LG Fridge Freezer tripping power

[Russi666]

Hi there,
Me and the Mrs have finally bought our first house, and funds are tight so we've been buying a lot of 2nd hand items. We've just purchased a used LG SXS GRB207DXZA American style fridge freezer. It doesn't work. The woman we purchased it from said she had been told it was a temperature sensor. When it is first plugged in, it turns on, the little LCD display comes on and it functions for around 10 seconds before tripping the electrics. Can anyone help?
Thanks
Russ

 

[Russi666]

Oh, she also said that it was working perfectly until they moved it down some stairs. They had arranged to sell it, carried it into the garage then tried plugging it in and it tripped the electrics. Dunno if this helps.

 

[ericmark]

There is a section for Appliances it would be better to ask there.

A motor can only be changed by a refrigeration man as it needs brazing and evacuating then refilling likely £190 for motor plus at least £75 fitting is it worth £265 to repair?

Even a de-frost heater is £51.

These units are complex and I as an electrician would not attempt to repair one. Simple freezer yes swapping a thermostat is quite simple. But the American style fridge freezer using a control board with electronic components so standard insulation testers will likely damage it. I would say take it to local skip site and mark it down to lesson learnt.

Even a simple small freezer my mother has call out charge was £75 with any repairs on top. I sent for a new thermostat it took two months to arrive and then shaft was too short. Fitted anyway now no adjustment.

I lost two last year. Fridge/freezer first and we got replacement with small freezer as we had a second freezer. The that second freezer went so that also needed replacing.

Likely it is tripping out a RCD and person you got it from did not have a RCD fitted. Unlikely heater tripping so quick normally heater trips it after around 6 hours but you would need an insulation tester and knowledge as the 500 volt it uses to test can also blow up bits if used wrong.

 

[ericmark]

If unused for some time then possible there is moisture in the de-frost element but at £51 plus fitting is it worth getting one on the off chance?

 

[Russi666]

It only cost £25, so I have no problem putting a bit of money into it. There's a little plastic cover hiding the light, and if you remove that, and unplug a wire, and remove the box behind it the thing works, but gets a bit too cold. I know nothing about fridge freezers, but from a day of googling it sounds to me like a thermistor. Could this be right or am I talking nonsense?
Thanks
Russ

 

[Russi666]

Right, I've had another look at it. There's a big bit of plastic that says "intelligent Micom" and "super cooling" on it. It contains the light housing, and a tiny little white rubber thing on the end of a wire. When I take this off it fires up ok, but the display says "ER R5".

 

[Russi666]

I took that part out, the wire looked a bit kinked, so I freed it up a bit, checked the connections and pushed everything in tight. Works fine at the minute. Had it on for ten minutes with no issues.

 

[ericmark]

OK clearly not motor that is good but could still be the de-frost as you it would seem have stopped some functions working. It is common practice for home brewers to use old fridge freezers and they will use a device like this which allows them to have a temperature set out of the normal range of the fridge or freezer.

However the problem is they can only control fridge or freezer not both. With my old Hoover fridge/freezer it controlled freezer temperature and the fridge used a percentage of the cooling and this was common. However with my Samsung there are individual solenoids for fridge and freezer and I have the option of controlling each compartment individually. So with the old Hoover I could use one of those controllers but with the Samsung I could not.

So your options are:-
1) Google for spares and take a chance you have selected the right part.
2) Fit an external controller remember it will then no longer be frost free.
3) Sell it to some one who wants a home brew fridge.
4) Pay for a fridge man to repair it.

The most likely scenario is you have stopped the controller working so the auto de-frost has been stopped and it is the auto defrost element which has failed. When I looked these were £51 and when I tried to get some one to repair my mothers freezer £75 was minimum labour charge so I would expect a bill of around £126 to get it fixed. Clearly only guess work but knowing likely bill does help is deciding the course.

If you were to go deeper and disconnect the defrost element you could prove or disprove if it is the element. The reason I say de-frost element is the mineral insulation is hygroscopic that is it will draw in water if there is the slightest damage to the seals on the end. The jolt the unit got could have damaged the seals and allowed water to get in. I am assuming when you say trips power it is the RCD tripping. Although dust and damp could cause other bits to fail it is less likely.

PS when my mothers freezer thermostat failed I used my home brew controller to run her freezer until the correct parts arrived. However I did have to set a delay and a larger differential than normally used. The problem with the device it does not come in a ready to use form. You need to fit it in to a box and wire up. The other problem is the sensor wire. You need to fit the sensor with mothers freezer it was just put in with the food I only wanted it while waiting for correct parts to arrive.

 

[Iggifer]

http://www.espares.co.uk/product/es639709/fridge-controller-assembly?SearchTerm=GRB207DXZA

Is this the part you removed?

ER RS (not R5) indicates you have a cut or short somewhere in the sensor circuit - obvious

I've fixed a couple of fridges where wires had disconnected due to the vibration of the compressor - it's worth checking everything is nice and tight.

If the fridge runs and cools without the part connected you've removed - this will likely make it a much cheaper repair. If you have removed the sensor though, the compressor will never cut out, it will just continue to cool and make your fridge compartment a freezer.

As eric has said, it's worth checking the element/drip tray after it's been running for a while to see if there's water there / the element is heating.

Does the ice maker work?

 

[Russi666]

It looks very much like that part that I removed. A wire with a bit at one end. I plugged that back in though. It's now been running several hours, no issues, no error codes. Perfect. I hope I'm not tempting fate here, but at £25 I think I may have picked up the bargain of my life.