Samsung Residential Fridge Problems

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Jazmynsmom

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We bought a 5th wheel and we live in all year round in South Dakota. This is our first winter. It has been COLD. We had a Samsung fridge in our place when we bought it. It stopped working so we replaced it with the same one, just a couple years newer. This one doesn?t like to stay cold. We had to put a thermostat on the shelf just to know what the temperature is because the ones on the front of the fridge are apparently very unreliable. We don?t know how much insulation we can put around a fridge in a 5th wheel. Saw in a website that they can?t get too cold, so we put a space heater near the bottom and that isn?t working either. Someone please help!!!
 
What kind of problems are you experiencing? Why are you putting a heater? What is the temp inside the fifth wheel?
 
It's true that compressor fridges generally don't function well in extreme cold - reports of lack of cooling on garage or back porch fridges are common. Often the problem is actually the thermostat in the fridge, which thinks everything is cold enough insideand simply doesn't start the compressor cycle. The freezer then warms up to fridge temperatures.

Presumably your 5W is heated for use, so the fridge should be warm enough unless the installation method has left the backside open to the outside (the way an RV absorption fridge is installed).

The install method must also provide for good airflow under the fridge and back out to the RV interior, thus dumping the heat extracted from the fridge and cooling the compressor as well.  Is this lack of cooling something that started in the severe cold, or was it doing poorly all along.

Tell us more about the fridge and its installation, and also where this heater is placed.

Meanwhile, here are some tips on using fridges in uninsulated spaces:
http://www.3goodones.com/3-things-to-know-before-buying-a-garage-refrigerator-freezer/
https://www.familyhandyman.com/appliance-repair/refrigerator-repair/how-to-make-a-garage-refrigerator-work/view-all/
 
Have you called Samsung Customer Support and/or scheduled someone to come out to look at it?  There's a lot of diagnostics that can be run from the front panel of the fridge without having to pull it out of its enclosure.  Maybe a thermostat re-calibration is all that is needed.

If your outdoor temps have been very low it's possible that the fridge is sitting in an environment lower than its rated operating temperature range.  For example, I think GE recommends that its refrigerators not be used in an environment less than 60 degrees.  In an SD winter, it's quite easy to imagine that the back and sides of your fridge are dealing with temps a lot lower than 60 degree.

 
If your outside vents are still open it maybe to cold where the compressor is located,easy to fix by just closing them off for the winter. What happens when the compressor part of the refrigerator is to cold the the compressor can't generate enough heat to build up pressure in the system so you get low or no cooling.

Denny
 
Gary RV_Wizard said:
The compressor emits heat as it squeezes the gas back into a liquid again.
Click to expand...

To say it slightly differently, mechanical refrigeration is based on the fact that it takes energy (heat from the food inside) to change the refrigerant liquid into a gas and that same heat is released when that gas is turned back into a liquid by the compressor. 

Although I did state that some refrigerators have suggested minimum operating temperatures, I can't come up with a convincing explanation of why extremely cold outdoor temperatures would cause the fridge not to cool.  Contrary to a previous post, I don't think it has anything to do with the compressor "building up enough pressure"; the pressure is generated mechanically and shouldn't be affected by the ambient temperature.
 
If the unit came with a residential refrigerator from the factory there was no need for outside vents.  If the unit is heated for everyday living there should be no problem with the refrigerator related to outside temperature.
 
docj said:
To say it slightly differently, mechanical refrigeration is based on the fact that it takes energy (heat from the food inside) to change the refrigerant liquid into a gas and that same heat is released when that gas is turned back into a liquid by the compressor. 

Although I did state that some refrigerators have suggested minimum operating temperatures, I can't come up with a convincing explanation of why extremely cold outdoor temperatures would cause the fridge not to cool.  Contrary to a previous post, I don't think it has anything to do with the compressor "building up enough pressure"; the pressure is generated mechanically and shouldn't be affected by the ambient temperature.
Click to expand...

I was in the refrigeration business for years and spent many hours getting outside units to run in cold weather, when its cold the refrigerant will not turn boil off into a gas so the compressor can't build pressure.  On commercial units we had controls to compensate for the cold but a household refrigerator is designed to run in warm rooms so they have no way of compensating for cold weather.

Denny 
 
If you are going to install a residential refrigerator in a rv there are a few things you will have to keep in mind.

1st  don't use one that uses the case for condenser, it's the type that the case gets warm when running. In most cases there isn't enough free air movement to cool the unit.

2nd  If you use one with a external condenser up the back it will need air movement in the summer by keeping the external vents open but in extremely cold weather they will have to be blocked off.

3rd  If you use the type that has the condenser under the unit with a blower motor to draw room air into the condenser and exhausts it back into the room just block off both vents. This is the type that is used when you order a rv with a residential frig.

The reason refrigerators stop working in the winter in a garage is because the temp control is in the lower part of the box and because the garage is cold the temp control keeps the compressor off causing the freezer to warm up and if its really cold the lower section may freeze.

Denny

Denny
 
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