Question about a Samsung fridge that tripped my whole kitchen circuit

I was out on a call last Tuesday for a Samsung RF28R7201SR that kept tripping the breaker, and when I pulled the back panel I found the defrost heater element had shorted against the drain pan. Replaced the heater and thermistor but now the compressor won't kick on after 4 hours of run time. Anyone else run into a ghost issue after fixing the obvious problem on these models?

2 comments

2 Comments

william_henderson9d ago

Terry, you just changed my mind because I always blamed the heater first on those Samsung fridges.

terry_jones9d ago

Wait did you swap out the main control board yet or just the heater and thermistor? I used to think the defrost fix was always the whole problem with these Samsung fridges, but after helping a buddy on his RF28 model last month I learned the hard way that the board can get partially fried from the short and then it won't send the right signal to the compressor. It's a sneaky thing where the fridge looks fine for a few hours then just stops kicking on. Try checking voltage at the compressor relay on the board before you go swapping anything else out.