This morning I received an email from Bonita in our customer services department who had written a list of the most common calls we get about fridges and freezers including what the symptoms are and how to fix them. To save you from going through the effort of calling us I’ve reproduced it here and included a list of links to where you can get manuals for most makes of machine at the bottom.
Many thanks to Bonita for her hard work.
My fridge freezer is making a cracking or whirring noise – this is a common problem for frost free fridge freezers. Most people are not used to the noise that the automated defrost makes and it can take them a few days to get used to it. On some Hotpoint fridge freezers there is V shaped key behind the salad crisper which needs to be removed to stop a build up of ice – more information can be found on page 8 of your the user’s guide.
My American fridge freezer water dispenser isn’t working – if the ice dispenser is still working then check the temperature your appliance is running at. If the fridge is too cold it might be icing up the water supply.
My ice box isn’t freezing anything – ice boxes aren’t designed to act as a freezer; if you plan on freezing fresh food you need an appliance with a 4 star freezer.
My fridge smells funny – start by removing the shelves and checking the trims are clean. Also check that the drainage hole at the middle back of the cavity is clean; you might want to use a pipe cleaner to clean this. If the appliance still smells and has been thoroughly cleaned you can use cat litter or bicarbonate of soda to remove smells; just scatter a little at the bottom and leave it to draw odours out.
My fridge is not working to temperature – the best way to check this is to place a glass of water inside for 24 hours with a thermometer in it. This means you can reliably check how cold the food is being chilled to. If you have already done this before calling us we can help you quicker.
It’s just not cooling – fridges and freezers need to be left for about 24 hours in order for the gasses to fully settle after being delivered. Normally you can use it after four hours but if it isn’t working leave it for the full 24 and try again.
You should also check the temperature of the room you are keeping it in. If it is too low (maybe because it is being kept in an outbuilding) then the appliance might think it doesn’t need to cool. Check the climate class of your appliance to find its climate class which will show you the ambient temperatures it can work in. Climate classes are as follows;
Sub-normal - known as SN, subnormal is the climate class with the lowest temperature threshold and a range between +10oC and +32oC.
Normal - designed to be placed inside a heated dwelling in a temperate region, normal climate class is often written as N and covers temperatures from +16oC to +32oC.
Sub-tropical - shortened to ST, the sub-tropical class is for machines that work between +18oC to +38oC.
Tropical - the designation for appliances made for warm regions. Abbreviated to T, tropical refrigerators have operating thresholds of +18oC and +43oC.
The are some appliances that are made to work in temperatures below this but these are by no means the norm (check out the Beko CDA543 in white, silver or black for examples).
The copper wire coil on the back of my fridge has been bent when we put it into place – this is nothing to worry about; it is designed to be bent and moved around.
The alarm on my freezer keeps going off for no reason – this normally means that too much none frozen food has been loaded at once. The machine senses this and then sounds the alarm to let you know that it will not be able to maintain temperature which can lead to food defrosting and being refrozen which in turn can lead to food poisoning. If you check the rating plate it will advise you on how much food can be frozen at one time.
There is a wine rack/ egg rack/ part missing and it shows in the manual – most manufacturers make universal manuals which means that it might list features which are not available on your model. Check the manufacturer’s website to find out what should be included with your appliance.
The casing of my fridge freezer is warm – this is perfectly normal. The machine is drawing heat out of the appliance and dissipating it into the environment.
If you’ve got a question that isn’t on the list or want clarification about something that is then give us a call on 0871 641 1560 to speak to someone in our UK call centre.
For online manuals please click on the manufacturer of your appliance below.
AEG
Baumatic (navigate to your appliance to download the manual)
Beko
Belling – Don’t have a download facility but you can contact their spare parts team on 0844 81 53 745
Bosch
Candy
Electrolux
Hoover
Hotpoint
Indesit
LG (navigate to your appliance and then select the support tab to find a download for the manual)
Neff
Newworld - Don’t have a download facility but you can contact their spare parts team on 0844 81 53 745
Samsung
Siemens
Smeg - can be confusing so it really helps if you know your product code.
Whirlpool
Zanussi