Smeg Fab32 Fridge Not Working

[mark_r]

Hi – I am hoping someone can help with a little advice. We have a SMEG FAB32 fridge freezer and yesterday the Fridge and I think the freezer appeared to stop cooling.

There is still power to the unit (interior light comes on when door open) however the green light on the “freezer on” switch is no longer illuminated, although if I switch on the “rapid freeze” function the organe light still comes on. The fridge does seam quieter than normal although I just turned it off at the wall to see what would happen and I heard a compressor flutter to a stop.

Looked in the manual, and at the fridge faults section here and also did a quick search on the web to see what I could find without much luck. Does anyone know what could cause the “freezer on” light to go off? Is this indicative of a specific fault or could this be a number of things?

Reluctant to spend a lot to repair the unit as it is 14 years old so any help/advice would be greatly appreciated.

Mark

[SAMURI]

Re: Smeg Fab32 Fridge Not Working

If the unit works with the fast freeze on then it is most likely the thermostat needs replacing.

If the compressor runs but it does not freeze then it is a loss of refrigerant or compressor fault.

Bob

[mark_r]

Re: Smeg Fab32 Fridge Not Working

Hi Bob thanks very much for the reply. I suspect that the fridge/freezer don’t work when I push the fast freeze button, just that the fast freeze light comes one – the main green freezer light remains off.

Could a failty thermostat cause the fridge to malfunction and the freezer light to go off? The fridge appears to be warmer than usual and does not cool down even when I turn it right up.

Would any of the things you suggest cause the freezer light to go off even when it is switched on? From the manual it would appear that the light indicates freezer operation and should (and I think always has) been on permanently.

Thanks again

Mark

[mark_r]

Re: Smeg Fab32 Fridge Not Working

Hi,
managed to spend some time this morning further debugging the issue. So it would appear that

1) Both Fridge and freezer appear to be not functioning (with freezer on light off even though switch is in on position)
2) If I turn of “Fast freeze” the freezer does appear to get cooler according to the temperature gauge at the top of the unit.

What confuses me a little is why a thermostat fault would behave like this – surely a thermostat fault would affect either the freezer or the fridge not both? The freezer has a separate min/max to the fridge so surely they are not linked?

If they are linked and it is a thermostat fault anyone have any idea roughly how much this would cost to fix so I can get an idea of whether to just go buy a new fridge freezer?

Thanks

Mark

[Peter32]

Re: Smeg Fab32 Fridge Not Working

Hi, not that it helps, but I appear to have exactly the same fault (12 years old FAB32) which I noticed late on the 14th May.
I left the ‘Fast Freeze’ on all night and, somehow, the freezer started to cool the following morning. By 16:30 it was operating normally and did so until sometime in the night. When I got up this morning the freezer warning light was back on, and the thermometer showing about -5’C.

[Author]

Posts