4 weeks ago I broke the bottom drawer as it was caked in built-up ice. Meant to be a frost-free freezer but whatever.
Yesterday night I couldn’t get the bottom drawer free again so something is wrong.
The freezer manual says that taking the panel off to expose the pipes/fan on the inside of the freezer requires an engineer visit. Screw that.
3 screws and the panel came off, the fan is attached to the panel so I unclipped the electric connection.
Immediately saw the problem. From the bottom of the panel to about 4 inches up, it was caked in ice in the shape of the inside of the panel.
Hot water spray and a fan, with a bit of poking with the handle of a spoon got all the ice off. Used the spoon to straighten all the fins.
Poured some hot water down the drain hole that was previously clogged with ice. Cleaned it a little with a straw cleaner. Poured a little more water down and it drained away quickly. Hopefully fixed now.
Gave it a thorough clean. Misses commented on how clean it looked. Chuffed.
Does this fridge have a heating element to defrost the evaporator? It kind of sounds like maybe the failure of the heating element is the root cause of the ice build up.
That’s a possibility and if it reoccurs next month I’ll be sure to check :)