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Spare main board has gone to a good home via eBay (half price / £55) and buyer reports it has fixed his fridge. I love a happy ending. It’s the circle of life…
The first replacement (didn’t work) came from an eBay seller so probs not very useful! Although I think an ebay part where the big number stencilled on the motor was a match would stand a better chance. My original was “7”, replacement was “12”, but the seller listing said they were compatible. My fridge is one of the old ones and the only cheap “7” motors I could find were in Australia or China!
The second motor – the one that worked – was an exact match for the original and came from from https://www.samsungspares.co.uk/. £60 versus £20 for the ebay one, but cheap / not working isn’t good value! If your replacement motor looked the same as the original but had a different part number / big number stencilled on motor it could explain it not fixing the problem and the right part may.
Have sorted mine – first replacement fan motor (eBay, seller said was a match) was not compatible with my mainboard, second replacement (OEM, matching part no) works fine. Looks like pre- and post-2006 fan motors are different / not compatible, as is the case with the main boards. From your serial no, looks like yours is a post-2006 so may be worth checking the replacement fan you got was an exact match. It’s all a bit of a mess – the three fans in this fridge have three different part numbers on the diagrams, but when you look closer the two in the fridge and freezer appear to be identical. The compressor fan motor looks the same but has a different spec. Pfft.
Mystery solved. Long journey to a simple answer: despite eBay seller’s assertion, new fan motor was not a suitable replacement for the failed one. When I replaced (again) with an OEM motor matching original part number (DREP3020LA, large “7” stencilled on motor) everything was fine, including when I swapped back to the original main board. OEM motor was 3x the price, sadly.
To unscramble what was going on I got hold of a simple oscilloscope to look at the pulse-train representing motor speed. The original motor was outputting only the tiniest of signals even when powered up on the bench – so signal amplifier internal to the motor package had failed. The first replacement motor produced a nice square wave on the bench but once connected to the mainboard the waveform became a squashed sawtooth – clearly not recognisable to the controller. The OEM motor produced a good amplitude square wave before and after connection.
Looking back at the first replacement motor, the seller claimed it replaced both types 12 and 7 and it was a physical and connector match for the original. However evidence suggests maybe different internal electronics for the speed sensor circuit in the 12 versus the 7. My guess is that Samsung changed both the mainboard circuit and the motor with the 2006 revision. No idea why, probably to improve reliability of the speed signal. Creates a big PITA problem though, as it makes main board and motors non-interchangeable, and makes the use of non-OEM motors a bit of a lucky dip.
First replacement motor has gone back for a refund, main board is on eBay as supplier (quite reasonably) doesn’t take PCBs back once they have been fitted, and had been quite clear about that up front.
