My Zanussi self-defrosting freezer forms ice in the bottom of the interior, making it hard to get the bottom tray out. It happens gradually over a week or two. Temperature checked with a thermometer is OK. Why does this happen?

Your kemore self defrost is not working. 1. clean the ice and look for the heater element and your lemi switch.

Hello. If your freezer is not a self defroster, you must have had a power failure for a few hours that caused a melt with water ending up on the floor of the freezer and then refreezing. IF you have a self-defrost model, your defrost cycle produces some water which should make it's way down to the evaporator tray just above the floor... in your case, the small hole in the floor is plugged and the water is accumulating on the floor rather than making it's way to the evaporator tray. The fix is to clean the evaporator tray, defrost the ice with a blow dryer, locate the hole and clean it out with a couple of pipe cleaners or cotton swabs. Regards, Joe
PS please rate my answer. thank you.

Most probably defrost thermostat is defective. Unit never goes into defrost, ice forms on coil and in floor of freezer. After defrosting may work OK for a week or two but gradually gets warmer because ice is blocking ports where cool air gets to refrig. May also have water in refrig box. Can also be caused by defective defrost timer. This can also be caused by the drain hole being blocked by ice. You MUST remove all ice in drain under freezer coil. Use turkey baster to squirt hot water into hole and use hairdryer to defrost.

if self defrosting model check frozen drain in freezer

Frost free fidges are supposed to stay frost free because the automatically defrost regularly. When they do this they may drain water down to the bottom of your fridge. Look for a tray that catches this water underneath the unit. Make sure yo keep it emptied. If you live in a very warm climate you may be getting a lot of humidity inside. There may be a switch that you can change for lower moisture.

I have the same model + problem. You should not need to defrost this model manually if it's working correctly, but the ice build up you describe is probably due to a blocked pipe in the auto-defrost system at the back. You need to defrost properly to prevent recurrence.

Behind the upper freezer drawer there's an aluminium tray behind a plastic grille. Every few days this tray warms up to melt any accumulated ice behind this plastic grille (full height of the freezer). A pipe should take the meltwater down to a plastic tray below (pipe + plastic tray are visible if you take the lower panel off the back). Your problem is too much ice blocking that pipe: the heater can't cope and it doesn't melt, so the ice 'cascades' down the back behind the bottom drawer.

When you manually defrost, you must ensure that this pipe is clear, otherwise the auto-defrost won't work, and you may have to defrost manually again within days.

I have found that the best way to defrost the pipe is to remove the lower back panel, disconnect the corrugated flexible plastic pipe from the stub that comes from the bottom of the freezer, + pump steam into the stub (gently) using a hand-held steamer (with tube + nozzle). You don't have to empty the freezer or move your food as the door stays closed, and no steam gets into the freezer until the pipe is unblocked. Be sure to unplug the freezer before taking the back off! [There is a fan in this area that could start up without warning]

Check how much of the pipe is blocked by gentle probing with a pencil: the aluminium tray is about 105mm above the bottom of the stub. This measurement is important…

When the pipe is clear, there may still be too much ice in the aluminium tray above (not sure how much is 'too much') if you only created a narrow 'chimney' though the block of ice (likely to get blocked again). You need to widen that chimney by melting more of the ice in the aluminium tray. I use a simple steam nozzle made from an old-fashioned Bic pen with a couple of 1mm holes drilled just below the coloured bung at the end. This directs steam onto the walls of the 'chimney' rather than upwards.

There's no point steaming the walls of the plastic 'stub' pipe, so only use the home-made nozzle when your probe reaches 105mm (i.e. when you have melted all the ice in the plastic stub tube but before your 'chimney' has broken through the block of ice in the aluminium tray). If you judge this right, you'll melt almost all of the ice under a still-frozen top surface: no steam will get into the freezer and your food will stay frozen. With a probe it will be clear when you've broken through the top surface of the ice. When you have done so, it's time to look inside the freezer to see how well you have cleared the aluminium tray.

It's perfectly feasible to get all this done in 30 minutes.

Don't forget to replace the corrugated plastic pipe + valve at the bottom. It stops humid air from going into the freezer and icing up in exactly the area we've just been defrosting.

Take a lot of care with steam jets as they can burn you badly. You should check a first aid website so you know what to do BEFORE it happens.

Some of these tips may be helpful: (1) run the freezer at -18 degrees (the 'warmest' setting) so it's not working so hard. (2) Leave a big gap (>100mm) between the back of the freezer and the wall. (3) Clean the matrix of delicate tubes to the left of the fan whilst you have the back off [a small bottle brush is ideal; remove the fan for better access]. (4) Put something between the middle of the freezer and the wall to prevent the warm air that's being blown out behind the fridge from being sucked into the air intake behind the freezer (there is a baffle built in underneath, but nothing behind. (5) Mount the fan on spacers (with longer screws) so that it's closer to the heat exchanger… this means that a larger area of grille can act as an air intake. (6) Raise the unit off the floor a little to free up the air intake path beneath the freezer.

The cause if no defrost cycle , remove the panel where the ice is and derost with unit unplugged , use a hairdryer or similar to defrost ice , make sure its all defrosted , check the heater under that coil to make sure its still intact.
Also check the defrost timer , there may be a wiring diagram on the back showing where this is located.
Phil

Has this thing a separate frezer and cooler compartment.
Have tried to completely defrost and clean that thing.
At times like in airco's the pinch valve for the cooling process to effect (expansion) is stuck frozen, or very seldom broke.

Hi, You will find that your problem relates to the defrost heater in the freezer. You will need to take the drawers out and remove the back panel to access the evaporator. There is a foil heater that lays underneath the evaporator and it will need to be changed. Along with the klixon that controls it. This will ensure that both parts are good. Your problem will then be fixed no more water!
Good luck................

hi thanks for the question the drain hose leading from the freezer is clogged up remove the ice from the bottom pull fridge from wall find small drain tube clean the tube now it will drain into tray vacuum out while your there thanks the appliance doc