Community Forums

mre · 05-25-2016, 01:49 PM

We just started a four month trip in our new motorhome and have a ice maker. Never had one before. The frig is also an RV frig, not a residential one. We are a week and a half into the trip and we have been camping in areas that have mostly been hot and humid and noticed that the freezer is really frosting up quickly. Once we started defrost and clean it up, we were surprised to see the large amount of frost around the ice maker unit. I told my wife that it must be because they freezer is not self defrosting like residential refrigerators. Is this characteristic of RV refrigerators?

**Lt Dan** · 05-25-2016, 02:40 PM

Our Norcold would build up a pretty good layer of frost after several weeks, but what you are describing in only a week and a half sounds excessive. It sounds like you have an air leak around the door seals letting moist air into the freezer. Do the dollar bill test around the perimeter of the door. If you don't feel any drag as you pull the bill out, then it's probably not sealing correctly.

ByeTheWay · 05-25-2016, 02:43 PM

We defrost our Dometic every 6/7 weeks, in humid weather. No ice maker.

Mike and Cha · 05-25-2016, 02:51 PM

Our does a self defrost if it builds up. So far we have had several month long trips and that has not been an issue. We have the icemaker and if we do get some build up it is on the fins not the icemaker. Our fridge is usually set on 6 or 7 and keeps the freezer usually between 0-5 degrees and the fridge right around 35 degrees. When it does it's self defrost of the cooling fins it goes up to about 40 degrees until the ice melts off. We have been in hot weather, but not necessarily humid weather, so not sure how that may affect it.

mre · 05-25-2016, 03:08 PM

Thanks for the replies. We have a Norcold side-by-side. There is a solid wall between the right and left freezers. The freezer on the left has the ice maker. After doing the "dollar bill test", I found that the inside center of the left door is not sealing properly. One more item for my warranty punch list when I return home. Any suggestions on how I can fix it temporary or possibly permanently?

By the way, the right side has hardly frost build-up.

DAJO · 05-25-2016, 03:20 PM

Both of our Norcold 1200 built up frost (ice) I had to defrost the fins every 3 or 4 days when in humid area. I never let the Norcold do its defrost cycle. Norcold defrost cycle could last for hours and and really bring inside temp up. To stop the automatic defrost, fridge needs to be cycled off and back on every 24 Hrs (app).

As of today we no longer have a dam Norcold and now have a Samsung RF18 YEH YEH YEH

mre · 05-25-2016, 07:56 PM

Mine is not showing any ice build-up on the fins in the frig. The freezer, which has two doors and a solid wall between the two freezer compartments, is showing significant build-up on the left side which is where the ice maker is. This leads me to believe that moisture from the ice is partially causing some of this The right side has some, which I feel is appropriate based on single door frig/freezers we have owned in the past.