Faulty Hoover Fridge Freezer

[mopardave]

Hi guys
went away to Australia to see my kids for 3 weeks so I switched off the fridge freezer before we went. Came back and the fridge isn't working at all but most bizarrely, only one half of the freezer elements in the top of the freezer compartment are freezing! I've replaced thermostats in the past on a "warm" fridge but this is bizarre. It seems that shutting it down for 3 weeks has killed it! It's an old fridge freezer that we adopted when we moved in so it owes us nothing.....but I'm going to be having some building work done soon to open out my kitchen so don't want to buy a new one just yet because odds on, it'll get damaged when it gets moved around. Does anyone have any ideas what it could be....I just could do with it soldiering on for another couple of months.
Cheers guys!

 

[Dellmassive]

What's the model number?

Got any pics?

Have you follows the restart procedure, ie power up. Acknowledge and hi temp alarms, allow it 24hrs to settle down.

The fridge section is normally cooled via a fan blowing the freezer air up and into the fridge section.(ecu controlled)

And the freezer is normally cooled with the compressor at the back and evaporator in the freezer section sucking the heat out of the pipe matrix.

All fairly simple stuff but could be a number of issues.

 

[mopardave]

cheers @Dellmassive.....it's an HM22c 001. It's pretty old and basic tbh. I just need it to give me another couple of months if poss? I can't hear any alarms....I don't think it has any? There's no fast freeze function....it's as basic as it gets. The only control is a thermostat in the fridge section. As I said, it was switched off for 3 weeks while we were away. On return, I just powered it back up.....it's making a faint sound from the back somewhere....which sounds pretty normal to me? I took the thermostat out and tested with the continuity.....my tester sounded when I turned the thermostat to positions 1 to 5.....and was silent when it was set to zero.....which I think is how it should be? Can't understand why only one half of the elements are frozen up!! At the moment, I'm using the freezer part as a fridge because it won't freeze anything....and the fridge as storage 'cos it's at 10 degrees! If you've any thoughts, i'd love to hear them.
Cheers!

 

[Dellmassive]

fyi:

http://service.hoover.co.uk/manuals/archived/hm22c.pdf

.

 

[Dellmassive]

tried this?

 

[Dellmassive]

and . . .



.

 

[Dellmassive]

its basic as you say, the book is just saying whack it up for max/5 for a day or so and hope for the best. =]

 

[Loz]

Interesting, we are house sitting atm and the wine/beer cooler under the worktop has stopped cooling, I have diagnosed this to the PTC starter on the side of the compressor, when it starts it just hums for a minute and there is click as what I can only perceive is the thermal cutout cuts out.
manufacturer wants £99 so send out an engineer, but I can buy the replacement part for 2.99 from Hong Kong, the manufacturer can supply part only for £14 but wont have stock until mid Feb.. I'm going to take a punt on the hongkong part first...

 

[Pauly]

I was an appliance engineer when i first started as an apprentice (white goods and only did it for a couple years) and the general rule for fridges/freezers if its not cold and humming (ie compressor running) chuck it, if its not cold and silent (compressor not running) its generally repairable

If part of it is cold and part of it is not my first guess would be blockage in one of the pipes ?

 

[mopardave]

I was an appliance engineer when i first started as an apprentice (white goods and only did it for a couple years) and the general rule for fridges/freezers if its not cold and humming (ie compressor running) chuck it, if its not cold and silent (compressor not running) its generally repairable

If part of it is cold and part of it is not my first guess would be blockage in one of the pipes ?

Thanks for the replies gents! It ran fine @Pauly until we switched it off for 3 weeks. How would you clear a blocked pipe....given that I've nothing to lose, I thought about rocking it back and forth a few times to see if that loosened things up a bit? Probably pointless but like I say....what have I to lose?

 

[Loz]

You could run a hair dryer or hot air gun over the pipework. ??

 

[mopardave]

You could run a hair dryer or hot air gun over the pipework. ??

I hate to sound like a dim wit @Loz.....but are you talking about the pipework INSIDE the freezer? What would the purpose of heating the pipes be?

 

[Loz]

I hate to sound like a dim wit @Loz.....but are you talking about the pipework INSIDE the freezer? What would the purpose of heating the pipes be?

Expand the gas/liquid force it to move?

 

[mopardave]

Expand the gas/liquid force it to move?

yup....that makes sense....worth a try.