Hotpoint RFA60 freezing problems, coolant leak?

[MrFrosty]

Hello,

I’m looking for some advice as to what could be wrong with my Hotpoint RFA60, which is about 3½ years old.

Excuse the long post, but its best to give you all the details if I can.

A few months ago, I noticed that the Evaporators? inside the freezer was frosting up on the top 2 shelves, but the bottom shelf was not frosting up at all. It was cold to the touch but not cold enough to make my fingers stick. The temperature inside the freezer seemed ok at -18C so figured it was ok. The fridge was chilled too, so didn’t seem to be a problem.

A couple of days ago, the ice build up was making it difficult to close the drawers so I decided to defrost the freezer. I switched it off and left it for a few hours for the ice to completely melt. It didn’t take too long as the bottom shelf had no ice on it anyway (as I mentioned earlier) and its been nice and warm with the sunshine!

When I switched it back on, the compressor started up humming as usual and everything seemed ok. The high temperature light was lit as expected too. I left it running for a few hours before putting in the food that I’d taken out earlier. It normally takes a few hours to regain the correct temperature and then the compressor switches on and off as usual. However it didn’t do this, this time and the compressor has been running constantly for just over 12 hours. The high temperature light has just gone out but looking at the temperature, the top shelf is -19C, while the bottom shelf is at -14C. There is frost on the top 2 evaporators, but the bottom one is clear.

I know its warmer than normal, but I wouldn’t expect it to take this long to reach the right temperature. The controls are both set to 3, which has been fine in previous hot spells.

The outsides of the freezer and cabinet between the top and bottom doors is hot, about 5 secs before I need to remove hand.

The top 10inches of the condensor is also hot and so is the compressor.

The drainage pipe from the fridge is not blocked.

The fridge freezer hasn’t been moved for years, the compressor/condensor is free from dust or anything to block the flow of air and it is freestanding.

I’ve searched your forums for a clue as to what this may be and the only thing that mentions the evaporators gradually failing to ice up is in the RFA90 topic, which I’ve attempted to embed here Previous Topic

Could this be the problem that I have?

Having had a good look round the back of my freezer, the lower of the 2 pipes coming out of the compressor on the right hand side, which then goes into a black sleeve and into the back of the freezer, seems to be coated in a dried white powder, almost like limescale. There also seems to be the same dried white powder on the base of the freezer that the compressor is attached to.

Does this suggest a leak of some sort or is this normal?

I’m no doubt covered under Hotpoint’s 5 year parts & labour warranty but I don’t want to pay £100 for them to tell me it isn’t able to be fixed.

If it is a depletion of gas/coolant, then can this be fixed or would it be better to get a new fridge freezer as it may leak again in the future?

If you can give me some guidance, that would be very much appreciated.

[kwatt]

Re: Hotpoint RFA60 freezing problems, coolant leak?

I very much doubt a gas fault, you can read more on why in this article

Knowing these things probably a thermistor fault but I’m not familiar enough with that unit to advise much further.

HTH

K.

[MrFrosty]

Re: Hotpoint RFA60 freezing problems, coolant leak?

kwatt,

Thanks for your reply. I read the article you attached and now know more than I did (not hard really!).

I’m pleased to say that after 17hrs or so of the compressor being on it has finally switched off and the high temperature light has gone out.

Despite this, I can’t say I’m 100{e5d1b7155a01ef1f3b9c9968eaba33524ee81600d00d4be2b4d93ac2e58cec2d} confident everything is still ok and am not convinced I should be filling it up with lots of expensive food to thaw out. It seemed to take ages to get to the correct temperature, whereas before it would achieve this in just a few hours.

I’m happy to admit I pretty much know nothing about fridges/freezers and have seen other posts that suggest gas faults are unlikely to be the cause of the issue, but could a thermistor fault cause some of the evaportor pipes to feeze, while others were clear of any ice or frost.

In the article you attached in your last post it says that a thermistor fault would typically fail either in an open or closed state, meaning either no compressor running or it running continually.

Since the compressor is now behaving itself and switched off for the time being would that suggest that it is not a thermistor fault now?

Any other ideas?

I suppose I’ll have to get hotpoint engineer out but didn’t want to pay out £80 if it was something noddy to fix. I was about to buy an Hotpoint oven but I’m starting to have doubts now if things start breaking after only 3 years 🙁

[cessna]

Re: Hotpoint RFA60 freezing problems, coolant leak?

From what you have said it points towards a system fault.
Needs an engineer to break into the system and check for gas leaks/blockages.

[MrFrosty]

Re: Hotpoint RFA60 freezing problems, coolant leak?

Update on Situation:

Just had Hotpoint Service Engineer out and he wasn’t too sure what it might be. Suspects either an electronics fault though more likely to be a partial loss of gas or partial blockage in the system as it is still managing to keep the correct temperature…although the compressor is running continually 😡

Having waited just over 7 days for him to come out I wasn’t too pleased when he said he didn’t have a spare control board so would have to send someone back out again in another 9 days time.

Will provide another update in due course.

[MrFrosty]

Re: Hotpoint RFA60 freezing problems, coolant leak?

Further Update:

I’ve now had the pleasure of my 2nd visit from Hotpoint Service Engineer.

He re-gassed it as he suspected it was low on coolant. Upon switching it back on it started to frost up on all the evaporator coils and the condensor started to get hot at the back, more so than it has been of late.

Things were looking promising, only for 36hrs later to find it has still not got much below -5C if that, as a few times it has been at 0C. Although the compressor is still running continually, it only seems to actually be getting cold inside the freezer for 30 minutes at a time or after it is switched back on after unplugging it.

I’ve tried to let it work without interferring too much so have twice unplugged it, left it for 30 minutes or so and then plugged it back in. Both times it started to freeze and then after a short period it stopped freezing again. I think this must be also happening at various other intervals as when I inspected it after its first 24hrs of uninterrupted operation, it was evident from the icicles hanging down inside that it had frozen, melted and then re-frozen.

Does this point to a control board error or thermister problem as suggested earlier?

I think it may well be the end of the line for it but I have my 3rd engineer scheduled for a visit in 4 days time so as its only cost me a fixed fee of £90 apart from the inconvenience of not having a freezer they can visit as much as they like.

I’ve been looking at suitable replacement in the meantime:

Either a Bosch KGV28V01GB or LG GCB369PVQ. I’m more interested in a larger freezer area and not too worried about the size of the fridge.

Bosch comes with a 2year p&l warranty so would I be better going with the Bosch or LG as I’ve heard good things about them too.

Any feedback would be helpful in my next purchase.

[Author]

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