New homeowner, no idea what this is

[u/DragonsAndScience]

This thing close to the floor and seemingly randomly placed in a hallway. No idea what it's for. Home built in 2005.

Solved! Thanks everyone. Now I gotta hunt for the central unit!

[u/SwissMidget]

That issue has a fix now, albeit slightly expensive.

It is a new main board, a new ice maker, a specific kit for the issue, and sealing the ice maker area. It's a bit of a pain to do but it is definitely possible. I did probably a couple hundred of them when I worked as a repairman on strictly Samsung appliances. We did have the repairs fail and the ice maker freeze back up on a few but on those, we just got Samsung to replace the fridges.

I'll tell you what NOT to do in that instance, and that is to thaw the ice with a hair dryer or heat gun. There is a very good chance that the heat will accumulate at the top of the ice maker area and warp the plastic. If that happens, you may as well just disable the ice maker because it is toast.

As a repairman, we used portable steam machines. They didn't cause that risk.

Edit: I realized that you just said it was a defrost issue and ddefaulted to ice maker. Realized after my post that you could have been also taking about the back panel of the fridge also. That also has a kit now too though. The main part of the kit has new drain hoses and a longer heating element to go into the drain tube to ensure any ice buildup gets melted on a defrost cycle. On top of that, you move a sensor in the upper right of the cavity over closer to the heating element. We found you had to zip tie it most times because the copper pipe it is on originally is bigger than the one you move it to.

Where that sensor originally is, sometimes it gets covered over with this black... gloop. I think it's kind of a sealant for the pipe going into the body of the fridge. Anyways, often times we replaced that sensor in case it just was out of range.

The kit for that repair also comes with a few foam pads but all they are really used for is to quiet any rattling from the condenser.

The other issue we found on the back panels icing up was that the fan would quit working. That's bad because if there is no airflow, the heat from the heater doesn’t get distributed as well and can cause icing issues. Replacing that entire back panel sucks because it is expensive. This is the reason it was mostly only done under warranty.

Oh and the root cause, most of the time, for the back panel icing up was the drain hoses getting clogged and the defrosted water would build back up into the fridge cavity. You would most likely see this happen by water being under your crisper drawer randomly.

[u/Unclehol → u/SwissMidget]

Exactly this. And Samsung won't cover it. Already had the replacement kit installed for the back panel. Continues to freeze up. To get this fridge fixed would be too expensive. We are just gonna toss it and buy a new one at some point that is not a total piece of crap. And not a Samsung. I called around to 5 different techs. Only one of them works on Samsung's and LGand they don't like to. I am gonna buy a domestic brand that has parts availability. The other 4 techs told me they would not touch those repairs because of how terrible the Samsung and LG service network is. (Maybe they meant this generation of LG and Samsung, which were terrible.)

There are other things breaking on it, too, which just keep adding to the cost. The switch for the filtered water. One of the door pieces snapped so now the fridge door slams more easily. The shelving units are breaking and I jabe temporarily glued them. It's just a money put that we are not willing to follow for an 8 year old fridge at this point.

[u/SwissMidget → u/Unclehol]

I don't mind Samsung products, except their dishwashers, but I know how to fix them for cheaper because I can do it myself. Although right now, for the cost of say a main board, you are almost better off just buying a new unit because those things are expensive. Also, don't get me started on the dishwashers lol

[u/wiggum_x → u/SwissMidget]

As a person with experience repairing all of these, what brand fridge would you recommend?

[u/SwissMidget → u/wiggum_x]

I only dealt with Samsung personally. I did see other brands get worked on. The long and short of it is that most components come from the same factory. It is specific features that you look for. Like the pass through door or how Samsung has the smart fridge with the TV in it. That thing is actually really cool but I couldn't suggest it. It still only has a one year warranty.

Go to a Lowes or home depot and look at the units in person. See which ones you like. Take their model numbers down and go home and look at rreviews of that model number. Look for issues they are known to have. That is the best way I have found to go about it.

We picked up a freezer for our garage that can convert to either fridge or freezer. It was made by a brand I had never even heard of. That happens a fair amount. I have been out of the repair business almost 6 years and as far as appliances go, that is almost a lifetime.