hotpoint rfa52p thats too cold on #1

[gandh1]

less than 2 years old, cust doesnt want to pay £100 for hp to repair, or just poop poop it.

apparenly always ran too cold from new unless on setting 1, now last 2 weeks its runnign virtually continuously and will only cut out if you click the stat to 0, and then back on, and it wont run.

changed the stat, but hasnt made a difference, so thought might be a pcb / relay but dredged thru connects partlist for this and nothing is listed.

does anyone have a service manual, pref with a partslist??? cos hotpoint are being useless on the phone

Oh yeah its got a neat square of inch thick frosty ice, (not hard lump) fully coating the top half of the back panel fridge cavity, not sure if bad insulation is causing this or if its a result of the comp running all the time…

[Allsorts]

Re: hotpoint rfa52p thats too cold on #1

Are you sure the thermostat is working? Are the wires in the right places?

I have beeen asking myself the same questions about a frigidaire fridge that just keeps going. Thermostat seems to have no click other than on/off.

George

[gandh1]

Re: hotpoint rfa52p thats too cold on #1

defo all connected up, unless theyve omitted to connect the other end of the cables deep within the machine???

if it helps didnt think the recent frigidaires (rl6003/r5303) had “clicks” for any other stage of the stat other than the on/off

[spimps]

Re: hotpoint rfa52p thats too cold on #1

You need to fit gauges to check suction pressure,could be an under charge/leak or the thermostat phial connector can come away from the back panel.
Is the back panel loose when touched?.
If it was correctly charged and compressor running OK but running constantly it would freeze the food,if it isn’t freezing food it’s one of the above problems.

[gandh1]

Re: hotpoint rfa52p thats too cold on #1

are we talking internal or external, rarely touch refrigeration, its just the fact customer is family of a friend, and the sheer age of it means ive taken an interest on this one.

im i right in assuming the phial is the metallic solder-like tail of the thermostat?

and the connector is the tube it feeds down into teh carcass ???

as for back panel do you mean the backwall of the internal carcass, or the back panel being the heatsink on the outside?

only ask this as the rfa52s have an autodefrost fridge, theres no panel in the internal carcass of the fridge like you used to have with the older lecs etc where the t/stat-wire (phial?) used to wrap around. also as i said in the last post, there is a almost perfectly oblong slab of icey frost covering the top half of the backwall of the internal carcass. is there any heaters or mechanisms that are designed to melt the droplets to make the autodefrost work ???

compressor is continually running unless thermostat is off’d and then it wouldnt kick in for at least the 30 mins i was there afterwards

doesnt sound like its degassed as there plenty of (quiet) ooshing and gushing, much like the other rfa52s ive sold, but there isnt the gurgling sounds that some other brands make

food is probably freezing its certainly crunchy but the milk in the door hasnt been freezing, but then it has only been run on #1 (thermometer read it at 2degrees top shelf im pretty certain now i think about it that she said the milk froze when the new t/stat was set to #3

[spimps]

Re: hotpoint rfa52p thats too cold on #1

It’s the actual back plastic panel of the fridge, it bows away from the insulation and is clearly loose when pressed.
Audible whooshing is no indication of good operation and can sometimes especially with r600a be louder when refrigerant is low so gauges are essential to test the the charge.
The phial is the thermostat sensor and feeds down a tube which is fastened within the insulated back wall of the fridge to the evaporator,sadly often parts company with the evaporator so thermostat cant pick up temp drop and fridge runs continuously,not really a fix for this.
Thermostats have a wide differential so won’t kick in if you switch them off manually until they reach temp for normal switch back on,possibly 7’8c.
There would be no doubt if it is running continuously it would freeze almost everything,likely to be loss of refrigerant imo and if you can’t find the leak to repair not worth the fix.
Wasteful but thats the quality of stuff now.
BG

[eastlmark]

Re: hotpoint rfa52p thats too cold on #1

Yep, had a run of these lately all about that age,(most of them larder fridges though) same symptoms, changed the stats with the genuine ones (as the phial length is critical) and still have same problem. Freezing contents in fridge very efficiently so assume not a leakage, more like a restricted evaporator causing the frost line to form away from the end of the phial. 2 of these reacted well to simply not pushing the phial all the way into the tube hence lifting the end of the phial slightly higher. the others have ended up in landfill.

[spimps]

Re: hotpoint rfa52p thats too cold on #1

I dug out the insulation at the back of a scrap one to try and fit the phial end by screws which I did just for a beer fridge in the garage,the tube down to the evaporator for the thermostat phial is a plastic tube and only changes to metal for the last 3 or 4 inches and the metal tube/phial sensor housing is only taped by metal type gaffer tape to the evaporator. 🙁
Total tish!

[gandh1]

Re: hotpoint rfa52p thats too cold on #1

yeh a recharge wasnt really viable in her opinion, so told her shes better off replacing rather than throwing any more cash away on this one. weird that this is happened tho to this model as the rfa52’s seem to have been really reliable *touches wood* so far havent had any callouts/uplifts to any weve supplied and is abread and butter stock machine for us, bad batch possibly as it came from currys in a sale for just over £200 and that was virtually trade price even 2 years ago!

[Author]

Posts