Hello,

I have a problem with my evaporator being covered in ice. Here is my story so far.

In September 2021 I replaced the water inlet valve because water was trickling into the ice maker tray when it wasn't calling for water. The ice mold tray overflowed and it froze and there were icicles all over the inside of the freezer compartment. I replaced the water inlet valve and the water leaking into the ice tray was solved but the ice maker was no longer making ice so I thought maybe when the water overflowed it might have damaged the ice maker controls. I replaced the ice maker as well and it was working properly again.

Now, a month later in October, I have this new issue I noticed since 10/15/21 where the freezer and fridge side both had higher than normal temperatures even though the food and ice was still frozen and the fresh food was still cool but not as cool as it should be. This is when I started checking basic things like the condenser coils, condenser fan, and evaporator fan. I cleaned the condenser coil as best as possible and verified the two fans were spinning. When checking the evaporator fan, I noticed that the evaporator was frozen in ice. This is when I checked the defrost thermostat and the defrost heater and both had continuity. Does my previous problem with the ice maker and water inlet valve have anything to do with this current problem?

After checking all those parts I chatted with Appliance Pro Support on 10/19/21 and they suggested maybe the control board is bad but it's no longer available. I found some third parties online selling or repairing these boards but I still wasn't sure if this would solve my issue. Support was also kind enough to give me the service and wiring sheet in order to perform the onboard diagnostics using the temperature control panel. So when I got home from work I went through all the diagnostics and they all passed including step 7 which was to activate the heater to melt the ice. I activated step 7 and visually saw the ice melting from the evaporator so I'm confused on what my actual issue is that caused the ice to form to begin with. If the control board was bad, how was I able to perform step 7 to activate the heater? If I was able to get the ice to melt from the diagnosis step 7, doesn't that mean the heater, defrost thermostat, and control board are all working properly? I'm actually more confused now and could use some more advice please?


Thank you.

I unplugged it on Monday night 10/18/21 when I was doing my original tests which led me to finding the evaporator covered in ice. Tuesday night 10/19/21 is when I performed the onboard diagnostics using the control display in the fresh food side. I did not unplug the fridge this day. Wednesday morning 10/20/21 is when I noticed that it had defrosted on its own. Today, Thursday morning 10/21/21 I did not notice water in the pan and the coil does not look like it's defrosted. Is there supposed to be a certain time of day it's supposed to defrost like on a schedule? Or does it just know when it's supposed to defrost and the days and times vary all the time?