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-   -   fridge freezer problem (https://ecorenovator.org/forum/showthread.php?t=5282)

gb484 05-03-17 12:37 PM

fridge freezer problem
 
No power to electrolux fridge freezer erf 2832. Stopped suddenly while working. Totally dead, no light coming on inside when you open the door, no green light showing on display to indicate it's on. Not making any sound as if it wants to start. Have checked all the obvious things. Power is going via the cord to the terminals inside but still nothing works. Have had a look at the control board, no obvious signs of any burning or faults. Have tried to check round with a multi-meter, and I'm not certain that it's getting any power. Have trawled through YouTube looking for a fix, and don't know what to do next, apart from call the repair man or buy a new one. How can I troubleshoot this thing?

jeff5may 05-04-17 11:05 PM

can you take pics of stuff and post them? Can't seem to find much of anything on the web. Is your unit part number 925771720?

gb484 05-05-17 11:27 AM

Many thanks for your interest, it is indeed the product number you quoted. I've had another look this afternoon, and have narrowed the problem down to the pcb, since when I feed electricity directly to the compressor, it will run, but still cannot get any lights to illuminate on the control panel or inside the fridge part. Power is not being fed back from the pcb to the compressor, but it will power up if I bypass the pcb, hence my diagnosis. Thanks again.

jeff5may 05-07-17 07:44 PM

OK, I did a little googling today. Your unit is electronicallly controlled, and has separate freezer and refrigerator compartments. Each compartment has its own evaporator. These units are notorious for losing their refrigerant, burning up compressors, and self-destructing control boards. So if you manage to fix it today, the unit may not live much longer before developing a different failure. Can't find squat for repair manuals on it. If you are lucky, there will be a mini-manual inside the unit somewhere.

Breathing new life into the control board is not a major pain for a competent electronics guy. These things are made just like a dehumidifier or wine cooler. Line power comes in and gets a main fuse for safety. The mains power is split off after the fuse. Full line voltage goes to relays and lights and such, a branch feeds a stepdown transformer or pulse transformer that powers the embedded controller. The secondary winding of the transformer feeds a rectifier or switchmode power supply that is regulated to produce a few different voltages. A lot of these boards have fuse resistors or pico-fuses in them, and if you don't know what to look for, they camouflage well.

Usually these boards have very few redundant components. Pretty much everything that is included serves a purpose, so jumping out parts to try to make the thing work is hopeless. Something downstream usually ends up getting roasted. You can check across the electrolytic caps for voltage: typically there is only 1 filter cap on each source. Look on the relays/contactors for the coil voltages and the main unregulated DC source will be close to this value. This unregulated source then feeds a regulator chip or circuit that then feeds the control buttons and micro.

If you really want to dig into the control board, please post some pics along with what you can see about interconnections. It would be way less painful to do a little troubleshooting, to see what happened to the board, and maybe fix it, than to pay almost the price of a new unit for another control board. You may end up frying another board in short order if the problem lies elsewhere. Ouch!

gb484 05-08-17 02:28 AM

Thanks for your very comprehensive and helpful reply which confirms our thoughts about not shelling out a load of money on a new pcb in case it gets fried, because the fault lies elsewhere. Will check again for anything that resembles a fuse downstream from the line feed (have not seen one so far) and try to post a photo. I think these units have a hard life, as one compressor serves two evaporators but I'm no expert. May try to salvage some parts for future projects before it goes to the dump. Many thanks again.

gb484 05-08-17 05:24 AM

1 Attachment(s)
Managed to get a photo. The live feed to the board is the black wire on the left-hand connector block. The brown wire on the same block feeds power to the compressor which will start if I bypass the pcb by inserting a jumper wire between the two.

jeff5may 05-08-17 11:35 AM

1 Attachment(s)
Yep, cheapest most simplistic board ever. I'm assuming there aren't a gazillion surface mount components on the other side. Looks just like the universal heat pump control board line Xringer turned me onto last year. The two 3 pin semiconductors on the left are your switching devices, the one on the right is a triac. Can't make out the other. ACST67S will handle 6 Amps max, way more than enough to run the compressor. I imagine the other runs the box fan. Stuff on the right is the brains.

Since you're not getting power to the box light and the display is dead, I would definitely look in the cabinet for overload and thermal fuses first. The thing may or may not have a step down transformer and or power distribution panel somewhere else in the box.

I found a PDF for a similar unit with extra control system stuff. I don't know what other models were similar to the one you have. I imagine Electrolux made some freestanding units that used the erf 1050 control board. In my experience, if you can get power restored within the chassis, that's a good day.

NiHaoMike 06-27-17 10:34 AM

Check the big blue capacitor. That's often a common failure point.

Xringer 07-12-17 09:24 AM

Be careful of those heat-sink clips on those two power 'transistor-like' devices.
There might be HV on those..

Check the 20 pin chip to see if any of the pins were accidentally bent underneath
the body of the chip. I've seen bent-pin-contact fail (open) after years in service..


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