A.R.S.E.

As I own and run a business that repairs:

Washing Machines
Air Conditioners
Microwaves
Vacuum Cleaners
Fridge/Freezers
Dishwashers
Stoves/Ovens/Cooktops
Rangehoods
Dryers
Coffee Machines (Commerical)

I can offer advice on how to fix/repair and what brands you should buy for each type. May take me a day or 2 to get back here to help, but I'm more than willing to give you guys a hand on whatever it may be.

Also can help with anything electrical:

Residential
Commercial
Industrial

So the offer is there. Just post in this thread and I'll help as best I can

- San

Where are you based Santa??

Vilante wrote:Where are you based Santa??

North Pole??

VTRacing wrote:

Vilante wrote:Where are you based Santa??

North Pole??

lmao

lol, Based in CQ. Gladstone to be exact.

My fridge has been not fridging stuff for a few days.. finally this morning I decided to move everything into the portable fridge (cos my milk went off ). The freezer seems to be working fine still though. I cranked up the fridge really high and tonight it feels cold in there, but I don't trust it. Its making a lot of noise, and looks like its been leaking some water out the bottom.

Its a westinghouse, probably about 7-8 years old now, I reckon i'll replace it with a bigger new one.. what brand do you recommend?

Stick with Westinghouse or anything by Electrolux (Westinghouse, Simpson, Electrolux) if you're buying new. Steer away from Samsung, Hitachi (Hitachi don't supply to Australia anymore for whitegoods, so DO NOT BUY). LG are a cheap and fairly good brand, but the after sales service and the company themselves are a bunch of pricks.

In regards to your fridge now, sounds to me that the freezer fan is either stuck, or stopped all together. Fridge/Freezer combo's use a fan in the freezer to circulate air into the fridge. The fact you said it's making a lot of noise means that the fan is probably hitting the ice that's building up due to the fact the it's not going into a defrost.

Repairing the fridge shouldn't cost you more than about $150 max (Not sure on labour charges in your area). It'll need either a defrost element and/or defrost timer. If you give me the model number (on the left/right side near the door in the fridge section) I can get you the part numbers and approx price.

Cheers mate, I'll have a look tomorrow. I chucked a thermometer in there and it was only 13 degrees, so def not working (it was only 14 in the house anyway)

A while back the little button that makes the light go on and off melted into place - so I think its just a piece of shit Theres no frost in the freezer so it must be defrosting?

How come the fisher & pykall (sp?) are so expensive

If it's a "frost free" then the little button that controls the light, also controls the fan.
Could be your problem.

If that's the case, the freezer could be all iced up behind the panel where you can't see & will need to be de-iced before it will work again.
After replacing the fan/light switch of course.

I haven't worked on fridges for 12 years but I used to work for Westinghouse/Kelvinator as a fridge technician for many years.

kwijibo wrote:Cheers mate, I'll have a look tomorrow. I chucked a thermometer in there and it was only 13 degrees, so def not working (it was only 14 in the house anyway)

A while back the little button that makes the light go on and off melted into place - so I think its just a piece of shit Theres no frost in the freezer so it must be defrosting?

How come the fisher & pykall (sp?) are so expensive

Fisher and Paykell are expensive due to the fact it's ALL electronically controlled.

The other thing it could just be the defrost timer is stuck. Here's a quick tip to see if it's the problem. Pull the fridge out of the wall and at the back panel near the floor, you'll see like a "worm" drive little plastic thing (Edit - Either yellow or blue). Get a screw driver and turn it clockwise and you'll hear it click it it's stuck and the motor/fan will start up. If it was stuck, get yourself a new one for about $60. Easy to replace, they just plug in.

Defrost timer turns the fridge off and switches the element on for a defrost, and as soon as it gets hot enough it switches a defrost terminator which is an open circuit unless the temp is -16C. So if the timer is stuck, it won't start the fridge back up until that terminator is cold enough.

Our 430L Westinghouse stainless steel bottom mount fridge died again this week and we've only had it for 2 years. After 12 months it just stopped cooling (can't remember the cause) but they came out and fixed it. Now 12 months after the first breakdown it started to randomly trip the power (didn't know what was doing it at first) and then the compressor died.

Electrolux came out today and fixed it again under warranty, but that's 2 lots of food gone to waste and rather than risk it again we replaced it with an LG side by side 581L with an extended warranty (just to be safe). I would still recommend Westinghouse to others, I just think we were unlucky and bought a dud

We plan on selling the Westinghouse to my sister for a super discounted price of $400 (retail was crap loads more than that I can tell you ). Although she knows the full history of the fridge so it's ok (it's currently working). Wouldn't really feel right selling it to some random though.

They dont make em like they used to! My dad gave me his old fridge which I use for beer out the back. It makes a lot of noise and the seals are pretty shit, but it keeps the beer icey cold!

With Electrolux and anything to do with Electrolux you can claim food loss under warranty. Just call 1300 363 064. You can claim food loss under warranty for Electrolux.

I took a pic of the back of my fridge. That white box on the left appears to have something snapped off on the little circle at the top right.. perhaps the blue/yellow thing you were talking about?




The fridge is a Whirlpool, not a westinghouse.. shows how much I look at it model number is B32DMCSWQN/WAU

Yup, it's on the left. It's white Have you turned it champ?

Turned it clockwise and it clicks once every rotation, The motor is already running, but stops for half a second and starts again with each click.

I don't mean to stick my nose in but I think Santaria meant to just turn it a little to see if it was stuck on defrost.
It's not really good to turn it & have the compressor switching off, then straight back on again.
It can struggle to start up against the pressure & overload.......worst case senario it could burn out the compressor.

Is the fan in the freezer running. It is that, that blows the cold air down into the fridge section.

So how did you go with the fridge kwijibo?

Bought a new one

Dunno what I'll do with the old one. Probably won't be able to sell it for as much as it costs me to fix it, so maybe some hard rubbish collection! shame cos it looks quite new still.

kwijibo wrote:Bought a new one

Dunno what I'll do with the old one. Probably won't be able to sell it for as much as it costs me to fix it, so maybe some hard rubbish collection! shame cos it looks quite new still.

Rip all the electrical components off it, and you have an awesome Esky for the weekend barbies

hehe thats true, but i have a large beer fridge, and a 60 litre car fridge used for that very purpose during bbqs - so its not really required

Raised Garden bed?

$80 then sell it for $250..... Could get more easily.

Its only a 300 litre or so whirlpool with a melted light switch.. But yeah, I could probably get more than $80 for it.. hmm

New fridge is in place, so had a chance to turn off the old one and see if maybe that fan was frozen into place. Still doesn't seem to work though. The fan that blows cold air into the freezer certainly works, but no cold air is making it down to the fridge.

I reckon I will try fix it if its cheap n easy.