Common fault
Why does frost keep building up in my freezer?
Short answer
Frost you have already cleared once, coming back a second time, means the defrost cycle is no longer completing.
The reasoning behind that
On a freezer column the usual causes are a failed defrost heater, a thermistor that has drifted out of range, or a door gasket that has lost its magnetic pull on a heavy paneled door. A few blocks from the bay it shows up faster than it would inland, because every door opening hands the cabinet moister air to deal with, and the cycle now has more water to remove than it can manage. Once the evaporator furs over it insulates itself, and the number on the display stops matching the air inside.
How the diagnosis goes
Clearing the frost by hand tells you nothing except that it will come back. What tells us something is where it forms: on the rear wall over the evaporator points at defrost, around the door and along the top edge points at the gasket or at a door that is not closing square on its hinges, and ice on the floor of a drawer usually means the drain trough underneath has closed up.
Check the seal yourself in thirty seconds. Shut a strip of paper in the door and pull it out, and do it at six or eight places all the way around, not just at the handle. Anywhere it slides out with no resistance is a section of gasket that is no longer pulling, and on a built-in with a heavy custom panel that is often a hinge or an alignment issue rather than the gasket itself.
If that matches what yours is doing, say so when you call — it decides which parts come on the van.
I called late at night when my freezer alarm sounded. They were the only repair service answering calls and sent a technician that same night. He fixed a faulty seal and saved our frozen food. Lifesavers in Downtown San Diego!
Fridge went warm every afternoon and was fine again by morning, so I had myself convinced the compressor was going. He pulled the grille first and the coil was packed solid with lint off the laundry closet right beside it. Cleaned it, checked the freezer side, done in an hour.
Ice had gone small and hollow right before a convention week with people staying with us. He put a gauge on the water line, said the pressure that far up the building was marginal and the filter was two years old. New filter and the cubes came out full the next day.
Appliance down in Downtown San Diego?
Tell us the brand and what it is doing — we can usually name the likely repair before we arrive.
Questions
Answers before you call
Do you really answer at night, on weekends and on holidays?
Yes, around the clock, every day of the year. A freezer column carries less mass than a wide side-by-side, so it loses ground fast once a fan or the defrost circuit quits, and an alarm at eleven at night is worth ringing through. Same-day appointments are common, often within a few hours.
Will my refrigerator have to be pulled out of the cabinetry?
Almost never. Built-in refrigeration is serviced in the opening: condenser behind a lift-off grille, with the evaporator fan, defrost heater, thermistors and control board reachable in place. In a condo that matters, because a 36 inch column often will not turn in the hallway it came down, and dragging one over a hardwood loft floor risks the panel and the flooring.