Hover stand up fridge freezer , not very new , been working fine , noticed that behind the grill at the lower back of the freezer compartment , that there is a lot of 'ice' .. in the air duct that runs from the top of the frezzer compartment to the lower back ...im not convinced that the frezzer is working as well as it used to , it is frost free , but may be not as cold
The ice biuld up looks to be partially obscuring air grill .. which I assume is reducing the air flow ......there looks to be a drip try as if its expected water to collect
Q is this normal .??
. or should I attempt to de-frost the frezzer ..is so whats the best way of de frosting it ?
If it's been left open you'll get condensation from the air freezing against the evaporator, forming a huge chunk of ice in time.
I've defrosted our frost-free a couple of times over the years - just remove all food, remove any ducting / panelling between you and the ice, then get a heat source to *fairly* rapidly, yet safely defrost the ice. Make good, power-on, and throw the food back in.
(I tend to use a fan heater - can defrost it within 30 minutes on low heat without causing too much upset).
It might of been left open .. not by me ......... there looks to be
4 screws holding a panel at the rear of the compartment , its behind that the ice has formed .looks to be the result of water running down ,, I assuem there shold be some form of quick heat cycle to cleare the exchanger ...... the other thing is the fridge makes very 'loud' cracking noises .. which i presume is ice cracking inside it ..
WD40 doesn't need liberating. I've always hated the uncontrollable way in which it spurts out and most is wasted. Tesco's equivalent is easy to control.
You say 'air duct' so I assume this is a frost-free freezer. Yes defrost it first by switching it off if the auto defrost is not working. You will need to scrounge space in a neighbour's freezer.
If the defrost timer is ok (test as per other posts) it is most likely that the tube that takes away the defrosted water is blocked. This will be at the back and normally runs the water into a container sitting on top the compressor. The heat from the compressor evaporates the water so you don't need to keep emptying it.
My freezer suffered icing up for this reason. However the reason the tube was blocked proved to be a design fault. What happened was this: Every time the door opened some room air was drawn up this tube and the moisture in it froze on hitting the cold top of the tube inside the freezer. In time this ice built up to block the tube.
The solution provided by the manufacturer is a neat one. They provided a longer tube the bottom of which I was instructed to fold up and tie to make an S-bend. This bend filled with defrost water which created an airtight water-trap so that room air could not enter. The S-bend needs to be long enough so that the vacuum created by opening the door does not suck all the water through the trap thus breaking the seal. About 6 inches was sufficient on mine for this. So on opening the door the water level in the trap rises towards the freezer end, then falls back.
I have what I think is the same Hoover model of fridge freezer about 7 years old now and after reading your post I had a look inside. Sure enough there was quite a build-up of ice visible at the rear. I decided to have a go at defrosting it so I removed the panel at the back held in by four screws. Behind this is a cooling radiator which was covered in quite a thick layer of ice. I used a hair-dryer to melt the ice which was very effective - I recommend this method, it took about 10 - 15 minutes.
Now I am wondering if the defrost mechanism is working properly. I guess one way to tell is simply to wait a month or so and have a look behind the panel again.
Its possible , my frezzer is about 10 yeras old , a long time ago it started making very loud cracking noises , which I assume is ice cracking ..the panel has a shallow v shaped grill at the botom ans it behing this that the ice is visable .. also some of the vent holes where blocked as well ..... looks like the door had been open for a while ... then shut .....
This heat exchanger is then the only place that ice will form then ?
In not sure , how to test the auto de frost timer ........
Yes, mine is exactly like that. The panel comes away easily if you remove the four screws at the corners. You'll then see the heat exchanger behind it all covered with ice.
I assume so, but I'm not sure. I suppose it could form in the drain pipe but in any case I think the hair dryer treatment should melt it all if you give it half an hour or so
Well if you find out anything more please do share it. I don't think I would attempt to change the timer, but I know a man who could.
A lot of ice at the top of the exchanger where the air is drawn from the fridge, this was partly blocking the air flow , middle of the matrix was cleare , ice on the lower part above the drip tray but the tray was clear, looks to be a heating trace running round the exchanger and drip tray.
Used a small fan heater to warm the matrix and a hair dryer to chase the ice round the edges took abt 30 mins , looked like the biuld up at the top and the bottom of the exchanger had defeated the de- ice system ?
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