Hotpoint Mistral 8596

[sputnik]

Hi,

My fridge is no longer working. The freezer seems ok. I’ve checked the fan in the back of the freezer and it is not spinning.

The display was flashing error code E6 initially, and now is flashing EA shortly after switching it off and on again.

Can onyone explain what these error codes mean?

Thanks

[Dave_Conway]

Re: Hotpoint Mistral 8596

E6 doesn’t exist but EA refers the the baffle unit in the fridge, check there 1st (with the power off :zap:)

This article should help:

http://www.ukwhitegoods.co.uk/modules.p … ge&pid=108

If you’re unsure, check the repairs@ link below 🙂

Dave.

[sputnik]

Re: Hotpoint Mistral 8596

Well, the E6 must exist as it came on again. Its just not documented on Hotpoints website. Besides, the EA was a red herring.

I defrosted, removed the panel in the freezer and the baffle in the fridge and low and behold the fan started working and the baffle solenoid operated (closed and opened) too.

Of course with the freezer panel off the fan was blowing into the freezer alone (as the ducting was no longer present) and so the fridge stayed at room temp while the freezer dropped to a displayed -20C.

I placed the panels back and the fridge temperature started to drop, and I could feel the cold air pumping into the fridge with the lamp switch shut, but it only reached around 8C, then the fan stopped working again and the fridge eventually went back to room temp.

I’ve since been playing with the thermistors and think I’ve found something but will report back later… 😉

[sputnik]

Re: Hotpoint Mistral 8596

Sure enough it was the usual suspect, the evaporator thermistor! I found out that all the thermistors are of the same type, just different length leads and connectors, so decided to unplug the freezer and evap ones and test them side by side with my multimeter.

Apparently, the typical resistance readings should be approx:

Temp Ohms
-20C 26k
0C 8.9k
room temp 3k (I am assuming the scientific standard room temp of 22C)

I know there is another post on here by a service engineer that claims the resistance at room temp should be 31k but I am guessing this is a typo and he actually means 3.1k, which would go along with the above and observations of other posters who have ordered the proper Hotpoint thermistor and found it to read around 3k at room temp.

In my case, I found the evap thermistor would give good readings at typical temps used to measure it (ie. between freezing and room temp), but when it dropped below zero it switched backwards and jumped right down to 2k ohms (the equivalent of around 30C!!!). It stayed in this state right back up to room temp but would eventually fix itself.

Unfortunately I needed to get my freezer working quickly over the holiday season and couldn’t wait to order the official part from this site what with the post and all.

Now, from my observations of the “good” freezer thermistor, coupled with the above, I have determined that the official Hotpoint thermistor is actually an NTC 2.5K @25C with a Beta of approx. 3950

Unfortunately my local Maplins do not stock this, so I have made an equivalent “near as dammit” circuit by wiring 2 x 4.7K in parallel (Beta 3977). Maplin part number FX21X, cost 53p each.

I soldered the above to my old evap thermistor cable, sealed it in heatshrink and fitted it to the freezer. It has been running perfectly ever since my last post. Fridge down to any temp I set it to (0-6C), Freezer down to -22C. 🙂

[cgmisc2]

I know this is a very old post now, but as we still have a Hotpoint Mistral, that has been sitting in the garage diligently keeping things cold for many years, I though Id share my experience , just in case I’m not the only person in the world still using one of these.

Like many other (now old) posts in this forum, we had the freezing working fine at -22 and the fridge stopped working, for a while the fridge temperature was just a bit up and down, but after a couple of weeks it didn’t cool at all and stayed at ambient temperature.

Following the common advice for this problem, it seemed most likely that the problem was the yellow thermistor

So you can either buy one of these for £36 from several places – such as this one

https://www.buyspares.co.uk/product.pl?pid=1232683&utm_source=google&utm_medium=base&utm_campaign=products&gad_source=1&gclid=CjwKCAjw0aS3BhA3EiwAKaD2Zaf0hVvcxXcRlXnrtu_FNZL1LJ3kOtm-XRQRar67CZ3rGsWEpcL2BBoC0xQQAvD_BwE

Or you can do what Sputnik did in the post before this one – which is what I did. Maplins dont really exist any more but you can source the thermistor as a component from here:

https://www.switchelectronics.co.uk/products/4-7k-ntc-thermistor?variant=45339892515125

The thermistors are 55p each (but i still had to pay £3.00 post and packing) , so much cheaper than sourcing a complete new cable and sensor assembly. To install the fix, remove the old sensor assembly (yellow connector, black wire, disappears into a sponge lined hole with the other sensor cable, cut the end off with the sensor in it (the black nobbly bit on the end of the cable ) and then solder 2 of these thermistors in parallel, to the wires you’re left with (blue and brown) , cover it up with a bit of heat shrink tubing and reinstall – hey presto – working fridge again.

It took me a while to figure how to remove the thermistor – its behind the white plastic panel in the freezer section (8 screws) and then you have to remove the insulation and metal plate (this was a bit tricky when the freezer was cold as it was held fast by ice) . The sensible approach would be to turn the freezer off and let a defrost a decent amount before you do this, but I didn’t bother as we had items in the freezer I didn’t want to defrost.

I dont really understand how this fridge/freezer stuff works so I have no idea why a sensor that is embed in the freezer section causes the fridge not to work, but it clearly does.

So saved having to throw another fridge/freezer onto the scrap heap and pay hundreds for a new one, saved £36 it costs for a new sensor assembly and spent £3.99 plus 2 * 55p

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