One of the most common complaints from customers who have a Samsung refrigerator is that it is icing up in the refrigerator section. If you’ve noticed that the refrigeartor section is not as cold as it used to be and you happen to see ice coming out of the back chutes, then your fridge is having this very common issue.
In our experience, there are 2 main reasons this happens, we’ll explore those situations and provide a viable solution.
Frozen Drain Tube
If you’ve noticed water under the deli drawer, then that means your refrigerator is not draining correctly. When this happens a giant ice block will form in the drip tray. Eventually the moisture that has accumulated will build its way up to the top of the evaporator and block the fan from rotating. Depending on how bad it is, you may need to let the refrigerator defrost on its own for 1-2 days in order to get the back wall off.
Frozen Drain Tube
This is an example of a frozen drain tube. The ice block shown to the left has probably been accumulating for months. It will eventually damage the evaporator cover and possibly the evaporator. You’ll want to melt the ice block and clear the drain tube.
Drain Tube Kit
Samsung has released a kit (pictured to the left) to help remedy this issue. The kit includes some insulating strips you put under the drip tray, an extra long drain heater, and most importantly new drain tubes that need to be installed in the back of the refrigerator behind the bottom panel.
Failure of Cavity Insulation
The dreaded Samsung ice ball has been a topic of debate for years. The general consensus now is that its a manufacturer defect where the insulation in the actual cavity is failing, causing excess ice buildup where the refrigerant lines are. As of now, we have not been given a definitive service bulletin from Samsung to remedy the problem, but there are a few things that can be done to treat the symptoms.
Samsung Refrigerator Ice ball
This is an example of what is going on behind the evaporator cover. This ice buildup is so bad it was blocking the fan from rotating.
The Fix
The only fix that has proven to be effective is to add an additional heater around the top suction line, as seen in the picture to the left. This heater is a much lower wattage than the main defrost heater. The extra heater provides just enough heat to melt the ice buildup around the evaporator fan motor, which keeps everything working properly.
The defrost thermistor is also changed just in case it has gone out of spec from being completely encased in ice.
This problem plagues a lot of Samsung refrigerator owners. It is a finicky problem as it may take months for the ice to come back. If the insulation failure gets bad enough, even the additional heater may not be able to handle the ice buildup, it will definitely help slow the process though. In some scenerios, the best course of action may be to replace the refrigerator entirely.
If you need your Samsung refrigerator repaired or inspected, you can always call or request on appointment online!