Samsung Frig/Freezer bottom icing up once a month

[LisaTomlinson]

Model Number:
Brand: Samsung
Age: More than 10 years

Do you have any idea what the problem would be if we are ending up with ice in the bottom of our freezer and it gets thick enough about once a month that we have to break it out for the drawer to slide in and out easily? Hesitant to call a repairman because it is not that hard to do, but curious if it would be a common or easy fix. French Doors on top and freezer drawer on the bottom. Below the drawer, bottom of unit gets all iced up. Once ice is so thick, freezer drawer becomes too hard to open, must break ice and remove, then all is well.

[Doc Ryan]

A clogged or frozen defrost drain can cause this. Sometimes it is caused by a failure of a component in the automatic defrost cycle (ie: defrost heater, defrost thermistor, defrost bi-metal, main control board).

[LisaTomlinson]

So call a service person? Or is this something we could troubleshoot ourselves? Thank you for responding, by the way.

[Dave527]

If items in your freezer are getting soft, your coils may be iced over which blocks air flow and increases the temperature. If you can figure out how to gain access to the coils, you can defrost them with a hair dryer. At that point you probably have access to the fan, heating element, and thermistor. You can find videos on how to test these items. They are usually fairy easy to replace as they use connectors. If none of those things are the issue, it could be your control board. I'm not sure how to test that and sometimes they are costly to purchase. Good luck.

[LisaTomlinson]

If items in your freezer are getting soft, your coils may be iced over which blocks air flow and increases the temperature. If you can figure out how to gain access to the coils, you can defrost them with a hair dryer. At that point you probably have access to the fan, heating element, and thermistor. You can find videos on how to test these items. They are usually fairy easy to replace as they use connectors. If none of those things are the issue, it could be your control board. I'm not sure how to test that and sometimes they are costly to purchase. Good luck.

Thank you!

[Doc Ryan]

This video might help you out here. We also have videos on our Youtube channel that show how to test some of the defrost components.