Whirring fridge freezer - manufacturer giving me the runaround

[Simon47]

It's a freezer, it's whole purpose is to freeze things so yes it will make frost and need defrosting occasionally.

If properly designed as "frost free" then it won't.
As i described above, such freezers typically have a finned heat exchanger (HE) with a fan that forces air flow through the HE and around the cabinet. Of course there will be condensation in the HE, and it will freeze - yer cannae defy the laws of physics.
But, if properly designed, the system will have a means of clearing that. In the case of my parents unit, it was a heater element embedded in the HE - so the controller could switch that one, warm up the HE, melt the frost, and it would then drain away. That could be a simplistic "every X hours, when fan and compressor aren't running, turn on heater for Y minutes", or it could be more subtle such as detecting when the compressor load changes, or the temperature of the HE goes lower than it should, and switching the heater on until the HE reaches a certain (above freezing) temperature.
Our current freezer has been running for something like 5 years without a defrost - so the system is working. My parents freezer would work fine for several years, then it would slowly degrade - my guess is that it failed to fully defrost, and over time the HE got more and more blocked, meaning that the ice gets more and more supercooled, and defrost becomes harder and harder.

This is a very different setup to the cheap (not frost free) system where there tends to be just evaporator pipes in contact with the freezer walls, or as a panel in the back, and which can never get above freezing without unloading the freezer and turning it off until it warms up.

Marketing people will write anything about a product in order to sell it, if you check the fine print carefully there will probably be some disclaimer to get them out of their lies.

Fine print will not get them out of that sort of thing. If a headline feature is "Frost free, forever" then that's what any reasonable consumer would expect. Courts take a dim view of "feature*" where "*" is defined in print too small for a gnat to read at the bottom of the advert or flyer.

 

[Jeshet4]

18 months ago I bought American style fridge freezer (this model). I have a two year warranty. I have already had two call outs to replace a faulty/sticking door. It has now begun an intermittent, but increasingly frequent, whirring round which stops when you open the door. Hisense's advice is to "manually defrost the appliance for 24h; make sure that appliance is plugged out of the electricity, leave the doors open and place shallow dish bellow so that your floor is protected. We highly recommend as a manufacturer for our customers to perform the 24h defrosting of the appliance at least once or twice a year, so we would prevent things like these from happening."

This is ridiculous. Moden freezers do not need defrosting and the appliance is marketed as “Total no frost: no frost, anywhere – ever! It provides a suitable condition which keeps food fresh and nutritious longer as no frost can be found in refrigerator, which means you don’t need to waste your cherish time to defrost.”

I am sure they are trying to give me the runaround until the warranty expires in November. Can I please have some advice about the likely cause of the whirring and what I should expect as a lasting repair? Or does it indicate the appliance is fundamentally faulty and I should want a replacement/refund?

The whirring noise may indicate a cooling system issue. Hisense’s defrost advice contradicts the "no frost" claim. Request a detailed diagnosis and consider asking for a replacement or refund under warranty. If needed, consult a professional repair technician for a thorough evaluation.