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Fridges & Freezers

This is a list of every article I've written filed under fridges & freezers, including all its sub categories. To jump to specific fridges & freezers sub categories use the drop down menu under "fridges & freezers" in the main navigation.

NOTE: More fridge & freezer articles are filed under other categories and sub categories if they focus on buying or repairing them for example.

Updated First Published

What is the Fast Freeze button on a freezer for?

Ice Some freezers have a fast freeze option button, which may be rarely used. It’s there for freezing items not already pre-frozen. If you are placing fresh food inside the freezer then ideally you should have lowered the temperature beforehand ready to accommodate it and facilitate as quick a freeze as possible. You may need to pre select the fast freeze button as early as 24 hours before.

Instructions may vary from freezer to freezer, but here are the instructions for one of my freezers, which is a small basic front opening freezer (with 3 drawers). Check your own instruction book if possible (Find instruction manuals for most appliances)

  • Use the bottom drawer or compartment which should be the coldest. If necessary move food already in there elsewhere in the freezer to make room.
  • For between 5 and 8 Kg of fresh food select the fast freeze option 24 hours before placing inside the bottom drawer
  • If food is between 2 and 5 Kg the pre freeze time can be reduced to 12 hours
  • If under 2 Kg you can put on the fast freeze as you load it in
  • Once the fresh food has been inside for 24 hours the fast freeze can be switched off.

It also makes sense to use this option button a few hours before going shopping if you know you will be loading the freezer with various items of new frozen food and leave it on for an hour or so after loading. This should help minimise any temperature increase caused by having the door open too long whilst loading, and to bring any items partially thawing out in transit down to the correct temperature quicker.

Updated First Published

Is your fridge temperature correct?

Tips It’s important that we have the fridge temperature withing a strict set range. Having your fridge thermostat control just set at random, or what you feel is right can be wasteful. According to Which? even using recommended settings by the manufacturer doesn’t always assure the correct temperature. If the temperature is too cold, it’s wasting energy cooling it down more than necessary, but if it’s not quite cold enough your food and drink won’t last as long. For example, milk can last up to 10 days at 4 degrees, but only 7 days at 7 degrees. Similar differences can be found for vegetables like lettuce or broccoli.

Many fridges need regular temperature control adjustments

Unless by any chance your fridge automatically maintains the correct temperature it doesn’t make sense to keep it on the same setting month in month out. As ambient temperature changes throughout the year the thermostat may need slight adjustments to keep the temperature from getting too cold or too warm. Having a fridge thermometer inside (or at least popping it in occasionally if there’s no room to leave it in) will help you set the control optimally. This should be done at least between summer and winter. Adjusting it so it always feels cold is fine, but not necessarily optimal and you could save money by keeping the temperature between 0 and 5 degrees centigrade.

Many freezers and some modern fridges have digital temperature displays but many do not. Fridge and freezer thermometers can be bought for as little as £3 or £4 – Fridge and freezer thermometers

Special thermometers are used for fridges and freezers – do not use mercury filled thermometers

Updated First Published

Fridge or freezer noisy

Noise Many modern fridges, fridge freezers and freezers are noisy compared with older appliances. Strange gurgling sounds and the sound of moving liquid can be heard as the gases are pumped around the system. Some of the noises come from fans (which switch on and off) to blow cold air around. You should get used to the sounds that your appliance makes quite quickly although it is possible for some sounds to change as temperatures get hotter or colder in the room. So for example a different noise could start up in winter, or in summer as it works harder to keep things cool. Generally speaking though you should usually pay attention to new sounds in case they are an indication of a fault.

Freezer makes loud cracking noise

Many modern freezers can make loud cracking noises and bangs. This is usually advised about in the instruction book so consult the manual. In modern refrigeration appliances the evaporator, which gets ice cold, is situated behind the back plastic wall. This plastic wall at the back can get frozen onto the evaporator and when it de-frosts you can get these cracking noises as it comes away from the ice behind it.

High-pitched noise when fan is running

If there’s a noise coming from your fridge or freezer which sounds like a fan catching on something, a sort of high pitched searing noise – it could be the fan catching on ice. This noise may come and go as the fan switches on and off.

Modern fridge freezers usually have a fan behind the back wall to circulate cold air. A fault can cause a build up of ice around the fan, which eventually starts to encase the fan (some models seem more prone to it than others). Eventually the fan will start to hit this ice. Such a noise may start off sounding one way as it starts to hit the ice, and get worse (or even stop altogether) as the ice encroaches on the fan. If the fan gets jammed appliance will stop reaching the right temperature and things will start to warm up.

One common cause of this problem is excess condensation getting inside and freezing up which can be caused by leaving the door open too long and too often – especially in a steamy kitchen, or a faulty door seal allowing air to be drawn inside. It’s worth defrosting the appliance, which may cure the problem. However, because they are heavily insulated behind the back wall it can take a long time to properly defrost a freezer compartment so to defrost it properly you really need to unplug it and leave the doors open (with towels to soak up melted water) for 24 hours.

If the noise disappears but comes back you need to find out why it’s happened again – call an engineer if you can’t explain it and the door seal seems ok. A faulty sensor inside can cause this fault, it’s been quite common in some Samsung fridge freezers. Also a faulty pcb could cause it.

See how to remove ice from around the fan

See my article on how I removed the ice from my own freezer caused by a blocked drain hole inside by removing the back wall and properly defrosting it – Ice in base of freezer

Updated First Published

Hoover Frost Free Fridge Freezers safety notice

Fire Risk I’ve just found out about another appliance safety notice. This time affecting a Hoover fridge freezer. They’ve issued a safety notice which warns that, “overheating can occur, and in certain circumstances this could result in a fire”. As usual the safety notice says only a small number of appliances are affected but it’s safe to say these matters are very serious.

What is the potential fire risk?

I’ve seen this before on other refrigeration appliances – it’s the defrost heater. These appliances have a heating element inside which does the defrosting. Hoover say there is a possibility of a potential fault on the defrost heater (supplied to them) where overheating can occur and in certain circumstances this could result in a fire.

Which Hoover fridge freezers are affected?

So far only Hoover Frost Free refrigeration appliances produced between week 34 in 2011 to week 34 in 2012. If you have such an appliance in your home, or know anyone who has bought one recently you need to check if yours is affected

Here are the current model numbers Hoover list as affected –

  • HNC6185A
  • HNC6185AE
  • HNC6185W
  • HNC6185WE
  • HNC6200A
  • HNC6200WE

NOTE: Do not rely on the above list as being definitive. Hoover could update it to include further models without my knowing.

How to check if your fridge freezer is affected

Hoover have a special page that gives all necessary information including how to check your model number and what to do if affected here – Hoover Frost Free Fridge Freezers – safety notice

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Updated First Published

CDA PC62SS American Fridge Freezers safety notice

RISK
RISK
Yet another fridge with a potentially dangerous fault. These are the most dangerous fire risks because we can’t turn them off and they run 24/7. Tell others about Whitegoodshelp to help keep them safe.

CDA: Important Safety Notice

CDA have organized a home-visit and repair programme for all PC62SS American Fridge Freezers manufactured between March 2005 and June 2006 to deal with a potential component failure. In very rare cases there is the potential for internal sparking to occur and in consequence damage to the appliance.

CDA request that all customers who have a PC62SS to contact the Contact Centre on 01949 862012 or email ccd.admin@cda.eu at which point a more detailed review can be conducted to determine whether the appliance is affected and an appointment scheduled.

Updated First Published

Beko Frost Free Fridge Freezers – safety notice (Fire risk)

Beko fridge freezer fire risk

RISK
RISK
Beko issued an important safety notice regarding some of its frost free fridge freezers, which in “a very small number of cases could result in overheating”.

The defrost timer is the problem, whose job it is to trigger a heating element to defrost. However, since I posted this warning several weeks back things have escalated to such a serious degree that this safety warning is on the news. The phrase, “could result in overheating” should now be read as “could result in a serious fire, producing an enormous amount of toxic smoke.” According to one newspaper these fridges have so far caused at least 20 fires in London alone and one death.

The fridges affected were manufactured between January 2000 and October 2006. These models have a serial number that begins with either 00, 01, 02, 03, 04, 05 or 06 (this information can be found on a label inside the fridge.)

There is a free modification to the defrost timer, which any owners of the fridges should definitely get sorted out asap.

How to CHECK IF YOUR FRIDGE FREEZER IS AFFECTED USING BEKO’S WEB SITE TOOL

Use this link to check with Beko Please check your Beko Fridge Freezer Now

Full details including a telephone number to contact and how to check your serial number are currently on the Trading Standards product recall site – Beko Frost Free Fridge Freezers – safety notice

Tip Always register any white goods appliance you buy. Send off the registration card or go online to do it. If ever a serious safety issue arises the first thing a manufacturer needs to do is to contact all the people registered on its database. These people are the first to get their appliance modified. If you haven’t registered you may not find out about it and could suffer a serious incident or tragedy.

What Beko advise

Currently, they say over 500,000 of these appliances have been sold and only a very small fraction have been affected. They are assuring their customers that if the appliance is working ok, with no symptoms of any faults then it is safe to keep using until they can get to it.

What if you don’t believe them?

This is a decision only you can make. If your model is on the list – contact Beko asap using the link above. If you decide to unplug the fridge freezer – especially if it’s been playing up recently. Food will be wasted if you have nowhere to transfer it to, but if you genuinely believe it poses a serious risk to you and your family there isn’t much choice and how could anyone morally deny that? If you did unplug it you might be able to contact Beko before the food defrosts (don’t open the door) and plug it back in if that’s what they advise and can convince you it’s safe to do so.

You have a responsibility to try and mitigate any food loss though. You shouldn’t just deliberately let it go off if you can salvage some, use some of it before it goes off, or transfer some to another freezer if possible. If you do have to let the food go off take a note of all items, photograph them or save the packaging too and add up the cost. You can then try to claim compensation from the manufacturer or the retailer as “consequential loss”. However, don’t be surprised to meet resistance from Beko or the retailer to the idea of compensating anyone for food loss or even time off work. That doesn’t mean you have no right to compensation, but unless they comply you will have to fight for it and maybe even have to take them to the small claims court. Get official consumer advice.

What did London fire brigade advise?

Having said all that, a representative of London Fire brigade on Radio 2’s Jeremy Vine programme has said there’s no need to stop using one because he believes people who’s fridge freezers have caught fire suffered some intermittent fault prior to the fire. Therefore if your Beko fridge freezer is apparently working perfectly ok he doesn’t think there’s a risk of imminent fire.

Also it should be noted that on Beko’s web site they do not advise to stop using the appliance immediately either (at the time of writing). According to this BBC news item they say –

“Beko says the risk to consumers is extremely low and it is advising customers with the affected fridges to continue using them unless they notice anything unusual.”

My personal thoughts on this are as follows – It seems that Beko are insisting that unless anything “unusual” is happening with an affected fridge freezer it’s impossible for one to catch fire. Presumably one can’t catch fire until it’s been “doing something unusual” for some unspecified time as the spokesman for the London fire brigade also advised on radio 2. I hope for everyone’s sake that is the case!

If you do unplug it and lose food the retailer may try to claim you didn’t need to and the loss was avoidable therefore denying your claim for consequential loss. I think a small claims court judge may well accept that having heard on the news of 1 death, and 20 fires, and then finding out your fridge freezer has the same fault it was reasonable for some people to immediately unplug the appliance rather than risk leaving it plugged in until something was resolved. Especially if despite your best efforts you could not get through to Beko, which I know many have experienced. That’s only my opinion though.

Check if your fridge freezer is affected with Beko’s web site tool

Please check your Beko Fridge Freezer Now

UPDATE: 09/07/2011

I just read this news article –
Some faulty Beko fridge-freezers began catching fire as long ago as 2007, the BBC has learned