UB5 · Northolt
Fridge freezer repair in Northolt UB5
One fault turns up here more than anywhere else on our patch: the fridge going warm while the freezer stays rock solid. It sounds like two separate problems and it is almost always one. On a frost-free machine a single cold source feeds both compartments and a fan pushes that cold air up into the fridge. Ice builds on the evaporator behind the rear panel of the freezer, the airway closes, and the fridge gets nothing while the freezer sits alongside the ice and stays perfectly cold. More on fridge freezer repair across West London and Harrow.
Why we see so much of it around Northolt is no mystery. Larger households on the estates open a fridge door constantly through the day, and every opening pulls in warm, damp air that the defrost cycle then has to deal with. Add a machine wedged into a gap between a base unit and the wall with barely a finger's width behind it, so the coil at the back cannot shed its heat properly, and a rear extension that goes genuinely cold overnight, and the conditions for icing up are written into the installation before the appliance has done anything wrong.
What we do about it is unglamorous and it works. The rear panel inside the freezer comes off, the ice is melted out properly rather than chipped at, and then we establish why the defrost cycle stopped clearing it: an evaporator fan seized or run dry, a defrost heater gone open circuit, a sensor or thermal fuse that has failed, or a control that is no longer calling for a defrost at all. While the machine is stripped the drain hole gets cleared, because the same icing normally goes hand in hand with a puddle appearing under the salad drawer where the melt water has nowhere to run. Door seals get checked too, since a tired seal on the fridge side keeps the whole cycle losing ground.
We are straightforward about the limits. Defrost faults, fans, sensors, controls, seals and drains are all ordinary repairs and we carry the common parts for them. If the fault turns out to lie in the cooling circuit itself, we say so plainly instead of spending your money finding out slowly. The visit is £80 with labour on most repairs included, anything more involved is quoted and agreed with you first, and whatever part we replace is guaranteed for three months.
£80
call-out charge per visit
Labour is included for most repairs. More extensive or complex jobs may require additional labour, which we always quote and agree with you before starting. Parts are charged separately and always quoted before we fit them.
We are not registered for VAT. The price we quote is the price you pay.
What Northolt kitchens throw at us
In the interwar semis around Belvue Park the fridge freezer nearly always stands against the outside wall at the back of the kitchen, jammed into a gap with almost nothing behind it, and that is precisely the installation that ices an evaporator up. In the newer flats by the station the machine is integrated behind a decor door, which hides the same fault for longer because nobody ever sees the back of it.
What you can rely on
Frequently asked questions
Why is the fridge warm while the freezer stays cold in so many Northolt kitchens?
Because most machines here are frost-free, and one cold source feeds both sides through a fan and a duct. When ice builds on the evaporator behind the freezer's back panel it seals that duct off. The freezer is right next to the ice so it stays cold, while the fridge gets no cold air at all. The real fault is on the defrost side, not in the fridge.
My fridge freezer is wedged into an alcove in a Northolt back kitchen — does it need pulling out for you to work on it?
Usually it does, at least far enough to get behind the machine and see the coil and the drain outlet. That is also worth knowing for its own sake, because a machine pushed right back with no clearance runs hotter and works harder than it should. When we put it back we leave a gap behind it, which on its own reduces how often it ices up again.
3-month guarantee on the part we replace. Any part we replace is guaranteed for 3 months from the date it is fitted. This covers the replaced part only — it is not a warranty on the whole appliance.