RB1844SW freezing food in refrigerator portion and major ice buildup behind the crisper drawers. Found Something Weird! Maybe Alien!!

[pilgar1908@gmai]

Model Number

RB1844SW

Brand

Samsung

Age

More than 10 years

My RB1844SW was purchased used, two years ago, and it worked fine until recently. It started freezing food in the refrigerator section and had major ice buildup below and behind the crisper drawers. I read all the forums, watched all the videos, and proceeded to fix it. First I carefully cleaned the coils underneath, they were pretty dirty but cleaned up nicely. I carefully removed the ice buildup below the crisper drawers. The same issue was present after doing this. So I removed the back panel and the photos show what I found. It looks like the drip tray has a heater element built into it, and the drain did not seem to be completely clogged. But the weird, alien thing was just sitting in the drip tray and seemed to come from the top of the coil, the top was covered in a sticky foil tape and underneath the tape some sort of black foam or goo. So my question is what is this stuff, am I going to grow a third eye and how should I proceed to repair this fridge?

 

[pilgar1908@gmai]

Just so everyone knows, I did find the thread that actually shows my exact fridge, but the only answer to that post was someone asking where the defrost element was as if it was missing. After that, there were no further responses! With some help I think I can fix this thing, I just need to know what to go after.

 

[dashriprok]

That black goo was once a 2"x 2" adhesive patch that was wrapped around the junction of the capillary tube and the evaporator. Your defrost heater melted it. Remove the goo as best as you can so it doesn't clog the defrost drain.

 

[pilgar1908@gmai]

Thanks, I don't see a defrost heater as a separate tube. There seems to be only one tube that maybe defrosts by (layman here) running in reverse like a heat pump. Did it get super hot to melt that adhesive patch and if it did should I be concerned about that issue? Also do you know how to test the fan that is in the panel I removed? I have a multimeter and know how to use that, but I do not know how to get the fridge to turn the fan on. My thought is that if the fan wasn't working it might not circulate the cool or defrost heat and might not remove heat from the coil during defrost such that it became hot enough to melt the adhesive patch.

 

[pilgar1908@gmai]

Oops, I now see the heater coil, it is not a heat pump! I also remembered about the capillary tube so the part that has refrigerant in it has one large tube that enters the refrigerator compartment and one very small tube (capillary tube) that enters the refrigerator compartment. I was confused by the capillary tube, I thought it was a sensor part. hard to see under the Black gooey mess!

 

[pilgar1908@gmai]

I tested the Thermal fuse and it is working, the thermistor is another issue, I can get to the wires to connect my test probes but the thermistor itself is mounted directly into the metal fins of the evap coil. I don't want to break it by removing it. I get a reading of about 5.5 k ohms and it is about room temp. (the fridge has been unplugged for three days) but I cannot easily get the thermistor end into a glass of ice water. I held an ice cube against it and it went up to about 8.9 before the cube melted away and I grabbed another, but I cannot even with much effort keep an ice cube next to the thermistor to get a proper reading. Does anyone know of a trick or is it really just a destroy and replace item?
On another note, if I get this working do I need to replace the insulating adhesive aluminum tape that surrounded the evap coil and heater parts.

 

[Jake]

Hi,

Here's your parts diagram: Parts for Samsung RB1844SW: Refrigerator Compartment Parts

Which sensor did you ohm test? #6 or #13?

Jake

 

[pilgar1908@gmai]

I tested #6 I did not even see #13. But will get to testing it right away. #6 was the one that I was unable to get into ice water but I am thinking of using a paper towel soaked in ice water to see if that will give me a reading at close to 32 degrees F.

 

[Jake]

Got it!

Keep us posted.

Jake

 

[pilgar1908@gmai]

Okay, I tested # 13 after removing it from the panel, it was about 5.5K ohms at 70 F at the temp of water and ice in a glass it was reading around 12.5 to 13K ohms.
On #6 It reads 5.5K ohms at 70 and because I could not remove it without damage I soaked a folded-up paper towel in ice water for 8 minutes then wrapped it around the sensor as best I could. The ohms reading started to increase rapidly but only got to about 9K, thinking this was because the paper towel was not holding the cold I took a can of air and turned it upside down to be able to freeze the wet paper towel in place. After doing this my meter read from 12.5 to 13K ohms.

Before I started this I ran the Samsung diagnostics and everything checked out fine. I am going to try to test the Refridge Fan in the back panel. This model has a heated tray that sits below the evap coils such that water won't freeze on and should go down the drain properly. My ice below the crispers might be because of the black blob of tape/insulation Goo that dripped off the aluminum tape that was around the evap and capillary and heater coils in the top right-hand corner of the Assembly. Would any of these drain/ice issues explain the front panel reading 44F but inside it was hovering around 30F?

 

[pilgar1908@gmai]

I put it all back together and doing so I saw the fan work, the coils get frosty all over and there were no codes that popped up in the display panel. I tried a forced defrost of the refrigerator portion to see if I could feel any heat from the heater element in the drip pan, but the results were inconclusive. I might have felt it get a little warmer than the coils. But I am not sure I was really in defrost mode because the panel just went back to the two temps for the freezer and fridge, I thought they should have stayed showing something else. Anyway if it fails this test I will be replacing the main board and buy the temp sensors just in case. I like this fridge it was keeping the freezer at -12F and the Fridge at 36F just fine until just recently.

 

[Jake]

Rick posted the Samsung refrigerator thermistor chart here:

Samsung RF23HCEDBSR/AA refrigerator freezing food

My Samsung French Door refrigerator is freezing Food: RF23HCEDBSR/AA is the model number. There is no more listed after the /AA. The refrigerator keeps freezing food. I've adjusted the temperature via the display and even at 43 degrees it's still freezing food. I replaced the temperatures...

www.applianceblog.com

Its best to ohm test the thermistor(sensor) in a glass of ice water, waiting at least 5 minutes before ohm testing it.

I am not sure I was really in defrost mode because the panel just went back to the two temps for the freezer and fridge, I thought they should have stayed showing something else.

Here's the service manual: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1oReXQn2V5GS8GfpH5-K_MRRDcPaVQiF2/view?usp=sharing It should give the steps for forced defrost.

Jake