Ice at back of fridge

[gaz1250]

My fridge has very thick ice at the back of it and needs defrosting nearly every week. The dial has 1-10 on it and I've set it on 1 and its still freezing, Do I need a new thermostat or something?

[Kingaroo]

Try setting it at 10. If no change, the thermostat is bad. If it solves the problem, you've been turning it colder instead of warmer!

[gen2]

If thick ice is building up that quickly, it is unlikely to be the thermostat - you have to ask yourself where all the water vapour is coming from to greate that ice. One possibility is that you are placing lots of wet material or open containers of liquid in your fridge. I think that is the less likely cause.

Much more likely is a failed magnetic door seal. Either the seal itself is damaged / worn, or the part of the seal on the door is no longer aligning with the part on the frame. If someone has leaned on the door whilst open, the hinge pivot may be bent and the alignment no longer true. If the door does not seal completely, cold dry air will escape from the fridge to be replaced by warm moist air from the room.

[Clanad]

Or, if it's an automatic defrosting model, the defroster mechanism has failed. You can fix this yourself, however on a scale of 1 to 10 it has a difficulty factor of about 7. Under the ice on the back panel are a set of defrosters. They look like tubular shaped light bulbs and produce heat. The worst part of the job is defrosting and removing the ice completely, since there will be ice under the panel as well as the ice you can see on the panel. It requires that you remove the panel, but it is usually held on by just a few easily accessible screws. If you attempt this fix, be sure to clean the drain which carries the water from the ice to a holding pan under the fridge. Clean the pan while you're at it... it's not a pretty sight if it's been neglected... Best of luck!