Freezer Repair

In what order

What it usually turns out to be

Freezer complaints come in three shapes: a slab of ice growing across the rear panel, a compartment holding in the teens instead of at zero, and a drawer that will not close because ice has built on the track. All three are the defrost side of the system telling you something, and none of them need a new unit.

1. 1

   Whether defrost is running at all

   A dead heater, an open thermostat or a control that has stopped calling for defrost all end at the same place: frost that never melts and an evaporator that slowly stops moving air. We read the circuit rather than swapping parts at it.

2. 2

   The drain, right through

   Meltwater has to leave the cabinet. When the drain line freezes solid, defrost water runs back into the compartment and refreezes as the slab you can see, or reappears as ice on a drawer track. Clearing the line properly is half the repair.

3. 3

   Drawer and door seals

   A split drawer gasket pulls room air in continuously, and in July that air arrives loaded with moisture from evaporative cooling and irrigation. The frost comes straight back a week after you scrape the panel clear, which is the giveaway.

4. 4

   Where the unit lives

   Freezer columns in laundry rooms, garages and butler pantries run against ambient temperatures the design never assumed. We measure the air the condenser is actually breathing before deciding whether the machine or the room is the problem.