I have a Bosch full height upright freezer that is (meant to be) frost free. It has the evaporator at the top and a fan blows air around the cabinet to freezer the contents. Normally as good as good and anytime you look at the evaporator it is either completely clear or the slightest film of frost visible.
How do these things work? I assume that there is an electrical heater on the evaporator that comes on after the compressor switches off to melt the frost and the water drains away. If there is cooling demand, it either abandons the defrost if unfinished or perhaps allows it to finish and then commences cooling?
Am I on track?
The problem is that I noticed that the frost had built up seriously a few weeks back and the temperature was rising inside. We *think* that the door had got left ajar but no-one will confess to this. I then spent some time playing a hot air gun over the evaporator melted all the visible frost and after switching back on normal temperature was achieved.
But slowly over a period of weeks, the frost has been building up but the temperature has been maintained ok.
I can imagine a conflict between the defrost process and the demand for cooling. Maybe the defrost part uses a 'just above zero" temp sensor to signify frost clear and that is conflicting with the cooling cycle?
I wonder if the heating cooling algorithm can't cope with the remains of ice that I did not melt away fully and it is slowly building up again or perhaps if the heating element has failed.
In normal use (without the door being left ajar!) the only source of frost should be a bit of warm air let in when the door opens and so it does not need a huge defrost capability.
I have had one suggestion of letting the whole thing defrost naturally over a couple of days, but the trouble is that it holds the vast proportion of our frozen food stock and we would need a dedicated feeding frenzy over several weeks to empty the thing.
Thanks if you have read this far! Any suggestions please folks?