I’ve been dark on Samsung products for a while now.
Samsung being a shit company aside, this “really strong” chemical smell is just going to be a burnt out fan motor / hot joint in a cable causing the insulation to smolder / some food spilt over the defrost heater / or something equally benign.
There’s just nothing in a domestic fridge that can cause a whole house full of people to get all these mysterious symptoms. Any bets on the “racing heart rate” and what not being a panic attack brought on by getting all flustered?
lists the model as being one that should be prioritised for sale because it could be non-compliant.
so,…they’re deliberately trying to rush non compliant models out the door? How the fuck is that not the chopping block?
Oh I think you’re getting us confused with a country that gives a shit. Die in silence, sailor! 🫡
This is typical behaviour from Samsung. They’ve been caught astroturfing.
They basically did human trafficking and forced people to work for them in a foreign country under the guise of an invitation to do journalism, threatening to revoke their hotel and return flights if they didn’t do work for Samsung. Nokia got themselves some good PR by offering to pay their way instead.
There’s a case with an Australian online tech commentator where Samsung revoked their invitation to a Samsung event—even though the invitation hadn’t come from Samsung themselves, but from Telstra or Optus. And they never actually told the telco or the reporter what they had done, so he only found out on the day of the event when the lift he had been told to expect didn’t show up. This video link would be an explainer, except that it was taken down.
Oh, and there’s that time their phones were blowing up, so they recalled them. Only rather than actually spend the time to ensure everything is safe before re-releasing them, they hurried out without properly fixing anything, and the phones still blew up.
Basically, nobody should be buying anything from Samsung. Ever. They’re a terrible company. And you should be highly wary of any journalist, or blogger, or influencer who is saying positive things about them. Even more so than you would be for other companies.
Could be burning refrigerant (some are flammable AND fluorinated).
It won’t be refrigerant. It’s colourless, odorless, and tasteless. Burning something like R22 back in the day would give you the stink because it had chlorine in it, but you wouldn’t even notice 600/290 burning. It doesn’t even had the odorant in it like propane and butane.
The actual quantities are pretty small, and if you’ve got burning refrigerant there are much bigger problems going on seeing as the refrigerant circuit is hermetically sealed. That kind of thing would also provoke a product safety recall. Most modern domestic fridges stick with a plain hydrocarbon refrigerant anyway (akin to butane) these days.
But there’s plenty of other things that can burn in a modern fridge. Circuit board components, circulation fan motors, etc can all put out ridiculously bad/noxious odours when they burn out.
The actual quantities are pretty small
In pure, stable form, yes. A hundred or so grams released in my house won’t be noticed or cause any problems.
But a few hundred grams of burnt fluorine hydrocarbons? 😬 That’s a whole other story.
Most modern domestic fridges stick with a plain hydrocarbon refrigerant anyway (akin to butane) these days.
I’m yet to see R600a in Australian domestic fridges, I thought we were lagging in that department? Can you just get them at retailers now?
if you’ve got burning refrigerant there are much bigger problems going on seeing as the refrigerant circuit is hermetically sealed
Strong disagree xD Inhaling burning fluorine compounds > fridge not cooling any more
That kind of thing would also provoke a product safety recall.
I’m not diagnosing the most likely cause of a normal fridge failure, but considering some interesting causes that align with the unusual scenario depicted in the article. Don’t panic, I’m not going to go all “fridge bad” on you.
This is the best summary I could come up with:
A rural Victorian family is battling tech giant Samsung over a fridge they claim filled their house with a “really strong” chemical vapour that caused dizziness and confusion.
The couple from Paradise Beach in Gippsland say they quickly identified the source of the smell — their Samsung refrigerator, which was bought four years earlier from JB Hi-Fi.
Samsung recently offered the family a payment of $974, the discounted price they paid for the fridge at JB Hi-Fi in Narre Warren four years earlier.
Samsung’s own compliance tool, used by retailers to check that stock complies with Australian standards, lists the model as being one that should be prioritised for sale because it could be non-compliant.
Erin Turner, chief executive officer of the Consumer Policy Research Centre, said she found the content of Samsung’s deed of settlement and release sent to the Raes to be troubling.
Melbourne University Pharmacology and Biochemistry Professor Gary Anderson told the ABC while it was hard to pinpoint the exact cause of the odour and vapour, he believed the stench was a result of a mechanical failure, coupled with a leak.
The original article contains 1,151 words, the summary contains 185 words. Saved 84%. I’m a bot and I’m open source!
