If your refrigerator has ice build up on the inside, here are a few things you can check yourself to fix the issue. A common cause for ice buildup is a faulty door seal. If a refrigerator has a bad door seal, the outside air will pass into the fridge and cause the ice build up problem you are experiencing.
Another cause for this could be that the door hinges are loose or not attached properly leading to outside air entering your fridge/freezer. Check to be sure the door hinges are tight and are attached and aligned properly.
Some other simple things you can do to try and remedy this issue are easy to try yourself. You can try moving the refrigerator away from the wall a little bit more to give it extra room for the air to circulate. The heat from the compressor should have sufficient room to dissipate. If the refrigerator is too close to the wall problems will occur.
Another solution may be to clean the vents on the back or below the fridge as they can be clogged with dust and debris. Clogged vents cause air circulation problems that lead to many common refrigerator problems.
If the ice build up is only happening in the freezer, the freezer drain is probably clogged. To unclog the drain you should first unplug the unit from the wall. Remove the freezer covers to expose the frozen drain. Pour hot water down into the drain hole until you see the water dripping into the drain pan under the refrigerator.
How to remove and replace the door gasket on a refrigerator
How to unclog a refrigerator defrost line
Modern day refrigerators are frost free. They should not have to be defrosted manually. If however you have an older refrigerator or you want to manually defrost your newer fridge, here is how:
- First remove food and store it in another fridge or cooler.
- Unplug the refrigerator from power and remove any drawers or shelves.
- Wedge the door to keep it open for the defrost procedure.
- Lay a deep pan or similar at the bottom of the refrigerator to catch the water when the ice melts.
- Leave everything sit until all the ice has melted (this is a good time to wipe down the inside of fridge).
- After the refrigerator is defrosted and the ice is gone, clean and replace the drawers and shelves.
- Plug in the refrigerator back into power.
- Set the thermostat dial to be sure the temperature is set correctly.
- Shut the refrigerator door.
- Once the fridge is cold you should watch for any ice buildup.
- Check to be sure the fridge is at the proper temperature and no ice has formed.
- Put the food back in the refrigerator.
- Periodically check fridge to be sure no more ice has formed.
If your refrigerator is still under warranty, make sure to call the company you purchased it from or call the 800 number of the company who manufactured it and schedule service. Find out if it is under warranty before doing repairs as doing repairs yourself could void the warranty on the unit.
NOTE: At times a powdery type of ice will form in your refrigerator if it is being repeatedly opened and closed. Keep this in mind as your only issue may be this and no repairs are necessary.
Other things causing this issue could be a defrost timer, bad temperature sensor or bimetal defrost thermostat. In this case you will most likely need to call a repair person or find someone who is experienced with diagnosing appliance faults and removing and replacing components.
Have experience with ice buildup in your freezer refrigerator? Please help out everyone who seeks information on this page by leaving a comment below.
Written by Keith Schneerer
Certified Appliance Tech · Founder, RemoveAndReplace.com
Keith has spent 30+ years repairing machines, starting as a military mechanic and later maintaining food processing equipment before moving into appliance repair. He founded RemoveAndReplace.com to share field-tested repair advice.
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What would make ice to form on bottom of my Maytag refrigerator freezer model M1TXEGMYW01
My GE side by side stopped working – both sides warm but compressor was OK and running. There was ice buildup on freezer back wall. Did google research and learned about thermistors, defrost heater and electronic board on rear of unit and how to repair DIY. Ordered all replacement parts to fix if needed from Amazon.
I turned refrigerator off for 6 hours to manually defrost , turned it back on before going to bed and to my amazement, in the morning, the refrigerator worked fine. I figured the icing had caused the problem. I kept the thermistors ($10), the heater ($16) and sent the board ($230 )back for refund.
Hello, I have 10 yr old GE side by side refrigrator model PSC23MSWC SS. A month ago it stopped cooling freezer and refregirator and freezer had a thin sheet of ice on back wall. I unplugged it and let. It defrost for a day with lots of water on the floor. Should have used towel. Plugged it again and it went back normal for month with 0 and 35 temp. It happened again same thing after a month and I did same thing. What could be wrong here that doing this ? Need advice.
Thanks
HI Steve and team, I have a Kitchen Aid (French door, with lower Freezer) which has served me well for 10+ years, model # KBFC43FTS04
I am seeing frost build up around the top of the freezer door and around the front of the ice drawer. I have replaced the gasket on the door and I have adjusted the door as best I can see to obtain a good fit (the door connects on two rails and the hinges allow for some tolerance in a the vertical rotation of the door, forward/back to get a fit.)
It seemed good for a while, but the frost is building up again.
When the fridge doors are open, you can clearly view the gasket ‘sealing’ to the main unit – it looks good! It IS a magnetic seal, so, for extra measure I added 1/16″ thickness magnetic tape at the level of the seal to ‘encourage’ the magnetic seal. This seems to be ineffective at best.
The only thing I can think of is:
1) I have 5 family members, some of whom may close the freezer weakly and thus failing to create a seal
2) perhaps I didn’t tighten the hinge screws and the door as rotated/tilted out of alignment with the fridge.
In your experience, is there anything else that comes to mind that may help solve this problem?
My fridge overfreeze in the freezer so much that the shelves do not open . Even if the temperature is at level 3. What could be a problem?
we have a GE side by side, refrigerator/freezer. we are having ice and frost buildup in the freezer. (the water line is not connected for the ice/water dispenser.) there is also frost on the items. we checked the drain and it is not plugged. help please.