Hotpoint FFA74 – fault-find assistance required

[jon_hope]

Hi all,

I’ve got a Hotpoint FFA74 that isn’t well. I’ve read the background information on this site (which was very interesting), but I’m looking for a bit of assistance in how to diagnose a fault step by step.

The situation is this,

The freezer temperature warning light is on.
The fridge is cooling fine.
If you hit the ‘fast freeze button’, the warning light will eventually go out, but when you turn it off the freezer compartment heats up again and the warning light comes back on.
The freezer is cold, the fridge is fine, so I don’t think it needs re-gassing.
I can hear the compressor running, and it still cools, so I guess thats ok.
I’ve taken the baffle off the inside rear of the freezer compartment and the fan is not restricted in any way.
There was a small amount of ice build up on the evaporator, I have defrosted this, and powered the freezer back up.
The freezer has cooled down again, a fine layer of ‘frost’ built up on the evaporator (presuably not yet enough to trigger a defrost cycle).
I can see the fan working to circulate the cooled air around the freezer compartment.
The warning light is still on, but the compartment seems cold.

So assuming the simple action of drefrosting the freezer doesn’t work, what should I be testing next?

Thanks in advance.

[spimps]

Re: Hotpoint FFA74 – fault-find assistance required

The defrost cycle is usually automatic ie approx every 6 or 10 hours depending on make and model.
Later ones have a sensor which monitors frost and then activates defrost, but I think yours is pre that.
What actual temperature is the freezer achieving?

[jon_hope]

Re: Hotpoint FFA74 – fault-find assistance required

Hi, thanks for looking. Th temperature is currently -16 C, its been slowly dropping since lunch time when it was about -5 C (after the defrost).

How long should it take to reach proper operational temperature?

[spimps]

Re: Hotpoint FFA74 – fault-find assistance required

Depends on the contents of freezer and ambient temp.At the rate it has dropped so far would expect it to be -20 ish in the morning.

[jon_hope]

Re: Hotpoint FFA74 – fault-find assistance required

hi Spims, and (everyone else)

I’ve woken up this morning to find the freezer is back up to -5 C and of course the high temperature warning is on again.

There is a fine layer of ice on the evaporator and the fan has stopped.

I’m wondering now if the defrost heater isn’t working, and its stuck trying to run a defrost cycle, what do you think?

[twinspark]

Re: Hotpoint FFA74 – fault-find assistance required

evap fan will not run untill the evapourater is -15 and they defrost every 18 hours of compressor running time
I think you have a system fault

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