Whirlpool ART 471/A+/6 – freezer fine, fridge not cooling (much)

[Daniel Jones]

Hi folks,

I’m wondering if anyone has any sagely words of wisdom given that I’ve got a 12-year-old Whirlpool ART 471/A+/6 integrated fridge/freezer, in which the freezer appears to be working fine and the fridge is not. I’ve had a read of the general fridge diagnostics page, and I’m guessing it’s something to do with the compressor.

Symptoms: freezer is cold enough to freeze things, fridge only gets down to 15°C after 12 hours of operation (ambient temperature is 19°C). Fault was initially found after we’d been away for a few days and found a load of off food, and the fridge compartment at 16°C. There had been no power cuts.

We tried defrosting the freezer (which we’d let get into a bit of a state!), cleaning out the moisture outlet (which was minging), and dusting the heat-sink doodah on the back. Nothing appears to have helped. I can’t see any air vents in either the fridge or freezer compartment, so I’m guessing it’s not the sort where cold air is forced from one compartment to the other.

It’d be great to not have to scrap the whole thing when clearly part of the system is working.

[electrofix]

the frezer maybe freezing things but by how much ?

to be safe food has to be -18 or below chances are yours is not getting there

as heat pump systems age they lose efficiency and struggle to maintain temperatures

from the description yours is an older system. in the older systems the gas is sent to the freezer first and only when the freezer is cold enough is there any gas left over to cool the fridge. my guess is there is never any gass left over so your fridge never cools

with warmer weather make sure there is plenty of ventilation around the unit as if it over heats it can cause similar problems

Dave

[Daniel Jones]

Cool, thanks for taking the time to reply.

I put a better thermometer in the freezer (first one I tried was a cooking themometer that didn’t have a negative scale, and promptly broke!) and it seemed to get down to -18°C.

The compressor was quite hot, and I wouldn’t have wanted to keep my hand on it for more than five seconds. I’m guessing this is another indicator that there’s not enough gas, and the compressor is working overtime to try and compensate?

[electrofix]

the new ones are a lot more efficient and with your compressor working overtime , and probably all the time its costing you money

Dave

[strombolinat@euckduck.com]

Hello, some really good info. Do you know if there is a compatible update to this built-in fridge freezer? Be grateful for advice. Thank you

[don]

There are plenty out there, it’s a 70:30 split integrated fridge freezer with sliding hinge system.

Don

[strombolinat@euckduck.com]

Thank you Don. I didn’t know if a replacement had to be like for like.

[Author]

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