Samsung RL41SBTB Chemical Smell?

[petethefridge]

Hi this is the first time I have had to post on this Forum but I’m stumped!
I have a customer with a 7 week old Samsung RL41SBTB it has a strange intermittent smell from the back of it,
Samsung have been out twice but can’t find anything wrong with it so won’t do any thing about it, to be fair to them the F/F is working fine,
I have tested for a refrigerant leak test OK, I have also cleaned the evaporator tray on top of the compressor just clean water there, every thing on its like new,
I was wondering if it could be some thing to do with the insulation giving off chemical’s as the sides of the F/F do get very hot,
its a very strong smell that gets right down your nose and throat I wouldn’t want it in my kitchen.

Thanks
petethefridge
Peter Heritage

[funkyboogy]

Re: Samsung RL41SBTB Chemical Smell?

have a look at the top of the compressor there will probaly be a sqaure strip of soundproofing stuck to it..when compressor warms up you get the smell..we have been to a few and simply removed it from compressor..
its a black sticky substance..

ally

[petethefridge]

Re: Samsung RL41SBTB Chemical Smell?

Hi I know a lot of fridges have some nasty stuff stuck to the top of the compressors, but this one has 4 very small aprox 10mm x 15mm black sticky pads and I did give them a good sniff they had no smell, not easy to get at you have to unscrew the 4 compressor bolts to pull and lean the compressor forward enough to undo the one phillips screw in the centre of the tray, by the way what is the insulation in these fridges? Thank you Pete

[kwatt]

Re: Samsung RL41SBTB Chemical Smell?

Could it be something on the defrost heater, either a foreign object or some bit of plastic from manufacture, burning as it cycles into defrost? Has anyone checked there’s nothing touching the heater?

That’s the only logical explanation I can think of for “intermittent” and chemical like. 😕

As it’s a frost free unit part of solving the mystery I expect is to ascertain where in the cycle you get the smell, that should massively help to pinpoint the cause. Or is it happening as the compressor cycles and not the frost free fan/defrost?

If it was foodstuffs (spillage) it’d be constant I’d imagine, same if it was a manufacturing problem which is a very remote possibility.

Samsung guys aren’t paid enough to spend too much time on it. 😉

HTH

K.

[funkyboogy]

Re: Samsung RL41SBTB Chemical Smell?

just remove plastic drip tray from top of comp , you can then easlily remove this pad..give top of comp a clean, that should do it,
i would try this before anything else, and like k says have a look at defrost heater

ally

[petethefridge]

Re: Samsung RL41SBTB Chemical Smell?

Yes i will pop back and remove the pads and heat them up a bit to see if they give off the same smell, the Samsung guy took the freezer apart twice and there is no smell inside the fridge or freezer,

[loopey]

Re: Samsung RL41SBTB Chemical Smell?

Check the compressor ptc relay had one do this when got down to temp and switched off relay would smoke for awhile giving off a bad smell changed ptc all ok again
phil

[Author]

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