Samsung – fix all faulty fridge-freezers for free
In the wake of the Beko fridge-freezers scare, if a burning smell was coming from your fridge-freezer, and you could hear the sound of plastic cracking inside, wouldn’t you be concerned? I would.
And I’d like the manufacturer to send an engineer out pretty damn quick to fix it for me – for free.
It might sound like a far-fetched problem, but according to Samsung’s technical reports, this is exactly what’s been happening with the RSH1 and RSJ1 side-by-side fridge-freezers. Defrost heaters at the back of the appliances get too close to a metal sheet, which can heat up, leading to cracks in the lining and burning.
We understand that this isn’t a safety issue but it’s certainly a design flaw – if there are undetected cracks in the lining, moisture will enter the insulation and performance will be affected.
What is Samsung doing to fix the problem?
Samsung have been fixing the problems by sticking aluminium tape over the cracks, while newer versions of the fridge-freezers have been modified and aren’t affected.
Samsung told us that if the faulty fridge-freezers were within the warranty period, they’d fix the problem for free. But when we asked them about out-of-warranty machines they told us:
‘If the product is no longer under warranty, then customers are encouraged to contact Samsung customer services for further advice and we will do our best to provide a satisfactory solution.’
So despite our requests, Samsung haven’t confirmed whether customers will have to pay for the privilege of having their faulty products fixed.
Fix the flaw for free
This just sounds wrong to me. It’s not like owners of the affected appliances have been misusing their products; it’s a design flaw which means some machines will need to be repaired, and Samsung have admitted as much in technical notes sent to their engineers.
When Samsung’s RS21 fridge-freezers developed a problem which led to them heating up, Samsung agreed to repair this problem for free under an extended warranty covering that fault.
Wouldn’t it be so much better if Samsung did likewise with their RSH1 and RSJ1 and could confirm that all out-of-warranty appliances would have this problem fixed for free?
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horatio
Our power started being tripped infrequently last week. Then over the weekend narrowed it down to our RSH1FBMH. Removed the interior panel in the fridge and it was all frozen up. Defrosted it and it still tripped the power.
This morning I called Samsung customer support explaining how their product was tripping my supply and it was electrically unsafe, also that we now have no fridge and had lost the contents of our freezer. After asking if I’d already had a home visit (which I’ve not) they said they’d come out and check it and replace up to 6 listed parts. If it was non of those, then they’d advise on the cost. No explanation of it being faulty etc. But here’s to hoping it gets fixed soon.
Kachbo
Hi,
I have a RSH1DTMH (purchased Nov 2008) and it has been making a noise for a few days and as soon as you open the fridge door it stops. I have also noticed that it has a lot of ice formed at the bottom.
Also the temprature is a lot warmer along the top then the bottom part of the fridge.
Having read all the posts above, I decided to call Samsung and to my delight, I have been offered a free repair as ‘a goodwill gesture’. This will cover 6 parts and have been told that it should remediate the issues I have been having.
pixie_ni
I too have been having the same problem with my fridge freezer, after reading your post I decided to call Samsung. They are sending out an engineer to repair free of charge. So happy with this result.
Gmac
I had the same problem with my fridge, samsung sent out an engineer and replace the faulty parts, well so I thought, my fridge now has the same fault which samsung are refusing to fix or replace. The fact of the matter is that I still have the same faulty fridge freezer and the modification they promised would fix the problem has not done so, has anyone else experienced this?
gary noble
I have a Samsung fridge freezer side by side it had the usual problem with the fridge which was fixed by samsung it is about 6 or 7 years old it has developed a problem with the freezer it has just stop working do u think samsung would fix it or would I gave to get my own engineer
Lor1
I have had samsung out many times now over the last couple of years and now we are having the same problems again however this time they dont want to know because the appliance is more than five years old and it has or was supposed to be repaired by them anyway after reading a couple of previous posts i decided to give these guys at agsrefrigeration a call and i couldnt believe it the reason i have been having all these problems is to do with the light switch which was slightly damaged thats why the fans werent running correctly which have now being replaced. To say the least i will be reporting back to samsung in regards to this matter how their so called approved engineers who i now have been lead to believe are contractors like everyone else managed to miss this on so many occasions causing me nothing but headache over the years.
sam
I have sent two recorded letters to this company with reference to the faults on my 4 year old side by side appliance, the last one five weeks ago. They must be vert busy dealing with this model as as of today, still no answer. I WILL NEVER BUY A SAMSUNG PRODUCT EVER AGAIN.
Xhell
We had the dreaded noisy fan, temperature too warm, ice build-up problem on the fridge section of a Samsung American style side by side fridge/freezer. It is a RSH1NHSW model purchased in Ireland in September 2009 costing €700. Although I was aware of and had previous experience of poor performance of Samsung equipment, we purchased this unit because the dimensions fitted (just) the available space, the colour (white) matched our other kitchen equipment and lack of an ice dispenser was also what we wanted. Had there been another make with this specification, we would have purchased this instead.
Eighteen months later and we loose the food contents of the fridge due to a warm temperature and ice build-up. So we execute a full manual defrost and all is good for a few months and then the noisy fan and we loose the food contents again. So then we get into a routine of planned manual defrosts every quarter but by late 2012 even this does not restore the cooling performance. It was time to do some research and it became apparent very quickly that this is a design issue with multiple models of Samsung fridges that has gone on for many years, so much so that there are various third parties offering DIY repair kits. There have been lawsuits and massive product recalls with some units allegedly exploding.
The Samsung website which is endlessly patronising was no help to me because it insisted that I submit the serial number of the unit. The serial number is not on any of the enclosed documentation and can only be found apparently on the lower left hand side of the unit. In my case, I could only access this be de-constructing some of the built-in section of the kitchen and I was going to incur additional cost to do this and make it good afterwards.
So I called Samsung. This was fun (not). It took three attempts and many hours to get to talk to someone. They tried every trick in the book to avoid one to one contact – well you would I suppose if you have sold hundreds of thousands of faulty units to now irate customers around the globe. Well again, the serial number was asked for and I explained my difficulty in getting it as above but I also explained that I had documented proof of purchase. This cut no ice (pardon the pun) with them and I was basically told – no serial number, get lost. I asked what was the probability that they would give me a direct replacement so I could assess if it was worth kitchen de-construction to get the stupid serial number, again I was dismissed with no answer.
I reconsidered my options. Getting a new unit from another maker would cost me €1000 or so when I add in the required kitchen modifications. Appliance DIY Repairs in the UK (http://www.appliancediyrepairs.co.uk/) offer a whole range of Samsung repair kits and for my model the cost is £133. Delivery is free in the UK but is extra to Ireland so this is expensive but for me it was potentially my least worst option. I am pretty technical so fitting the repair kit was not going to be an issue. The really neat thing for me was that the repair kit could all be fitted within the fridge compartment without the need to access the back or sides so I did not have to move the unit and incur additional kitchen modification costs.
I found Andy at Appliance DIY Repairs extremely responsive and very helpful and dealing with him in contrast to Samsung was chalk and cheese. The repair kit includes an apparently improved evaporator cover with fan, evaporator heater with thermal fuse and a defrost sensor which (and this is critical) you install in a different location to the original. It comes with an excellent set of installation instructions. Anyone that is reasonably handy should be able to fit this kit but you need to set a full day aside for it. It can take quite a long time to get rid of the ice build up. I used two hair dryers blowing close to the evaporator cover (but not touching it as this will melt the plastic) to get the cover free and I had to pour boiling water on the drain hole at the bottom of the evaporator for hours to get this clear of ice. The unit has been working fine since repair but I cannot vouch for the long-term effectiveness of the repair kit until more time passes. Given that the repair kit is also made up of Samsung components, I have no confidence that it is a permanent fix.
I estimate this Samsung mess has cost us in the region of €400 so far when I include the two batches of food wasted. In fact we have never had a good Samsung product. Our first Samsung product was a CII-5361AT/MIC television bought in November 1996. From day one had a faulty circuit board and the TV had to be hit slap here and there every other day to get a picture. The current crop of Samsung TV’s also seem to have loads of issues even on their high end units. Just Google Samsung TV clouding and banding to get an idea.
We managed to avoid Samsung products for a decade until our second Samsung product which was a DVD-VR320 VHS/DVD recorder bought specifically to archive VHS tapes to DVD in April 2006 as it was the only one available locally. The VHS deck was terrible and it made awful grainy DVD’s from the VHS tapes. The vendor (Currys) allowed to me trial their display unit but it was no better. Then I read the professional reviews and found that they had the same issue – the terrible VHS deck was not just a fault on mine but a “design feature” of all of them. It was utterly useless and sits gathering dust in the attic. We imported a Panasonic DMR EX95 VHS/DVD/HDD recorder to do the job. It is a class box and I now use it as a PVR for recording TV programmes from a set top box and archiving them to DVD.
So our third Samsung product, the poorly designed and very unreliable RSH1NHSW American style fridge/freezer will be our last.
WE WILL NEVER BUY ANOTHER SAMSUNG PRODUCT EVER AGAIN.
We are careful users and tend to operate stuff by the book. Thankfully over the years other appliances we have owned (brands like Bosch, Electrolux, Zanussi, LG, Belling, Mitsubishi, Philips, Panasonic, Sharp, Sony, Apple & Dell) have given us good service and value for money, only Samsung has not. What is amazing is how Samsung gets away with this. It seems to achieve it by being highly innovative in avoiding after-sales service and in avoiding it’s customers. It’s a shame it does not deploy the same level of innovation in the design and build of the products.
Buyer beware.
Pat
Better to get and engineer out than someone over the phone guessing what the likely cause could be has a friend of mine found out when he tried to replace the part himself he ended up damaging the appliance beyond repair when the pipework ruptured and when he spoke to samsung they said their have been numerous cases of this happening all this just to save a few pounds in the end he had to shell out for a new on also the part despatched was incorrect.
Melanie kirkham
I have had the same problem as everyone else with my fridge freezer it is 4 years old, I contacted samsung via their website and within 4 days they had been out and fixed it free of charge. I cannot fault their customer service approach.