[gilera]

I own a OCX365 fridge freezer that i bought in Spain in 2001.
I would like to find out what the purpose is of a small fan that is mounted in a plastic moulding at top rear of the fridge compartment, it is a twin compressor model, frost free fridge but not frost free Freezer compartment.
Regards Tony

[woodchuck]

It's used to circulate the air for even temp distribution and to aid in removing moisture by moving air across the coils where the moisture is removed in the form of ice. It's the same as the fan in the freezer side. Your model has two independent sides.

[gilera]

Thanks woodchuck, it makes sense that it circulates the air in fridge compartment although it is a very small fan about 2inches diameter. I do not think it has anything to do with removing ice from coils as nothing is visable in this model ie. the inside of fridge compartment is smooth plastic all round the walls whereas the coils are all on display at the top of freezer compartment and there is no fan in there.

[denman]

You said the freezer was not frost free, the fresh food is, that is the difference.

In a frost free system you want to draw the air over the cooling coils so that any moisture condenses on the cooling coils. You want the coils enclosed so that when the defrost heater runs you do not raise the temperature that much in the compartment. That is also why the fan shuts off during defrost.

On non frost free you do not want condensing on the coils. The quicker they ice up the more often you have to manually defrost, hence no fan.

[gilera]

I understand all that thanks denman but i cannot see how the fan can draw air across the cooling coils as they are not anywhere in the fridge compartment, i assume they are buried behind the rear wall somewhere and there are no holes in the walls to allow any air to get in or out.

[denman]

You said "there are no holes in the walls to allow any air to get in or out."

Well you know there is an "out" because you must be able to see the fan which is out. You said dual compressor which means dual coils, you can only see one coil so the other must be behind a cover.

Get a cigarette, light it up and follow the smoke you will find the "in"

I am a Canuck, have never seen a Hoover but somethings you just have to rely on what is logical. And if Woodchuck says it is so, the odds are very high that it is so.