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New house with built in fridge (Ignis couple of years old max) needs to be on full cold setting of 7 just to reach about 6-8 deg c.
I have completely defrosted it which made no difference and also had someone to look at it who replaced the thermostat which also had made no difference.
Any ideas what to try next, test gas pressure etc.
have you check temp with more than one thermometer? Could it be whatever your checking it with is out?
Sorry ignore me, just saw that you'd had work done on it so presume they checked it too.
Yep got two in at the moment both read about the same +/-1deg c
Pull fridge out and check cooling coil on back like a radiator isnt blocked with fluff, vacumn off and also round the compressor.
Also listen if compressor is working all the time, a sign of gas loss.Fridge tech can check pressure for leak.
Fridge is pulled out heat exchanger and all round compressor look clean.
It's not running continuously, but it is running for long periods, think it maybe doing the auto defrost thing every so often though.
Fridge guy is back on Mon so will ask to test gas pressure
How good is the ventilation around the radiator at the back? Built-in fridges have to have a more powerful compressor to cope with the poor ventilation.
Son of a refridgeration repair man. This will most likely be either loss of gas or the insulation has failed. Some fridge freezers use open cell foam that will pull moisture out of the air like a sponge if the protective skin on the back of the unit is punctured, this means the compressor has to cool both the inside and outside of the unit.
Summer is the normal time to notice these problems as the unit has to work harder.
Other common problem is brutal defrosting...have you or a previous owner punctured the inside of the cooling element by using a knife to defrost? Used to help my dad fix 10 of these a week in the summer hols.
As a short term 'help' fill the freezer up ( if its a fridge/freezer ) with bottles of water . Use old milk cartons and give them a squeeze before screwing on the lid.
If the compressor is tired or its repeatedly going into defrost mode the latent heat capacity of the ice blocks will keep the feezer part colder for longer .
Run it outside of its built in bit to see if its lack of ventilation, it won't cool if the air at the back rises in temp to match the temperature of the heat exchanger. It needs to be able to dump heat.
Also, it doesn't have separate controls for fridge and freezer? Ours has buttons on the front behind one of the doors, but they are for the freezer. The fridge dial is hidden at the back behind the yoghurts 🙂
CHB:
Many thanks for the really useful ideas ill pass then on to the bloke
Singletrack:
Nice tip cheers
To all:
Its been out of the cabinet for at least 4 days with no change in temp do not ventilation