Defrosting the Refer

[TXTiger]

I have a 2012 Cyclone 4014 with a Dometric double door refer. The freezer is building up a lot of frost. My questions are.

1. Is this normal or do I have a problem?

2. If normal are you supposed to defrost and how often?

3. If you are supposed to defrost how is it down? Can you defrost without turning off the refer? I am a full timer and need my refer on.

 

[porthole]

Once the fins are full of ice and solid it is time.

Pack a cooler and open it up.

And it is normal, the more you open the fridge and the higher the humidity the greater the ice build up.

 

[MTPockets]

I load everything in a cooler, turn off the frig, place a Towell on the racks, leave the door open, wait until ice is melted, wipe away and clean with Towell, turn on frig, put stuff back in. Usually 3 hrs or so, and 2 or 3 times per year. We are full time so it's always on and build up does vary depending on humidity.

 

[Ray LeTourneau]

The method we've been using is to empty out the freezer and turn off the fridge leaving the freezer door open but the lower door closed with our stuff still in it. We put a little post it note on the fridge to remind us it's off. Once the freezer is defrosted, the lower fins are usually free of ice/frost. This is about a 3 week cycle for us. I've tried Dometics suggestions which didn't work.

 

[Speedy]

We do the same thing but I add a small desk fan to blow warmer coach air inside the freezer to speed things along. Takes about two hours from start to finish.

 

[jjriker]

We took everything out the first time and then realized it was just the freezer that really needed to be defrosted. So we also just turn off the fridge, leave the cold stuff in the lower fridge part, and let the freezer part defrost. We always make sure we don't have anything like ice cream etc when we are about to defrost the freezer.

 

[swburbguy]

On my little bar refrigerator at home I use a hair dryer to speed things up

 

[MikeR]

On my little bar refrigerator at home I use a hair dryer to speed things up

I don't know about Dometic refrigerators, but I do know that the Suburban manual specifically states not to use a hair dryer while defrosting.

 

[VKTalley]

I have a 2012 Cyclone 4014 with a Dometric double door refer. The freezer is building up a lot of frost. My questions are.

1. Is this normal or do I have a problem?

2. If normal are you supposed to defrost and how often?

3. If you are supposed to defrost how is it down? Can you defrost without turning off the refer? I am a full timer and need my refer on.

Tony, I usually defrost our freezer about twice a year. I remove everything from the freezer, open the doors and lay two folded towels in the bottom of the freezer and wait. Like the others have said, it takes a couple of hours but the frig will stay cold as long as you don't open it. We also full-time, so I totally understand needing the frig. This last time I defrosted, I started mid-morning and by lunch it was clear of ice buildup. Hopefully, that will be the last time I will have to defrost the frig as we are getting all the prep work done to replace it with a counter-depth residential refrigerator. I can't wait!!!!