Mitsubishi Fridge auto ice maker intermittent fault

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Gordy7

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#191345 1-Feb-2016 18:25

I bought a MR-C375C-W-A from Harvey Norman 18 months ago. 2 year warrantee.

The auto ice maker temporarily stopped working after 12 months and stopped working again after 18 months (just before Christmas) and did not recover (thru to mid Jan).

Diagnostic LED indicated, faulty connector wiring or faulty motor or faulty PCB.

Last week the fridge was transported over 100km to a refrigeration workshop.

No fault found has been found so far.

I am waiting for the workshop to follow up with enquiries with Mitsubishi.

If no fault is found HN say I will have to pay transport costs.

Estimated at $149 each way. Fridge purchase price was $1220.

I asked if I could upgrade the fridge to the latest model and pay a suitable balance.

HN say the fridge is too old for an upgrade.

In hind sight I should have taken a video of the LED fault status.

So I could be facing a $300 bill and with the prospect that the fault could recur outside the warrantee period.

Gordy

My first ever AM radio network connection was with a 1MHz AM crystal(OA91) radio receiver.

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#1483050 1-Feb-2016 19:12

Hind sight is good, at this point it looks like your are stuck with freight fees.

Best thing you can do is send a letter to HN.

Stating the date you noticed the fault, and what the fault code was.

Stating that should the fault re-appear a photo will be taken, the fridge should be covered as the fault was noticed within the warranty period and a refund of the freight charges you have had to pay will be expected.

not really much else you can do, I'm guessing HN stated that if no fault was found you would be liable for the freight. :(

Dunnersfella

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#1484015 3-Feb-2016 07:05

Nothing out of the ordinary in this scenario.

Proving intermittent faults is difficult at the best of times, Harvey's are doing what they can, the service agent (like every service tech I've ever met) want proof of the fault.

Videoing the fault is the key.

Patience is your friend, Harvey's will come back to you and pay the freight if it is faulty - don't worry about that.

Gordy7

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#1484104 3-Feb-2016 09:00

Thanks guys.

Paitiently waiting.... Not a good time of the year to be without a fridge...

Good news... As I was typing this I had a call from the refrigeration tech...

Reproduced the fault code even though the ice maker still running.

New control board ordered.

Should have the fridge back in a few days.

Gordy

My first ever AM radio network connection was with a 1MHz AM crystal(OA91) radio receiver.

Gordy7

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#1493038 16-Feb-2016 09:27

Still waiting for the return of our fridge...

After the fault code appeared in the workshop, a replacement control board was ordered and fitted.

Then the ice maker failed (the oringinal fault).

New ice maker was ordered late last week.

Murphy's law will save the last potential fault to last... wiring and/or connectors...

How long should I have to reasonably wait? 3.5 weeks now witout the fridge.

What sort of warrantee should I expect? Original warrantee runs out in July.

Using freezer packs and a chiily bin is no fun.

Gordy

My first ever AM radio network connection was with a 1MHz AM crystal(OA91) radio receiver.

graemeh

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#1493061 16-Feb-2016 10:08

3.5 weeks is far too long. Now would be a good time to have a discussion with Harvey Norman about either replacing the fridge with a new one or giving you a loan fridge to use.

mattwnz

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#1493117 16-Feb-2016 11:13

Very rare to fix a fridge off-site, without providing a loan fridge as you have it full of frozen and perishables which have to go somewhere. All repairs I have had including a main board were done on-site, although it resulted on a new door then a completely new model of fridge when they couldn't get parts

I would never but a fridge with an ice maker, they also don't seem as popular these days

Gordy7

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#1495323 18-Feb-2016 23:13

I live about 100km from Harvey Norman.

HN could not find a refrigeration engineer in my area, hence the the return shipping for repair.

HN did offer a loan fridge but I had to pay for shipping ($149) so I opted to use an old fridge that barely works and freezer packs in a chilly bin.

After a control board replacement and by now a replacement icemaker, I still have not heard from the refrigeration tech or HN.

So I guess that the fridge is still not fixed.

Time to put the pressure on HN. 4 weeks without fridge this Saturday (2 days time).

Gordy

My first ever AM radio network connection was with a 1MHz AM crystal(OA91) radio receiver.

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Gordy7

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#1499590 26-Feb-2016 09:48

Finally got our fridge back yesterday, 2 days short of 5 weeks.

Seems to be running ok and producing ice.

Shows how long an intermittent fault can take to find and fix.

In the workshop, the repair involved waiting for the fault to develop (and fault code to appear).

First the control board was replaced and then the ice maker failed completely and had to be replaced.

The ice maker had to be ordered in from overseas adding to delays.

Gordy

My first ever AM radio network connection was with a 1MHz AM crystal(OA91) radio receiver.

gregmcc

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#1499592 26-Feb-2016 09:51

Good to see that you got it back, too bad it took so long.

muppet

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#1499598 26-Feb-2016 09:56

mattwnz: I would never but a fridge with an ice maker, they also don't seem as popular these days

I apologise for being offtopic, but really? Man oh man, the fridge we just bought came with an ice-maker (no idea when we bought it, it had doors and was a fridge, so it was a nice discovery).

IT FREAKIN ROCKS.

No more pissing about with wobbly little trays and spilling water and running out of ice etc. Just open freezer, scoop out lovely fresh filtered water ice.

Damn.

I'm never buying a fridge without one.

Ok sorry.

To OP: I'm glad they found the fault and fixed it. That would have been super annoying.

Gordy7

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#1499672 26-Feb-2016 10:50

muppet:

mattwnz: I would never but a fridge with an ice maker, they also don't seem as popular these days

I apologise for being offtopic, but really? Man oh man, the fridge we just bought came with an ice-maker (no idea when we bought it, it had doors and was a fridge, so it was a nice discovery).

IT FREAKIN ROCKS.

No more pissing about with wobbly little trays and spilling water and running out of ice etc. Just open freezer, scoop out lovely fresh filtered water ice.

Damn.

I'm never buying a fridge without one.

Ok sorry.

To OP: I'm glad they found the fault and fixed it. That would have been super annoying.

Wife loves the ice maker... I like my Whisky straight :-)

Gordy

My first ever AM radio network connection was with a 1MHz AM crystal(OA91) radio receiver.

RUKI

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#1499923 26-Feb-2016 15:23

I stopped using ice maker I think 10 years ago when it failed in my Mitsubishi. Geeks do not add ice to the beer, why one need an ice maker? :-)

mattwnz

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#1499942 26-Feb-2016 15:44

muppet:

mattwnz: I would never but a fridge with an ice maker, they also don't seem as popular these days

I apologise for being offtopic, but really? Man oh man, the fridge we just bought came with an ice-maker (no idea when we bought it, it had doors and was a fridge, so it was a nice discovery).

IT FREAKIN ROCKS.

No more pissing about with wobbly little trays and spilling water and running out of ice etc. Just open freezer, scoop out lovely fresh filtered water ice.

Damn.

I'm never buying a fridge without one.

The one I have got comes with a removable icebox box that has built in ice cube trays. You just fill the box with water water, and once set you just twist a lever to fill the ice box with blocks of ice. It is manual so nothing to go wrong, and really simple. I don't know anyones who has an ice maker on the front of their unit that hasn't had problems with it. Also they take up a lot of room/door space in the freezer. But many of the new freezers I have seen have done away with the automatic icemaker, and now just to chilled water.

graemeh

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#1499998 26-Feb-2016 16:53

RUKI:

I stopped using ice maker I think 10 years ago when it failed in my Mitsubishi. Geeks do not add ice to the beer, why one need an ice maker? :-)

You need the ice maker to put ice in the chilly bin to keep the rest of the beer cold.

That or you spend $4 or $5 a time and just buy a bag of ice. Probably much cheaper in the long run to just buy ice when you need bulk ice.

Aredwood

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#1500080 26-Feb-2016 18:26

I have a Samsung double door fridge with Icemaker and water dispenser. It would be at least 6 years old (Maybe 8 years old). Icemaker works fine except if you don't dispense any ice for awhile. It forms into a lump. Which is easy to remove or break up. Had previous issues with the fridge side icing up. First time was a failed overheat cutout on the defrost element that stopped the element from working. Second time was the element not staying on long enough. Relocating the temp sensor on the evaporator further away from the defrost element fixed that.

So yes an icemaker can be reliable long term. The ice forming into lumps issue is caused the the way the freezer carries out it's "no frost" function. So it is not the fault of the icemaker itself.

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