Fridge And Freezer Forum

Hi,

My Samsung RL36SBMS fridge isn't cooling any more. The Freezer unit is cold (-20), although it does frost up a bit even though it is supposed to be frost free. The fan is woking and the paddle (not sure what the technical term is!) that rotates to allow cold air up to the fridge is rotating.
I defrosted the unit for 24 hours and then switched the fridge back on, it initially appeard to cool as the drinks went really cold after an hour or so, however having left it overnight it appears to have warmed up again.

I have turned it back off again, maybe it needs to defrost for 48 hours?!

Does anyone have any ideas on where to start fault finding?

Thanks in advance,
Chris.

Hi,

Just an update - I would appreciate if anyone has any ideas?

I left the fridge off for 48 hours so it was completely defrosted, then turned it back on with nothing in the fridge or the freezer compartment (no trays, drawers, or food). After a few hours the fridge dropped to between 0 and 4 degrees, and stayed like that for a further 24 hours or so. I started to put some trays and a few bits and bobs in and the temp rose slightly (I guess this is normal) before cooling again. I carried on putting a couple more trays in, however this time the fridge rose to 15 degrees and is stayed constantly at that temperature – I believe putting the trays in is just a coincidence and didn’t cause the fridge to stop cooling!?

Looking in the freezer compartment I can have noticed something – when the fridge door is opened, the paddle that blocks and lets in air up to the fridge is spins for quite a while – is this normal? Eventually it will either close or open – mostly open I think. I believe that this sometimes also causes a clicking noise at the very top-right of the fridge (some sort of relay ?), Should this continue to click after the fridge door is closed – I am pretty sure that it does click quite a lot!

I turned it off and on again and now the paddle (what is the proper name for it!?) is open and the fridge has currently cooled a bit to 10 degrees.

Does anyone have any ideas of what it might be – or at least where to start looking/testing?

Thanks!!

Thanks for the reply. I did check other threads (for many hours), but wanted to be 100% sure!

Do you know where I can get one from? I understand from previous threads that this is not the correct part - http://www.partmaster.co.uk/cgi-bin/product.pl?PID=1224352&query=Samsung%20RL36SBMS&model=RL36SBMS&path=67607,111066:67610

Thanks.

It turns out that the problem was not caused by a faulty defrost heater (although frost build-up could be a separate issue).

It was caused by the switch at the top of the fridge which is activated when the fridge door opens. It looks as if the top of the fridge door is quite low, and therefore only just activating the switch when opened. This opening and closing of the door seems to, sometimes, cause the switch to behave erratically and cause the paddle in the freezer compartment to close, thus not sending and cold air up to the fridge. Anyway, I have gaffer taped the switch down and fridge has been working fine for the past 4 days!