[pete69]

Re: Boy! do fridges hate me! (Zanussi ZX99/5W)

Thanks Martin.

The fridge has done the 3 lights flash and beeping a couple of times shortly after the repair above (within 36hrs approx) We are now 2 weeks later and it has kept quiet, portable thermometer shows -16 in freezer. So fingers crossed.

[pete69]

Re: Boy! do fridges hate me! (Zanussi ZX99/5W)

Guys, does anyone have a list of error codes for this appliance? (ZX99/5)
Had a good google, I got the hold in 4 buttons thing, but it seems some people are a bit more tight lipped than me 🙂

thanks

Peter.

[pete69]

Re: Boy! do fridges hate me! (Zanussi ZX99/5W)

Thought this post might help our users. I see it is 2009 when this problem started.
Well…you might like to know, since then the fridge freezer has bumbled along happily…with this fault on. Which according to much googling over the years was NTC (temp sensing thermistors) out of tolerance. Seemed to make sense.
Some 6 years later, with fault frequency increasing and the low temp warning now coming on occasionally, I thought I would tackle changing the NTCs.
You have to remove the back panel behind the freezer trays, this is where the NTCs plug in (there are two on a 4 pin connector). Then remove the screws holding the ‘roof’ of the freezer section and lower it down, this contains the conveyor heating element, which in my case had some ‘hot spot’ damage so I have replaced it.
Now the hard bit! You now have to remove the two screws at the front of the remaining evaporator tray and pull it forward and down (carefully). Easy to wreck your appliance at this stage, as you have to lower the evaporator and pull it forward to gain enough room to work on the bits you need, but not strain the connecting pipes….very difficult. Remove the insulation off the top (piece of expanded polyurethane)
You will now see the front NTC which samples the air temperature in front of the evaporator (next to the door switch), this is not to difficult the remove. However the back brown one is a bastard…this is threaded into the evaporator fins themselves on the left rear of the unit. Which means to replace it you have to tease the evaporator out of its enclosure enough to replace the sensor. [In hindsight probably easier to chop off the cable and leave it in and slide the replacement in alongside]
I could not do this without removing the white ‘back bar’ at the rear of this compartment, along with a few ‘pings’ of broken plastic from the clips as you have to do this blind.
Reassembly is also not straight forward as I had a little difficulty re-siting the expanded polyurethane which looks critical as the air ducts are above it and it’s sculptured for them. Pushing up and back together was difficult and took several attempts to re-seat the evaporator assembly and get the two screws back in. Also be careful to ensure the drain pipe at the back mates successfully and the smaller square bit is pointing down (heater wire from the conveyor element goes here). Once the evaporator enclosure is in the rest feels simple after that. I think the fact that the evaporator pipe running up the back got a little strained during the fight and was a bit springy going back did not help.
The above nightmare took me over 4 hours. Had I known I would have run for the hills or bought another fridge, it’s not for the faint hearted and I would have imagined and engineer would want a good wedge to do the job, not their favorite job even with experience I would think.
I will try and post a couple of pictures, if it fails they are here http://maxtec.dyndns.biz/fridge/31-10-15{e5d1b7155a01ef1f3b9c9968eaba33524ee81600d00d4be2b4d93ac2e58cec2d}20repair/
Since the repair it has been running about 4 hours and dropped to about -7 deg. The low temp has come on a couple of times, I am hoping its because the Mrs keeps opening the door and also chucking in a chicken to freeze probably didn’t help 🙁
If this doesn’t fix it, it’s 100{e5d1b7155a01ef1f3b9c9968eaba33524ee81600d00d4be2b4d93ac2e58cec2d} for the local dump…my backs knackered now

Peter.

[pete69]

Re: Boy! do fridges hate me! (Zanussi ZX99/5W)

Thanks for thr reply, I have not seen any symptoms, the fridge seems to be inert while beeping but then fine after restarting. I have placed a thermometer in the freezer, but, u guessed it, it has not done it since I did that.

Peter.

[pete69]

Re: zanuzzi zfk 47/52RF

Thanks guys, will check out on my next visit over.
If the area shown on pic is permanently warm, is it possible the defrost heater is stuck on?

Peter.

Oh, and the guy made clear that he did NOT guarantee a re-gassing

[pete69]

Hi Mark

Well, I ended up having to replace the thing. As it was impossible to go any longer without a reliable unit. However I still have it and will be having another look at it, when time permits.
these units don’t actually have a thermostat as far as I can see, they seem to sense temperature by using a thermistor, heat shrunk onto a length of wire (a process that seems to magically transform a 70p thermistor into a £15-25 product depending where you buy it) i still hope to repair it as a family member can use it.

Peter.

[pete69]

OK, thanks for your help Simon. I’m an electronics technician by trade, although I rarely practice bench repairs it these days.
Didn’t know much about refrigeration until last week, but thanks to study and the help of benevolent people like yourself I am learning quickly.
Thanks for your patience.

Peter.

[pete69]

Evap. fan DEFINATELY stays on when door opened, and, not sure, but always seem to remember it that way.
Evaporator heater and drain heater are disabled by me lifting a bit of track on pcb, because they are on all the time.
Compressor triac is shorted with a link
Both to get round this ‘permanent defrost problem’
So the pcb does not know’ I have disabled heaters and put compressor on.
Fridge now slowly cooling (thank God..)
Temp display still lying, unless power on/off, where it will tell the truth briefly.

Peter.

[pete69]

Simon, should the evaporator fan stop when the door is opened? cos it doesn’t.
The light goes out though…and the door is adjusted well.
It looks like 240v is just fed through the switch for the lamp, not sure how that can be used for signal levels to the LSI chip.
Fridge is still not cooling, maybe eveporator is frosted.

Peter.

[pete69]

Hmmm
Something new guys, running in ‘bypass’ as for last few days
After switching off to briefly to stop evaporator freezing up. after normal time, freezer close to correct temp, but fridge staying at +14 or more (chceked with proper thermometer) , fan running..oh er..

Peter.

[pete69]

Hi Simon
I guess the engineer took them.
First appearance of a fault was Compressor not running and contents defrosted. So I guess it could have been stuck in a defrost cycle back then…

Thanks Penguin45, I will check

Peter.

[pete69]

Many thanks Dave.
The machine is now permanently in Defrost mode, so I have had to apply the ‘bypass’ again.
Temperature shown for both compartments is wrong all the time now.
I am worried about throwing bad money after good, having spent over £100 with the engineer already.
I like the layout of this machine much better then the new alternatives and would gladly spend the £114 if I could be sure it would fix it.
However it seems likely I will go for a new one, dissapointed this only lasted 5 years, decent new ones seem very expensive considering the sum of the parts….
Thanks again for advice.

Peter.

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