What FF do you recomend ?

[mikeyman76]

Hi all

Im in a position to replace my horrendusly unreliable Hotpoint FF92 frost free fridge freezer.

Id like another frost free model, same sort of size as the Hotpoint.

What make would you recoment i go for ? Is LG any good ? or would a Bosch be a better bet.

I definetly do not want a Hotpoint though.

Mike

[hotpnt]

Re: What FF do you recomend ?

what was the problem with the FF92 they are usually a very solid reliable machine?

[don]

Re: What FF do you recomend ?

mikeyman76 wrote:.

What make would you recoment i go for ? Is LG any good ? or would a Bosch be a better bet.

I definetly do not want a Hotpoint though.

Mike

Hi Mike

Leave the LG alone would be my advice. Take a look at the Bosch KGN34X00GB which is about the same capacities as the Hotpoint. Comes with a two year warranty. There are others in the frost free range 😉 Also the Siemens appliances which come from the same stable as Bosch. Try the KG32U123GB or if you want stainless steel then the KG34NX90GB the latter has a five year warranty.

HTH

Don

[mikeyman76]

Re: What FF do you recomend ?

Dear Hotpnt

Its the Mistral range of frost free. Its had constant thermistor replacments since new. Its noisy and now the display constantly displays E2 and tyhe machine runs for about 20 hours constantly a day. The freezer freezes everything totally solid. Icecream has to be left out for 30 mins before it can be scooped.
Even with a total defrost (ironic as its a frost free ) the machine ices up within a week, then the cold air circulation fan gets noisy as ice forms round it.
Im totally disapointed in Hotpoints lack of modification in thermistor design. Its a design problem, as moisture tracks up the inside of the wiring insulation via capilary action, then shorts out the thermistor, causing the various faults.
Im really peed off with this and never want to own another hotpoint fridge freezer. Its a shame really as their iced diamond range were brilliant, my mum and dad had one for 20 years and its still running, never had a problem.
Ok rant over. ill look at the Bosch, but have read on here that there have been probs with them too, are they ironed out now ?
Or would i be better to get a non frost free model ?

Mike Burton

[don]

Re: What FF do you recomend ?

mikeyman76 wrote:
Ok rant over. ill look at the Bosch, but have read on here that there have been probs with them too, are they ironed out now ?

The only Bosch model with the problem is the KGN34V00GB, which is why to be on the safe side I did not mention it 😉

mikeyman76 wrote:

Or would i be better to get a non frost free model ?

A non frost free machine is easier and cheaper to repair, just depends how important frost free is to you.

Don

[hotpnt]

Re: What FF do you recomend ?

well i’ve never had that happen in the 7-8 years working on those type of frost free’s, who did your repairs?, sounds like you had a bad experience though

[Optimist?]

Re: What FF do you recomend ?

mikeyman76 wrote:… as moisture tracks up the inside of the wiring insulation via capilary action, then shorts out the thermistor, causing the various faults.
….Mike Burton

Hi Mike,

Good to see someone actually trying to understand the root cause of a problem. I’ve never actually looked at fridge thermistors in detail, but I wonder if the real prob might be water tracking up the leads and causing physical/chemical degradation of the ntc material itself?

I’d have thought that the condensed water would be sufficiently pure as to be very high impedance, and not be able to ‘short’ the sensor as such. I know that high-quality hermetically-sealed ntc thermistors are far from cheap, and seems like Hotpoint may have tried to cut some corners here that shouldn’t have been cut. Hard to look at the top ‘sticky’ thread and not think they’ve got something wrong…

Could also be excess economies in the circuit design/components associated with processing the thermistor signal, but replacement sensor curing fault would seem to rule this out, if that’s the general pattern. (Unless of course the circuit was overstressing the thermistor?)

[mikeyman76]

Re: What FF do you recomend ?

Well i was told by the Hotpoint engineer that came out to repair the machine that he had been told that moisture was tracking up from the plug end of the thermistor assembly.
He also told me that Hotpoint had tried to resolve the problem by adding a blob of glue at the thermistor end of the lead, unfortunately, this is nice and flexible at room temp, but at -26 degrees it tends to go quite hard and doesnt seal so well.

Incidently how do other manufacturers mount their thermistors ? Have Hotpoint just been really bad at design here ?

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