4 ms·

> given the awful placement of the coils and motors of fridges. Oh, man. So much this. The refrigerator that came with my house, a circa 2006 Samsung, has coil

> given the awful placement of the coils and motors of fridges. Oh, man. So much this. The refrigerator that came with my house, a circa 2006 Samsung, has coils that grow ice. The (evaporator?) fan is positioned in such a way that the ice eventually grows into the fan blades. First it makes a super-annoying scraping sound, then the temperature in the fridge slowly creeps up to unsafe levels. The fix only takes about an hour. You have to remove the back panel and defrost the coils with a hair dryer. I've done it a couple times now. It boggles my mind that we can't have nicer appliances. I'd certainly be willing to pay more at this point in my life, but I have zero confidence I wouldn't just be paying more for the same trash.

contingencies 6y ago
Modern fridges have a defrost cycle built in which does this automatically. Are you by any chance in a high humidity location or running the fridge without adequate ventilation? You could possibly ask the service staff to adjust the thing to make it run more frequently, or request a replacement controller.
- Spooky23 6y ago
  The Whirlpool bottom freezer model I own has a defective radiator design, where significant parts of the radiator are only cleanable by tipping the appliance and accessing from below. Not being the Hulk, I’m not regularly lifting a 300+ lb appliance and I doubt anyone else is. So every few years, it overheats in the summer. It also shipped with a defective drain plug that would get blocked by a biofilm and cause the whole fridge to ice up. That was eventually recalled. All of this is incompetence and engineering malpractice, committed by one of the largest and well respected appliance manufacturers. Their sole priority is engineered reliability to maximize revenue.
- redshirtrob 6y ago
  > Modern fridges have a defrost cycle built in which does this automatically. I believe you. The point is this doesn't work very well. It's a pretty common complaint with the model. > Are you by any chance in a high humidity location or running the fridge without adequate ventilation? Eh, I have AC and a dehumidifier. The humidity is well under control inside my house. As for ventilation, the refrigerator is in the only place you could possibly put a refrigerator in my kitchen. If it's not designed to work for that placement, then Samsung has no business being in the refrigerator business. > You could possibly ask the service staff to adjust the thing to make it run more frequently, or request a replacement controller. I am the service staff. I'm sure I could spend a good chunk of money on this. I'd rather not. I don't enjoy it, but manually defrosting the coils every eight months beats handing a couple hundy to a service person.
  - toast0 6y ago
    I wonder if the drain is clogged or otherwise not working well, leading to more water in the air that ends up freezing on the fan. My freezer drain would clog with ice, after a couple manual defrost cycles, I figured out the resistance heater that's supposed to keep the drain from freezing was just a little bit misaligned, a slight bend and it hasn't clogged since.
  - dugditches 6y ago
    Issue is with controllers is that you can't manually defrost anymore. They rely on boards like you said, or thermistors that only close when cold to turn on the defrost coil. Look up if your fridge has an actual manual defrost method(rather than your 'manual' defrost). Some of them are rather absurd. But if you're lucky enough to have one you can simply force extra defrosts when it's real hot/fridge being opened often instead of having to pull the shroud and manually do it. First Test Method: Turn the thermostat off for 15 seconds. Turn the thermostat on for 5 seconds. Turn the thermostat off for 15 seconds. Turn the thermostat on for 5 seconds. Turn the thermostat off for 15 seconds. Turn the thermostat on for 5 seconds. Turn the thermostat off.*
    - redshirtrob 6y ago
      If I follow you, you're suggesting I look up some of the obscure button sequences to press to force some hidden behavior? We did that early on and didn't get great results.

contingencies 6y ago

Modern fridges have a defrost cycle built in which does this automatically. Are you by any chance in a high humidity location or running the fridge without adequate ventilation? You could possibly ask the service staff to adjust the thing to make it run more frequently, or request a replacement controller.

Spooky23 6y ago
The Whirlpool bottom freezer model I own has a defective radiator design, where significant parts of the radiator are only cleanable by tipping the appliance and accessing from below. Not being the Hulk, I’m not regularly lifting a 300+ lb appliance and I doubt anyone else is. So every few years, it overheats in the summer. It also shipped with a defective drain plug that would get blocked by a biofilm and cause the whole fridge to ice up. That was eventually recalled. All of this is incompetence and engineering malpractice, committed by one of the largest and well respected appliance manufacturers. Their sole priority is engineered reliability to maximize revenue.
redshirtrob 6y ago
> Modern fridges have a defrost cycle built in which does this automatically. I believe you. The point is this doesn't work very well. It's a pretty common complaint with the model. > Are you by any chance in a high humidity location or running the fridge without adequate ventilation? Eh, I have AC and a dehumidifier. The humidity is well under control inside my house. As for ventilation, the refrigerator is in the only place you could possibly put a refrigerator in my kitchen. If it's not designed to work for that placement, then Samsung has no business being in the refrigerator business. > You could possibly ask the service staff to adjust the thing to make it run more frequently, or request a replacement controller. I am the service staff. I'm sure I could spend a good chunk of money on this. I'd rather not. I don't enjoy it, but manually defrosting the coils every eight months beats handing a couple hundy to a service person.
- toast0 6y ago
  I wonder if the drain is clogged or otherwise not working well, leading to more water in the air that ends up freezing on the fan. My freezer drain would clog with ice, after a couple manual defrost cycles, I figured out the resistance heater that's supposed to keep the drain from freezing was just a little bit misaligned, a slight bend and it hasn't clogged since.
- dugditches 6y ago
  Issue is with controllers is that you can't manually defrost anymore. They rely on boards like you said, or thermistors that only close when cold to turn on the defrost coil. Look up if your fridge has an actual manual defrost method(rather than your 'manual' defrost). Some of them are rather absurd. But if you're lucky enough to have one you can simply force extra defrosts when it's real hot/fridge being opened often instead of having to pull the shroud and manually do it. First Test Method: Turn the thermostat off for 15 seconds. Turn the thermostat on for 5 seconds. Turn the thermostat off for 15 seconds. Turn the thermostat on for 5 seconds. Turn the thermostat off for 15 seconds. Turn the thermostat on for 5 seconds. Turn the thermostat off.*
  - redshirtrob 6y ago
    If I follow you, you're suggesting I look up some of the obscure button sequences to press to force some hidden behavior? We did that early on and didn't get great results.