.
  - Retric 10y ago
    It sounds like a poor design, you can try some things that might keep ice from accumulating, Fridge outside temperature should be low (~72 f) and outside of direct sunlight. The evaporation coils need good airflow (a tiny fan can significantly increase efficiency.) I would verify there is a tight seal around the door and the water drip is clog free.
lost_my_pwd 10y ago
Has the refrigerant level/pressure been checked? If it is too low evap coils commonly freeze up, esp. in humid areas.
- Jgrubb 10y ago
  I also have a Samsung fridge with the same very well known issue, so it's likely not the refrigerant level. I don't have the wherewithal to rig it like OP has though.
  - kefka 10y ago
    As long as you have a spare computer (seriously, a RasPi would do well!), and don't mind doing some small electronics, you could do this as well! The link is a complete how-to for my whole infrastructure, which spans multiple buildings, and sends all my sensor data to a central server (sitting next to my DSL modem at my house, no less). I use Tor extensively, including my whole network topology. It allows me to create a cloud of my own machines, rather than depending on $CloudVendor. :) But everything is documented. Have at :D
sqldba 10y ago
I have a 5 year old Samsung fridge also. It's a piece of shit - since Day 1 the freezer makes ice and everything else stink of chemicals. Even after numerous air-outs, cleans, baking soda, the works. I can't wait until it dies. Fuck Samsung.
- ashark 10y ago
  Weird—we've got an ~3 month old Samsung washing machine (uh oh...) that also smells strongly of chemicals. I'm beginning to doubt the smell will ever go away. Don't have any complaints about it otherwise (unless it turns out to be an exploding model) but I've never had a new appliance smell so much for so long. You've got an hour, tops, to get the clothes out of it and into the (older, other brand) drier or they'll stink of Samsung chemicals and you'll have to run them again.
jobu 10y ago
> We have a Samsung refrigerator. Worst purchase ever. Interesting. I thought the same thing about a Samsung dishwasher. We bought it because it was very quiet, but it took two hours to do a half-assed job cleaning any dishes. Nearly useless. We thought about taking it back, but we were selling the house when we were forced to buy it and didn't have time to deal with replacement. I just left the receipt in the drawer next to it and let the new owners deal with it.
- 13of40 10y ago
  I have a Samsung front-loading washer and dryer set, about four years old, and it works great. My wife grew up on the far side of the Iron Curtain, and she's always saying how washing machines in the US are surprisingly cheap and flimsy compared to the battle tanks they had when she was a kid, and she loves the washer we have now. So I guess your mileage may vary.
  - Hydraulix989 10y ago
    I recommend Speed Queen washers -- they are the closest thing to a tank in washing machine form these days.
drewg123 10y ago
To add to the Samsung anecdotes: I have a 65" 4K Samsung TV (JS8500) purchased 1 year ago. We bought it because it was the top of the line, best reviewed non-curved, non-OLED TV. Worst purchase ever. The entire goal was to buy high end and avoid hassles. Had I known what a PITA it was going to be, I'd have just gotten a vizio at Sam's club. The day it was delivered I noticed the 2 bottom corners were very bright (my wife didn't when she accepted delivery). It was incredibly distracting. It looked like somebody was pressing on them. A thread on avsforum.com for the TV indicated that lots of the 65" JS8500 had started showing up like this the week that I got mine. The retailer first asked me to deal with Samsung for a warranty replacement. I went through level after level of tech support, with each level telling me to basically pound sand. I bought it, that was normal for LED TVS, too bad. Others in the AVS forum thread reported similar experiances. The retailer, after speaking to a manager, replaced it for me with the same model. This one we opened before delivery to confirm that it did not have the issue. That experience has taught me to never buy Samsung again. Oh, and did I mention the pop up ads on my TV thanks to their smart tv software? FU Samsung.
mcdoh 10y ago
We bought a Samsung fridge and while we didn't have the serious issues you're experiencing we did have a problem with Samsung's warranty policy. Within a month of owning it the freezer handle started to crack, Samsung claimed that it wasn't covered by the warranty. We contacted them several times hoping for a different customer service agent with a different response, no dice.
- devopsproject 10y ago
  > We contacted them several times hoping I keep seeing this. Last time it was someone trying to get a different outcome from Apple. The products in question all have serial numbers and tie into a database that reps all have access to making it simple to re-deny an already denied claim. Do people ever have success talking to multiple reps?

by kefka 10y ago

userbinator 10y ago

I think you meant the evaporator; ice on the condenser would mean it's running backwards! Was it advertised as having automatic defrost/"frost-free"? Not all are. If you live in a humid climate, even the auto defrost may not be sufficient to remove all the frost.

kefka 10y ago
I'll certainly not correct you! I'm not a pro by any means on HVAC and chiller technology. I just came up with a solution, albeit not a "good" one. I do know one thing; I'll never buy Samsung again. I know, whatever it's called, has copper pipes hooked up to a heatsink, with a blower fan that spreads the chilled air. It's in the bottom of the fridge side, inside the refrigerator chamber. The failure mode, which is evidently widespread online, is that condensation seizes up the fan blower, stops the fan, and temps rise gradually.
- Retric 10y ago
  It sounds like a poor design, you can try some things that might keep ice from accumulating, Fridge outside temperature should be low (~72 f) and outside of direct sunlight. The evaporation coils need good airflow (a tiny fan can significantly increase efficiency.) I would verify there is a tight seal around the door and the water drip is clog free.

lost_my_pwd 10y ago

Has the refrigerant level/pressure been checked? If it is too low evap coils commonly freeze up, esp. in humid areas.

Jgrubb 10y ago
I also have a Samsung fridge with the same very well known issue, so it's likely not the refrigerant level. I don't have the wherewithal to rig it like OP has though.
- kefka 10y ago
  As long as you have a spare computer (seriously, a RasPi would do well!), and don't mind doing some small electronics, you could do this as well! The link is a complete how-to for my whole infrastructure, which spans multiple buildings, and sends all my sensor data to a central server (sitting next to my DSL modem at my house, no less). I use Tor extensively, including my whole network topology. It allows me to create a cloud of my own machines, rather than depending on $CloudVendor. :) But everything is documented. Have at :D

sqldba 10y ago

I have a 5 year old Samsung fridge also. It's a piece of shit - since Day 1 the freezer makes ice and everything else stink of chemicals. Even after numerous air-outs, cleans, baking soda, the works. I can't wait until it dies. Fuck Samsung.

ashark 10y ago
Weird—we've got an ~3 month old Samsung washing machine (uh oh...) that also smells strongly of chemicals. I'm beginning to doubt the smell will ever go away. Don't have any complaints about it otherwise (unless it turns out to be an exploding model) but I've never had a new appliance smell so much for so long. You've got an hour, tops, to get the clothes out of it and into the (older, other brand) drier or they'll stink of Samsung chemicals and you'll have to run them again.

jobu 10y ago

> We have a Samsung refrigerator. Worst purchase ever. Interesting. I thought the same thing about a Samsung dishwasher. We bought it because it was very quiet, but it took two hours to do a half-assed job cleaning any dishes. Nearly useless. We thought about taking it back, but we were selling the house when we were forced to buy it and didn't have time to deal with replacement. I just left the receipt in the drawer next to it and let the new owners deal with it.

13of40 10y ago
I have a Samsung front-loading washer and dryer set, about four years old, and it works great. My wife grew up on the far side of the Iron Curtain, and she's always saying how washing machines in the US are surprisingly cheap and flimsy compared to the battle tanks they had when she was a kid, and she loves the washer we have now. So I guess your mileage may vary.
- Hydraulix989 10y ago
  I recommend Speed Queen washers -- they are the closest thing to a tank in washing machine form these days.

drewg123 10y ago

To add to the Samsung anecdotes: I have a 65" 4K Samsung TV (JS8500) purchased 1 year ago. We bought it because it was the top of the line, best reviewed non-curved, non-OLED TV. Worst purchase ever. The entire goal was to buy high end and avoid hassles. Had I known what a PITA it was going to be, I'd have just gotten a vizio at Sam's club. The day it was delivered I noticed the 2 bottom corners were very bright (my wife didn't when she accepted delivery). It was incredibly distracting. It looked like somebody was pressing on them. A thread on avsforum.com for the TV indicated that lots of the 65" JS8500 had started showing up like this the week that I got mine. The retailer first asked me to deal with Samsung for a warranty replacement. I went through level after level of tech support, with each level telling me to basically pound sand. I bought it, that was normal for LED TVS, too bad. Others in the AVS forum thread reported similar experiances. The retailer, after speaking to a manager, replaced it for me with the same model. This one we opened before delivery to confirm that it did not have the issue. That experience has taught me to never buy Samsung again. Oh, and did I mention the pop up ads on my TV thanks to their smart tv software? FU Samsung.

mcdoh 10y ago

We bought a Samsung fridge and while we didn't have the serious issues you're experiencing we did have a problem with Samsung's warranty policy. Within a month of owning it the freezer handle started to crack, Samsung claimed that it wasn't covered by the warranty. We contacted them several times hoping for a different customer service agent with a different response, no dice.

devopsproject 10y ago
> We contacted them several times hoping I keep seeing this. Last time it was someone trying to get a different outcome from Apple. The products in question all have serial numbers and tie into a database that reps all have access to making it simple to re-deny an already denied claim. Do people ever have success talking to multiple reps?