Daewoo FRS2021 WAL American fridge/freezer

[LancsLou]

I’m writing this post to possibly assist other people with the same issue I recently experienced!

My Daewoo fridge/freezer is almost 16 years old and has never given us a single problem since purchase. We fitted a new kitchen 6 years ago and built around the appliance because we really liked it and had no reason to replace. A couple weeks ago the whole unit just stopped working overnight – no lights, cooling, nothing. We called a local engineer who diagnosed a faulty main power module (or PCB) which would need to be replaced. £100 fix or £700 minimum for new fridge/freezer – we chose fix and were advised 3 weeks for part to come into stock. A week later and we were called by the engineer to advise the part was now showing as months away, not weeks! The engineer advised that it was unlikely the part even existed anymore and we would probably never get it. So, we were faced with scrapping a perfectly good unit and shelling out a large sum of money for a new model.

Armed with the PCB part number, I spent a night with google and pretty much discovered that the part was unobtainable anywhere in Europe but there was a company in Workington, Cumbria who were offering a repair service on similar model number circuit boards! Worth a try? Absolutely – given that the repair cost and postage was less than £40! They refund your money (less postage) if the board can’t be repaired.
Google to the rescue with advice on how to remove the board from the fridge ( it’s sited at the top so easy to access), gently teasing out a few clips, and packaging up for postage. The circuit board was dispatched to Cumbria, fixed and returned just two days after I posted it! I tentatively fitted it back yesterday and I am so happy to report that the whole unit is working fine. Will it hold? Well, only time will tell BUT, I had a perfectly good fridge/freezer which fitted well into my kitchen, it had never given me any problems and the market in American style units hadn’t improved much in the last few years to make me want to replace the machine. It just seemed such a waste! If it breaks again, I will admit defeat and replace but for now, I am really happy with the guys in Workington who had the skills to repair.

[electrofix]

it will be the power supply chip on the board look up TNY264 and look at images, there are quite a few types but they are all similar

have done lots of them myself. I get the same fault in lots of appliances these days. There is no reason to suppose the rest of the board is in any way faulty to have caused this as there are 2 possible reasons it happened

1 it wanted to and just failed
2 a spike on the mains electric supply that blew the chip

Dave

[LancsLou]

Thanks Dave – my circuit board fixing skills are non-existent and as I had turned to this forum for some answers, I wanted other non-technical people to know that there was a possible solution to fixing the fault. Normally, I would of just took the repair-mans suggestion of replacing the faulty PCB but as there are now no replacements, then fixing the board could be an option for other owners. I mustered the skills to remove the board for someone else to repair but I wouldn’t have the confidence to repair that board myself. I wasn’t lucky enough to call a repair engineer who had the savvy to suggest a fix of the board – he simply told me he couldn’t get hold of a replacement and suggested I write the whole fridge/freezer off and buy a new one. I felt that I had to at least try another solution first and I’m glad I did.

[electrofix]

no probs m8 glad you sorted it

not everbody can solder small chips onto boards. Have to do it with 2 pairs of glasses these days lol. Just thought I would give you an insight into what the problem was and likely causes

A lot of appliances these days use these chips which are active as long as the socket is switched on. Customer have this idea the appliance if off but in actual fact they are on standby. Had a job recently where a Bosch washing machine was no longer working after they returned from holiday and that is because this chip was energised and blew while they were away

and the moral in this. Switch off all unused appliances from the socket when not in use

thanks for your input as these sort of post can be very helpful to the average user as it helps them to realise there is help out there and things my not be as impossible as they first thought

Dave

[Author]

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