Fridge not cooling after doors left open for at least 2 possibly 5 days. What should I do? Turn off for 24 hours? I have limited skills when it comes to repairing anything. Thanks!

The evaporator is iced over. Simplest solution is to shut the unit off, clear all items out of it and let it sit open for 24 hours. Afterwards, restart the refer and allow to run for 3 hours and check for proper cooling in the fresh food section.

Red light on for High Freezer Temperature Warning
or freezer not cooling, but fridge is and a lot of noise from compressor.
Also, fridge drain hole blocked, water in bottom of fridge.

This is a common fault in Hotpoint Fridge Freezers and can also happen if the door has been left open or has been a power cut.

1. Turn off fridge freezer, or at least turn down the freezer temp to minimum, though not ideal.
2. Open freezer door and remove all drawers.
3. Remove the back panel on the inside of the freezer. This is held in place with 4 screws, which might be 6mm hex head or star allen head. Pull the panel out.
4. Behind where the panel was, there is a cooling element for cooling, pipes, and below this a temperature sensor. If the fridge freezer is not switched off, then fold together a few layers of tinfoil and wrap around the sensor.
5. Use a hairdryer to slowly melt the ice. Melt it around areas where it appears to be hanging on, such as the corners of the cooling element or bolts, as well as any thin sections below the main block of ice around the cooling element, which will be supporting the main block. Use a plastic ice scraper to remove ice but not near pipes or sensor.
Warning: Be careful using electrics around water & melting ice & drips.
6. Below the cooling element, there is a drip channel & drain hole. If this hole is full of ice, pour a small amound of warm water down, leave for 10 seconds and pour a bit more until clear.
In the fridge, clear the drain hole in the same way.
Warning: Do not pour a lot of water down, as this water drains onto a tray above the hot compressor at the rear of the fridge freezer to be evaporated by the heat of the compressor and the tray will only hold a small amount.
7. When all ice is removed, dry all moisture. Put the shelves back. Close door. Turn on fridge freezer. Turn up the freezer temperature to your normal setting. Turn on fast freeze if available. After 1 hour, check with a thermometer. It should be cold enough after 1 or 2 hours.

When a refrigerator door is left open the freezer will continue to run to keep it cold and since it can't cool an open area it will freeze up on the inside, to resolve this you will need to unplug the fridge and open the freezer door and allow the freezer to thaw completely, once it is thawed you can plug it back in and everything should go back to normal after a 24 hour period

If the freezer or fridge door remains open for one hour or few more hours by mistake, then to again get to its proper cooling cycle, it requires approx another 24 hours.And in that also, dont open the refrigerators doors for few hours.If you open, close it quickly.Once it cooling cycle again gets set, then you can use it like you use regularly.But approx it takes 24 hours to get proper cooling.-------- ------------------ But if its already more then 24 hours and there is very low cooling, then it can be internal defrost cycle issue.You will have to do manual reset procedure.The manual reset procedure is as follows:-------- First unplug the unit from main power outlet. Then empty whole unit completely. Then keep both the doors open. Wait for 24 hours. All the ice collected on the coils and in the freezer section will get melted. Clean the water from the sections. Then Connect the power cord of the unit to main power outlet after 24 hours/.Then set the temperature to normal in both fridge and freezer section. It will take near to 4 hours to get run in its proper cooling cycle. Then check,it will get set to its cooling cycle and work as normal.------------- This should help.Thanks.Helpmech.

Hello ctj.... Keep the door closed as much as possible and expect that it will take up to 24 hours to chill back down. If it has an icemaker expect at least 24 hours before any new ice is made. Joe

Thanks for choosing Fixya!

It is possible that the compressor oil had pumped into the system and is thereby causing problems in the heat exchange cycle.
Put the fridge off and keep it standing for more than 24 hours to allow the oil to come back to the compressor.
After the time limit put the fridge on and watch the noise of the compressor to be pumping earnestly with a good whining. If not check onthe main capacitor or relay( if clicking).
If there is no ICe formation in about 2 hours, it is possible that the compressor is weak , gas is leaked and needs an overhauling.

Most likely the thermostat in the fridge, especially if it read 5 degrees until you reset it. Possibly the compressor in the fridge side as this fridge has twin cooling, or the circulating fan in the back of the fridge is frozen, which is a common problem as well.
Easiest things to try is to see if the fan is frozen and check if the fridge cooling is actually working. Turn off the fridge, remove the shelves, remove the 4 screws that hold in the bottom cover and the 2 screws that hold the water tank in. Cover should then come out a few inches. Reach behind and unplug the 2 plugs and pull out the cover. If the cover doesnt come out easily it may be glued to the back of the fridge by ice. Leave for a couple of hours and gently prize it off. Check for ice around the fan and that the fan spins freely. You could try sitting the cover inside the fridge, plug it in turn it back on for a few minutes (be careful) and then open the door and quickly look / listen to see if the fan is still spinning (it stops when you open the door). Leave the fridge off for a while until the ice disappears off the coils. Turn back on for half an hour. The coils should be icy again. Anything else call Samsung. If the deal in your country is the same as mine the fridge has a 2 year warranty but in the fine print the sealed compressor unit has five years on parts only. You could get the unit replaced for labour costs only. Check your warranty card.

Hi Louis,

This is what has happened. Due to the door being opened for so long moisture which is naturally in the air has collected on your freezer coils. What you need to do is turn the whole thing off for at least 24 hours. Open the doors and put some towels around it to let the frost melt out.
All the air that gets cooled in your unit gets cooled by a fan that pulls air through those coils. Once the frost has melted out of them it should cool just fine.

I'll assume you don't have much food/items in the freezer section. Because you have the fridge set on the max cooling setting and the freezer set higher than the mid setting, it could be that you have frozen the cold air passage from the freezer to the fridge.

If you can, 1) remove all contents that would spoil; 2) turn off the fridge 3) open both doors and allow the fridge to manually thaw out completely (this will speed up the opening of the cold air exchange passage between the freezer and fridge, which is likely blocked and frozen solid. Have plenty of towels handy to soak up the water from the defrosting process,

After a FULL day of being left off and doors open to thaw out, check for any further thawing and dripping water inside, if present wait another 8 hours (you really want to get it thawed out the first time!) When that's done, reset BOTH temperature controls to the factory mid-point setting (5?) as marked on your control knobs.

The key to having a refridgerator run properly is to allow for it to run at the factory settings for at least 24 hours BEFORE you adjust the controls higher and/or lower for each section. Adjust it up or down in ONLY 1 setting increments so as to not cause ice build-up and freezing of the internal air exchange passages.

Also, as you've relegated this fridge as a garage "beer & backup" unit, make sure to keep the freezer as full as possible to make it run as efficiently as possible. You can freeze jugs of water and pack it with cheap thrift store bread to help it run correctly. An empty freezer has to work harder to keep just air at freezing temps. As such, it will pass much colder air into the fridge, and cause these types of freeze ups. By the way, turning up the temp controls only makes it worse and just results in a total "freeze up" inside the cabinet panels that you can't easily see or get at to rectify, hence the reason to shut it off and let it fully defrost.

When you're done, you should have your fridge back in action working like it should, but remember, don't rush temperature adjustments, even thou we all want those frosty beverages, it'll take a couple of days to achieve the desired "chill" you're likely used to getting when it was your primary fridge.

Hope this helps and Best Regards! Semper Fi!

turn it off for a day or two let it defrost and then turn it on. it just has frozen up the coil, or the compressor has heated up cause it was working to hard turn it of for a cople of hours to let the compressor cool