Ice building up in fridge

verynewmoneysaver

There is a build up of ice at the back of my fridge. It is only on a medium setting. Does anyone know why this is happening please.

sheena4711

is it a fridge/freezer?

Stonk

I get this too, and it seems to be very dependent on the number of times I open the door. I imagine that each time the door is opened, more water vapour rushes in, and then freezes against the back of the fridge. This takes it out of the air, leaving a lower concentration in there so that next time the door is opened a load more water vapour rushes in.

While I'm around the house, it builds up, sometimes as much as an inch think. But if I go away for a few days, it will have gone by the time I get back.

To get rid of it, sometimes I empty the fridge, turn it off, and point a hair dryer at the ice for a few minutes. This might not be recommended if you care about your fridge, but mine is years old and came with the flat so I have no attachment to it! Anyway, after a while, the ice drops off in one huge glacial block, which is immensely satisfying.

grumbler

verynewmoneysaver wrote:

There is a build up of ice at the back of my fridge. It is only on a medium setting. Does anyone know why this is happening please.

I know only 2 reasons:

• moist air from outside - check the sealing with a sheet of paper.
• moisture inside - all food should be kept in containers with lids or plactic bags.

If neither of the above and the fridge is auto-defrost one, then something wrong is with the auto-defrost system.

economiser

Our ancient freezer is not auto defrost and I found our steam cleaner had a jet attachment which was far quicker than the hair dryer for defrosting.

Mr_Meanie

Because it’s acting like a dehumidifier, it's trying to extract all the moisture out of the air inside your house and if you have you back door open, the entire world!

The following only applies if it's a larder type fridge.
I know this might sound like a pretty silly answer but try turning the thermostat down half a notch, i.e. to make the fridge warmer inside, it should get colder!
You should find that the ice will melt off the heat exchanger panel and the fridge will actually get colder inside, try and adjust it so the panel in the back is wet some of the time, and not frozen all the time, it might take about a week or so for it all to happen though.

aurora_borealis_2

I've just cleaned my fridge because there was ice and water at the bottom.

I found that the drain was blocked. Have you checked yours?

verynewmoneysaver

Thanks to everyone who replied. I turned the fridge (larder type) down a degree yesterday, and all the ice started to come away in big lumps. There was a lot of water around the drain just now, so I have cleaned it out with a small bottle brush. Hopefully it will be OK now.

gromituk

My fridge-freezer (separate thermostats; larder-type fridge) started doing this some time ago and I don't know why. The fridge section can be switched off, so I do this once a week for half an hour and then the ice can be removed as one lump. Very annoying and it's reducing the efficiency though.