Figure 1: A woman is taking food out of the fridge.

Almost all families have their own refrigerators, and Samsung fridges have been outstanding. If your Samsung refrigerator is damaged due to the compressor, how should you deal with it? We will let you know the causes of failures and provide solutions.

Check the External Power Supply & Compressor Input Voltage

Check whether the power supply and the input voltage of the compressor meet the standard requirements (187V~ 242V). If not, you should take measures to adjust it to the normal range.

Figure 2: Samsung Compressor MSV4A1A-L1B.

Extremely Low Ambient Temperature

* 1~ 10°C

When the ambient temperature is too low (1~ 10°C), and the refrigerator is in manual compensation mode, you should turn on the compensation switch. If it is the magnetic temperature compensation switch, you need to check whether it is normal.

Due to the low ambient temperature, especially for the refrigerator with double temperatures and single control, as long as the compressor works even for a short time, the inside refrigerator will reach the predetermined temperature (1 ~ 10°C).

At the same time, due to the low temperature, the temperature of the refrigerator will rise slowly or fail to rise. The compressor has not been working for a long time, and the shutdown time is extremely long, resulting in the high temperature of the freezer, which can not reach -18 °C or lower.

* Lower than 0°C

When the temperature is lower than 0°C, you should stop using it. Because in this case, the compressor oil will be thickened and its lubrication performance will deteriorate.

In addition, the condensing pressure is low, and the refrigerant will not flow into the evaporator. So if you keep using the fridge, it may cause damage to the compressor.

Figure 3: The refrigerant is flowing through the evaporator.

Inspect the Temperature Controller or the Main Control Board

Firstly, you should check if the thermostat is pointing to the "0", if not, you then inspect whether the thermostat is under good conditions. In other words, you can adjust the thermostat to the strong cold gear ( or “7”) when it’s powered on. If the temperature sensor is in the box, you should use a hot towel to make it warm to observe whether the compressor is running.

If the compressor does not start, the thermostat may fail. You then can cut off the power supply and remove the thermostat to measure whether the power supply contact is connected with the compressor input contact by the multimeter ohmmeter.

If they are connected, the resistance will be zero. And the corresponding contact is measured according to the model of the thermostat and the parameter label.

Then you should check whether the sensing tube of the temperature controller is broken, cracked, or leaked. If there are any faults, you need to replace the temperature controller in time.

Figure 4: An ohmmeter.

For the refrigerator with the electronic control system, the multimeter that is powered on measures whether the input voltage and output voltage of the main control board is normal.

You should examine if the display screen shows that the compressor is working, all the sensors are working properly, as well as the connectors in normal contact. Besides, if the input terminal voltage is normal but the output terminal is not, the main control board may have a fault.

PTC Starter Failure

You should use a multimeter to measure whether the resistances at both ends of the running jack and the starting jack of the PTC starter are normal, and the resistance is between 16 and 50 ohms under normal conditions. If it is infinite or 0, the PTC starter may be damaged and should be replaced.

Overload Protector Fault

You should use an ammeter to measure the compressor's starting and running current to see if they are normal. The starting current is usually about 5 ~ 8 times the running current. If the current is normal but the overload protector is operating, the overload protector should be out of order, and you should replace it. Otherwise, it’s the compressor that has a fault.

Figure 5: Fridge compressor overload protectors.

Connections of the Compressor

You should check the connections of the PTC start protector, and reconnect it to have a test.

Compressor Winding

After using the multimeter to measure the resistance of the three terminals. If the resistance of the two terminals is zero or infinite, it will mean that the winding is short-circuited or open, and the compressor needs to be replaced.

Compressor Internal Failure

If all the compressor components are normal, but the compressor still fails to start, the overload protector operates (the measured starting current is too large), we will determine that the compressor cylinder or shaft is stuck. So you’d better change the compressor.

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