Frost-free fridge keeps frosting

gwinnie

Having just spent 20 minutes this morning removing a thick sheet of frost off the back of the fridge, I just now discovered it's starting to layer up again at an alarming rate. I thought the original ice sheet might have been caused by the door not having been shut properly but I definitely closed it firmly this morning. Has anyone come across this before? It's eight years old, so I'm prepared for bad news...

tooconfused_2

i had the same problem when door was left open what happens is with the door open ice formswith a frost free freezer it has a heating cycle to clear the ice off the cooling fins when the ice gets too thick ie door left open the heat cycle cannot clear the build up of ice .empty the freezer leave unplugged from main for at least a day or speed up defrosting this will remove the thick layer of ice from the cooling fins.plug back in and every thing shoud be ok if this does not work the heating element around the cooling fins could have gone or the stats that control it but try the defrost first its the cheaper option but if this happened after the door was left open i will bet the defrost will work

gwinnie

Thanks, tc. I will give that a go this weekend.

Emmysmum_2

http://www.appliance411.com/faq/defrostproblem.shtml

parts are usually cheap though.

harrysmum03_2

did you know there is no such thing as frost free, it's just frost free longer than the old type f/freezer.
I only found this out from a very nice hotpoint repair bloke who'd come to fix my f/freezer. he informed me that it's just frost free for longer and you also have to make sure everything you put in the freezer is in a sealed container or well wrapped in clingfilm or in bags with clips but even then you'll still need to defrost at least once a year.

teddyco

Gwinnie,

I had this same problem with a Hoover frost free fridge freezer right after Christmas. We crammed the thing full of food to prepare for Christmas dinner and then noticed that the 'quick freeze' function would not shut off and the whole back was iced up.

We also noticed that the compressor was not cycling off and stayed on continuously.

Fortunately, I was able to solve the problem by unplugging the fridge freezer and letting it sit for 5 minutes so the unit could reset itself. Once I plugged it back in the compressor did not come on which let me know that the thermostat registered that it was too cold.

A few hours later, after all the ice had melted off the back, I heard the compressor cycle on again and it was back to normal.

This happened again in January when there was a brief power cut, quickly off and on. Again, the compressor stayed on and refused to cut off. Did the same trick, unplug, wait 5 minutes to let it reset, and plugged back in.

The unit has been doing fine since then, knock loudly on wood!

Hope this helps.