[cgmisc2]

I know this is a very old post now, but as we still have a Hotpoint Mistral, that has been sitting in the garage diligently keeping things cold for many years, I though Id share my experience , just in case I’m not the only person in the world still using one of these.

Like many other (now old) posts in this forum, we had the freezing working fine at -22 and the fridge stopped working, for a while the fridge temperature was just a bit up and down, but after a couple of weeks it didn’t cool at all and stayed at ambient temperature.

Following the common advice for this problem, it seemed most likely that the problem was the yellow thermistor

So you can either buy one of these for £36 from several places – such as this one

https://www.buyspares.co.uk/product.pl?pid=1232683&utm_source=google&utm_medium=base&utm_campaign=products&gad_source=1&gclid=CjwKCAjw0aS3BhA3EiwAKaD2Zaf0hVvcxXcRlXnrtu_FNZL1LJ3kOtm-XRQRar67CZ3rGsWEpcL2BBoC0xQQAvD_BwE

Or you can do what Sputnik did in the post before this one – which is what I did. Maplins dont really exist any more but you can source the thermistor as a component from here:

https://www.switchelectronics.co.uk/products/4-7k-ntc-thermistor?variant=45339892515125

The thermistors are 55p each (but i still had to pay £3.00 post and packing) , so much cheaper than sourcing a complete new cable and sensor assembly. To install the fix, remove the old sensor assembly (yellow connector, black wire, disappears into a sponge lined hole with the other sensor cable, cut the end off with the sensor in it (the black nobbly bit on the end of the cable ) and then solder 2 of these thermistors in parallel, to the wires you’re left with (blue and brown) , cover it up with a bit of heat shrink tubing and reinstall – hey presto – working fridge again.

It took me a while to figure how to remove the thermistor – its behind the white plastic panel in the freezer section (8 screws) and then you have to remove the insulation and metal plate (this was a bit tricky when the freezer was cold as it was held fast by ice) . The sensible approach would be to turn the freezer off and let a defrost a decent amount before you do this, but I didn’t bother as we had items in the freezer I didn’t want to defrost.

I dont really understand how this fridge/freezer stuff works so I have no idea why a sensor that is embed in the freezer section causes the fridge not to work, but it clearly does.

So saved having to throw another fridge/freezer onto the scrap heap and pay hundreds for a new one, saved £36 it costs for a new sensor assembly and spent £3.99 plus 2 * 55p

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