Samsung RL39WBMS fridge freezer stopped working – help pls

[madmum1972]

Hi all am after some advice

Purchased the samsung RL39WBMS fridge freezer (fridge top/reezer bottom) in May 2005.

Have had no problems with it until last week. My husband noticed in the morning that milk wasn’t cold, when he checked the all the food in the freezer compartment had defrosted 🙁

We switched it off and left it for a while, then switched back on, but all it does is click.

We had moved house about 6 weeks ago, and although it was carried into house (not flat on back) we left it over 24 hours before switching back on. When switched back on it worked fine until last week, when it died without warning.

Does anyone have any advice as to what the problem could be? Would it be worth trying to fix, and if so how much would it cost??

I have seen on another site that samsung (esp side by side) fridgefreezers are notorious for design faults, is this the case here?

Surely it should last longer that just over 2 years.

Thanks in advance

[helo_75]

hasnt it got a 2 yr warranty?

and no, not all samsung fridges are giving problems, just the american style ones

if it clicks and dont start, often, its the compressor

good luck

[robocog]

Re: Samsung RL39WBMS fridge freezer stopped working – help p

Ours went odd as I have posted on here

Our heater had gone open circuit (80 odd for the part) …and to add to the frustration the ecu had developed a fault as far as could be diagnosed (a further 100 odd)
The engineer did state he had done several of these recently – and felt it was a software bug and not worth gong on with

(Estimated total cost spiralled to as much as a new FF after labour and VAT)

Looked for another replacement appliance and TBH didn’t see anything out there on the market that did what we wanted or actually looked like it would even come close regardless of budget (doors that wouldn’t open wide enough to allow you to open the salad tray type things – almost like they had not /actually/ been designed or even thought about before being put on the market – shame on you Hotpoint et al)

Samsung will definatley not see another penny of my hard earned – and I wish pox on the programmer if indeed there is a “timebomb” planted in the ECU as was suggested
(incidentally the replacement ECU is reportedly “different” confirming the original was “updated” at some point)

After a chat with several salesmen it appears that 18 months was a typical lifespan for a modern budget appliance and we had done VERY well to get 9 years out of ours

Replaced it with a second hand Smeg (for a lot less than a new modern “budget” model) with very little in the way of electronics – doesn’t self defrost or do any of the modern stuff – hopefully very little actually go wrong
I can live with defrosting it manually if it means getting a few more years from it

The old Samsung has probably helped fund an oversize and frankly ludicrus wedding dress by now and may evern be on its way across the waters to come back as a poorly designed Hotpoint or Beko with a short life span

I appreaciate non of my posting helps much – other than ECU price which it may or may not be

The click and nothing happening from the compressor could be a blown fuse or the start capacitor at fault
(the click- if it comes from the top of the fridge it could be the relay – if its from down at the bottom at the back it could be the compressor)

I believe the “new updated” ecu has fuses onboard (ours didn’t)
Its located in the top panel (2 screws from underneath – hidden by the fridge door)
With the 2 screws out you will need to lift the top of the plastic panel to get it to unclip

The panel then pulls forward enough to have a look and unconnect the wiring looms if required
The ECU board is located on the right hand side – be careful with the wires and connectors if unconnecting only pull by the plastic – not the wires

Fingers crossed its just a fuse gone bad

Regards
Rob

[robocog]

Re: Samsung RL39WBMS fridge freezer stopped working – help p

Incidentally – if you want the salad tray, water bottle or the glasswork (all in mint condition) give me a shout – we kept it “just in case” we found anyone wanting parts 😉
Knowing us we will never get round to putting it on eBay and it will end up being thrown away

Regards
Rob

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