Liebherr fridge light heating fridge up

[jondude]

I recently bought a Liebherr CUP 3153 freestanding fridge/freezer and i noticed that occasionally i’d take something out and it would be warm – melted if it were chocolate or margarine for instance, despite the fridge being on its coldest setting. It took a week to work out that the light was rather hot, and in fact whenever i open the fridge the light was already on (by peering through the gap in door). In fact the light is on all the time apart from the few minutes just after you close the door, and this is heating that region of the fridge up. I put a thermometer on the glass shelf above it overnight and it was at 28C the next morning.

I rang up Liebherr and they sent me a lower wattage lightbulb. This reduced the temp to 25C but otherwise didn’t help much. They then sent an engineer out who claimed to have fixed something but in fact made no difference.

They’re now claiming that this is a standard feature on most of their fridges – the fridge is on (i.e. actually cooling) nearly all of the time and when it is on the light is on.

This seems ridiculous – whilst the fridge is attempting the reduce the temperature, the light is simultaneously heating it up. The shelf above the light is actually warm to touch.

Has anyone else with a Liebherr fridge experienced something similar? Does anyone have any ideas as to what I’m supposed to do now?!?

thanks,

jon

[Dave_Conway]

Re: Liebherr fridge light heating fridge up

This doesn’t sound correct at all.

I know some fridges use the lamp to aid the defrost process when the unit has cut out, but are you sure they are telling you that the light should be on constantly while the motor is running ?

Dave.

[jondude]

Re: Liebherr fridge light heating fridge up

That was their story the last (3rd) time i called them. I’ve spoken to a different person each time, so it might just have been one person’s not necessarily correct understanding of their fridges. I’m going to call them again this afternoon and see what they say this time.

I think at least twice they’ve told that the light comes on when the fridge kicks in, which itself seems odd. Also i found that removing the lightbulb stopped the fridge from working, so the two do seem to be connected at a fairly fundamental (and pointless) level.

It’s otherwise a perfectly good fridge; it just seems to be deficient in it’s ability to cool its contents, something i consider to be a fairly important function for a fridge.

jon

[jondude]

Re: Liebherr fridge light heating fridge up

I’ve just spoken to a “service manager” who explained that the fridge has an ambient sensor which if the the temp outside the fridge drops below ~18C then it switches the light inside the fridge on. The purpose of this being to fool the thermostat and cause the fridge “motor” to switch on. When this happens the inside light helpfully switches on.

The rational behind this is that if the ambient temp drops too low then the fridge thermostat will not kick in and the fridge will not keep its contents cool. This “feature” is supposed to fix this.

I think I’m going to have to send it back. Presumably I can do this even if i have been using it for 1.5 months?

jon

[Dave_Conway]

Re: Liebherr fridge light heating fridge up

Ah, now that makes more sense.

I assume then the unit is positioned in a garage or other place where the temperature is below 18C ?

This would be the case for any unit, the thermostat will not operate correctly at these ambient temperatures, Liebherr have just had the foresight to try and overcome it.

Even if you could return it, which is unlikely, any replacement would either not work correctly or may have a similar system built in unless it were positioned in a warmer enviroment, it will of course not be effected during the warmer months.

Dave.

[jondude]

Re: Liebherr fridge light heating fridge up

It’s actually in my kitchen, which since it’s only occupied from 7pm-midnight i usually leave the heating off. 18C seems like a rather high temp to be taking this sort of drastic action.

Regardless, if the light didn’t come on then it wouldn’t be a problem. it’s the light which is heating the fridge contents up, at least in it’s immediate vicinity.

My previous fridge, a cheaper Bosch model, had no such problems.

Vexing…

jon

[admin]

Re: Liebherr fridge light heating fridge up

Some of the leibherr appliances do have the internal light staying on low whilst the door is closed,this is because to get the energy efficency rating they wanted it caused the thermostat to go into lock out as like when it is in a low ambient temprature situation.
the way that they got round this is by having the light go through a resitor that is in the thermostat housing.
this would not normally cause a temprature rise given though.i suspect that the switch assembly would be at fault or incorrectly wired.

bryan

[jondude]

Re: Liebherr fridge light heating fridge up

bryan,

i don’t quite follow your explanation of why the light comes on – could you just explain that again? and what is thermostat lockout?

thanks,

jon

[superfix]

Re: Liebherr fridge light heating fridge up

On Bosch fridge freezers with the auto summer/winter functions the light only stays on half power when the ambient temp drops.

This warms the stat or ntc but does not affect fridge temp unless things placed next to lamp housing.

However if ambient drops too low then the warmth from the lamp will not make any odds.

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