Our fridge that came with the house has a special sort of anti-feature in the icemeaker system: It freezes up the fan, constantly, which means the ice slowly melts out. Defrosting the fridge (and mopping up the puddles on the kitchen floor from it) are getting exceedingly old.
Our icemaker is a “compartment in the top left of the fridge area,” with a 120mm computer fan in the back pulling cold air up from the freezer. Unfortunately, for reasons I don’t fully understand, this rapidly turns into a block of ice and requires defrosting. I normally use a hair dryer, and a cardboard tube, but it’s quite stupid.
I’ve seen fridges that are the similar setup, but instead of having the icemaker in the top corner, they’ve got it in the door - and seem to have some vents that pipe cold air in. I don’t see a fan in the door, so I’m assuming it’s a “push” system from below.
If you have one of these in-door icemakers, does it regularly freeze up and make your life a pain?
through-door ice makers in particular leak a lot of air. I can usually put my hand under the spout and feel cold air drifting out.
The in-laws have an in-door ice maker (ice making unit is attached to the ceiling of the side-by-side, the ice storage is in the door, with the dispenser/crusher in the door), and if they don’t use enough ice, yes, the bottom ice in the bucket will melt and refreeze into a solid block. So they have to regularly empty it (or turn it off). At home, we switched to covered (air tight) ice trays, which solved our low quantity ice usage (read: two margaritas a day in summer, rarely more), and removed the need for a through-door energy-leaker.
I have a standard side by side from Best Buy (Whirlpool) and it’s coming on six years old now. Ice maker in the door, no real problems with it ever, unless we don’t use ice for awhile AND keep opening the freezer door.
I would suspect some sort of “self defrost” cycle being busted, or something. Usually that’s one of the first things to go.
If/when this one dies, I may just get a freezer, a fridge, and a separate ice maker.
Several inches - it’s not having any problems with keeping cool, or venting heat. It’s just the interior design of the freezer ducting doesn’t work if there’s any humidity in the air.