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I was recently in the market for a new refrigerator to replace a newish Samsung fridge where ice built up around the condenser fan, eventually causing it to fre

I was recently in the market for a new refrigerator to replace a newish Samsung fridge where ice built up around the condenser fan, eventually causing it to freeze still, and spoiling all my food every ~3mos (Avoid Samsung appliances if you value your sanity) — It came with the house so no real cost on my part aside from the annoyance. Now I have a perfectly adequate Whirlpool fridge, but the condenser fan is obnoxiously loud. It seems to have one setting, off and turbo. I’ve resorted to taping acoustic pads to the back of the fridge — and no joke, some hardcover books backed up against the back of the freezer (They aren’t noticeable and don’t take up a significant amount of space). This helps a lot, but the thing is still louder than I’d like. I’ll probably leave this fridge with the house as well.

crankylinuxuser 7y ago
I have the same damned Samsung fridge/freezer. It did the same freeze fan bullshit. Its also why I built my own IoT network, with Tor for network-to-network transport. It sent everything to a dashboard on my domain. https://hackaday.io/project/12985-multisite-homeofficehackerspace-automation https://hackaday.io/project/12985-multisite-homeofficehacker...
MetallicCloud 7y ago
I must have the same model Samsung fridge as you. Every 3 months or so I need to pull it apart and defrost the fan. It's super annoying and apparently very common in that model. I don't think I'll be buying Samsung again.
- ruffrey 7y ago
  I have a ~2014 GE Profile counter depth fridge that freezes every 3 months like clockwork. Incredibly annoying for a $3000 appliance. It should be illegal.
userbinator 7y ago
That's the evaporator fan, and not all fridges have one. The condenser gets hot, not cold, and is outside the fridge. It almost always has a fan. The evaporator is inside, and the part that gets cold. Ice buildup may indicate a humidity problem.
- jasonjayr 7y ago
  I'm not a fridge tech, but I have a Samsung in my garage after it constantly gave us this problem. I just removed the cover to the evaporator and let it ice up, and don't keep much in it. A second thermostat shows that the interior is still maintaining a safe temperature, with few things inside and a non-functioning fan. The (suspected) problem is that the defroster heater is too far from the circulation fan, and the ice starts where the copper pipe is from the top, where there is no heater coil. The ice eventually grows to the fan, and seizes up the fan.
tanzeeb 7y ago
I've got the exact same problem with my Samsung fridge. It's such a common problem with Samsung, I'm surprised they're still in the refrigerator business.
ipython 7y ago
I had the exact same problem with my Samsung fridge. Same timeline too - it was like clockwork. Every quarter I would have to take the back plate off, melt the accumulated ice with a hair dryer and reload the fridge. I eventually did enough googling and found a support bulletin from Samsung about this issue. It said to move the thermistor from the intake tube to the output tube. I wish I could find the pic but the general procedure is mentioned here: https://www.appliancejunk.com/forums/index.php?topic=14561.0 https://www.appliancejunk.com/forums/index.php?topic=14561.0 Best of luck. Thankfully it’s been a year since I’ve had to fix the fridge. Funny side note- our fridge used to be so clean when it would fail every three months. We would be forced to unload all the food and we figured why not clean it out at the same time. Now we don’t have that forced cleaning cycle any longer. Oh well.
jmuhlich 7y ago
You can fix some freeze-over issues by taking a length of stiff wire (14 gauge solid copper is great if you have some, a wire coat hanger is an OK substitute), wrapping one end tightly around the nearest part of the defrost cycle heater element, and routing the other end through the area where you are getting ice build-up. Some freezer designs allow ice to build up out of the defrost heater’s reach, and the added wire just conducts that heat where it’s needed.

crankylinuxuser 7y ago

I have the same damned Samsung fridge/freezer. It did the same freeze fan bullshit. Its also why I built my own IoT network, with Tor for network-to-network transport. It sent everything to a dashboard on my domain. https://hackaday.io/project/12985-multisite-homeofficehackerspace-automation https://hackaday.io/project/12985-multisite-homeofficehacker...

MetallicCloud 7y ago

I must have the same model Samsung fridge as you. Every 3 months or so I need to pull it apart and defrost the fan. It's super annoying and apparently very common in that model. I don't think I'll be buying Samsung again.

ruffrey 7y ago
I have a ~2014 GE Profile counter depth fridge that freezes every 3 months like clockwork. Incredibly annoying for a $3000 appliance. It should be illegal.

userbinator 7y ago

That's the evaporator fan, and not all fridges have one. The condenser gets hot, not cold, and is outside the fridge. It almost always has a fan. The evaporator is inside, and the part that gets cold. Ice buildup may indicate a humidity problem.

jasonjayr 7y ago
I'm not a fridge tech, but I have a Samsung in my garage after it constantly gave us this problem. I just removed the cover to the evaporator and let it ice up, and don't keep much in it. A second thermostat shows that the interior is still maintaining a safe temperature, with few things inside and a non-functioning fan. The (suspected) problem is that the defroster heater is too far from the circulation fan, and the ice starts where the copper pipe is from the top, where there is no heater coil. The ice eventually grows to the fan, and seizes up the fan.

tanzeeb 7y ago

I've got the exact same problem with my Samsung fridge. It's such a common problem with Samsung, I'm surprised they're still in the refrigerator business.

ipython 7y ago

I had the exact same problem with my Samsung fridge. Same timeline too - it was like clockwork. Every quarter I would have to take the back plate off, melt the accumulated ice with a hair dryer and reload the fridge. I eventually did enough googling and found a support bulletin from Samsung about this issue. It said to move the thermistor from the intake tube to the output tube. I wish I could find the pic but the general procedure is mentioned here: https://www.appliancejunk.com/forums/index.php?topic=14561.0 https://www.appliancejunk.com/forums/index.php?topic=14561.0 Best of luck. Thankfully it’s been a year since I’ve had to fix the fridge. Funny side note- our fridge used to be so clean when it would fail every three months. We would be forced to unload all the food and we figured why not clean it out at the same time. Now we don’t have that forced cleaning cycle any longer. Oh well.

jmuhlich 7y ago

You can fix some freeze-over issues by taking a length of stiff wire (14 gauge solid copper is great if you have some, a wire coat hanger is an OK substitute), wrapping one end tightly around the nearest part of the defrost cycle heater element, and routing the other end through the area where you are getting ice build-up. Some freezer designs allow ice to build up out of the defrost heater’s reach, and the added wire just conducts that heat where it’s needed.