Fridge Light

[Heiter]

Hotpoint (Whirlpool) HMCB50501AA UK… Integrated F-F. The fridge interior light started flickering and becoming intermittent for a few weeks or so. The light no longer comes-on when fridge door is opened although the fridge and freezer work fine. The light switch stalk fails to work when simulating door open-closed.
I tried a reset using the reset button for a few seconds and the light works each time the reset is activated but…the light remains ON. After approx’ five minutes the light flashes on and off until going-out. When the door is reopened, later, the light remains OFF and will only come ON when the reset button is again pressed for several seconds.
To my way of thinking, the switch mecanism/circuit-board connection is faulty but I could be wrong. Help appreciated, thank you.

[electrofix]

can find very little useful info

yes i would check switch first. board may disable lamp if it does not turn off when door closed

Dave

[Heiter]

Thank you Dave, appreciated.
Last night, and more out of frustration than anything else, I switched-off the F-F and unplugged for approximately 40-minutes. After recconnecting, the Fridge compartment light didn’t want to work properly so I removed the sprung end-cap that the door catches/operates against the spring. I then got a tad rough with the plastic stalk, pulling-pushing quickly, and I felt something positive within the plastic stalk…the light came ON and the light has been operating okay since. The part of the stalk which can’t be seen appears, from diagrams, to touch the circuit-board only in my case it didn’t appear to do anything but sit there and had to be moved physically forwards and backwards. The plastic stalk actually hooks into the sprung-loaded end cover; as the door is opened the spring forces the end-cover out, as the door is closed the cover is forced back into the fitting. The led contact plastic stalk (clipped into the end-cover) is moved back and forth against the circuit-board by the actions of the spring-activated end-cover. If the plastic stalk becomes detached from the sprung-cover then the LED will not work as it should.
If the light, for any reason, remains ON for 5-mins or more then it will continuously flash on-off-on-off before auto-disconnect…this appears to be caused by the normal programming of the circuit-board components.
I hope this may help other people with a similar problem.
Thank you, Dave, for the time taken to assist me, appreciated. 🙂

[Author]

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