Detailed Guide To Defrosting A Samsung Refrigerator

There are several uncomplicated steps that you need to make to defrost a Samsung refrigerator. The steps include turning the refrigerator off, removing everything from it and then leaving it open for some time until the ice melts. But there are other ways of defrosting, which are faster, then just leaving your refrigerator open for some time.
Several reasons may cause a frost formation inside.  This article will help you to defrost your Samsung refrigerator without too much trouble. Your refrigerator may not cool good enough or stop cooling at all if you will leave too much frost inside. The frost may even cause damage for the refrigerator.
We need to know, what causes frost to build up and how to get rid of it.

Defrosting A Samsung Refrigerator – Why Does The Frost Forms Inside It?

Detailed Guide To Defrosting A Samsung Refrigerator Frost in the refrigerator

Several reasons may cause frosting inside a Samsung refrigerator. It depends on how and where you use your refrigerator in most cases, but other reasons may cause frosting too. We should look at the most common cases here.

Warm Air

Detailed Guide To Defrosting A Samsung Refrigerator Door is not closed

The warmer the air – the more humidity it may contain. It is simple physics. The air cools down as it enters the refrigerator and the moisture needs to settle somewhere, like on a cold surface of a evaporator coil.
If you live in a quite hot or humid area, then this may be your case. The evaporator coils produce cool air inside your refrigerator, and sometimes the coils may get in contact with too humid or too hot air. This will cause the frost to form. Why does the warm air get inside your refrigerator?
The air gets inside, of course, when you open the door, or the door may not be shut tightly. Or you may forget to close the door soon enough, or you may just open it too frequently. This would result in a quite nasty frost buildup.
In that case you should take what you need from it and keep the refrigerator’s door shut. If you won’t use the refrigerator too often, then warm air would stay outside and it will enter the refrigerator, but at minimal levels.

Refrigerant Level

The refrigerant gas expands at evaporator coils and takes away the refrigerator’s internal temperature with it. If there is not enough pressure or there is blockage somewhere in the cooling system, then the efficiency of the evaporator coils decreases. If there is too much refrigerant, than it may liquefy and cause a blockage inside the cooling system. The frosting may appear in both cases.

Damaged Parts

Some parts may be damaged inside your Samsung refrigerator an cause an ice buildup. The defrost thermostat and compressor may be the common cause.

Detailed Guide To Defrosting A Samsung Refrigerator Compressor
Without a properly working defrost thermostat the system will not regulate the cooling/defrosting cycles and will result in a heavy frosting inside. If it is malfunctioning, the refrigerator would not stop the cooling cycle until the internal temperature is too low and cause the ice buildup.
The broken cooling compressor in your new refrigerator may be the reason for the ice buildup inside. You should call the manufacturer in that case. But do note, that a newly installed refrigerator may need from 6 to 12 hours before reaching a freezer’s working temperature. The refrigerators with a self-defrost feature need tor turn the cooling compressor off on turn on the defrost heater and fan for  defrost process to commence. The auto-defrosting will not work, if there is a problem with compressor.

What To Do And What To Do Not To Defrost Your Samsung Refrigerator

You should be careful not to damage your Samsung refrigerator in the process of defrosting it.
1. Prepare all the tools you need for defrosting – like a bowl and a towel.
2. Remove and dispose of the stuff you don’t need, while the refrigerator is defrosting.
3. Do not forget to clean your Samsung refrigerator after defrosting – wash the shelves, doors and sides.
4. Make sure you keep electrical equipment away – the water may be dripping on the floor and short circuit the wires or any electrical appliances nearby.
5. Keep the door open. You will need warm air for defrosting. If you keep the door shut, then only the cold and moist air would circulate inside the refrigerator and it will not defrost.
6. Defrost your refrigerator on regular basis. If you wait for too long, there will be too much frost inside and your refrigerator will not cool good enough, sometimes even the doors may not shut anymore because of frost.
7. Do not use anything sharp for removing frosting inside your refrigerator. You can puncture the evaporator coils, the refrigerant will leak, and you will need to spend a lot of money to repair it.

Things You Will Need For Defrosting Your Samsung Refrigerator

1. A bucket
2. A towel
3. Bowls, medium sized
4. A large cooler
5. A washing liquid
6. Plastic or wooden spatula

Where Can I Find The Defrost Button On My Samsung Refrigerator?

There is no such button, but every new generation Samsung refrigerator has a defrost timer.

Detailed Guide To Defrosting A Samsung Refrigerator Defrost Timer
You can find it at the back of the fridge, at the lower kickplate or somewhere near the control panel.
There should be four metal terminals at the defrost timer’s bottom. Also check the owner’s manual and see if there is something about the defrost timer.
The timer will switch automatically cooling and defrost modes, so you don’t need do it manually.

How To Start A Defrosting Process?

First, turn off your refrigerator before you clean it. If the refrigerator is on with an open door, then there will be more ice buildup. You can damage it, if you leave big bowls with hot water inside. The steam from the hot water would turn into frost forms on the evaporator coil.
Second, remove all edibles and removable shelves from inside. You can wash the shelves while the refrigerator is defrosting. If the shelves are stuck because of ice, then wait for it to melt for some time and try again.

Detailed Guide To Defrosting A Samsung Refrigerator Defrost Hairdryer
Leave the doors open and clean your Samsung refrigerator when all the ice was melt. But it may take a whole day for the ice to melt, so you might have to wait for it.
You can accelerate the ice melting process using the following things:
If you put bows of hot water inside, then the process won’t take much time. The steam would melt the ice on the refrigerator’s internal surfaces. But do not forget to leave the door open. But change the water every 10 minutes or so, because it would cool down quite soon.
You can also scrape the ice from the walls with a wooden or plastic spatula, spoon or something similar, but not sharp objects. Do not puncture the refrigerant lines, or the repairs would be expensive.
A blow dryer or a heater fan should also hasten the process a lot. But be careful, and keep the electrical cords away from any water, which may be on the floor. Make sure your blow dryer won’t overheat in the process and do not overheat the insides of the fridge, because this also may damage the cooling system.
Or you can simply use a non-heating fan. The fan would blow the warm air inside the fridge and also accelerate the melting process a lot, but this way you do not need to monitor the process constantly, just make sure the cords won’t touch the water from the fridge.
If the ice is thin, you could use alcohol on a hot cloth. First, dip the cloth in hot water, then pour some alcohol on it, then remove ice with that cloth. The ice would melt rapidly.

What If My Samsung Refrigerator Does Not Defrost?

You need to check control board, wiring, defrost timer, heater assembly, sensor, fuse and thermostat.
Switch, if possible, the fridge dial to defrost, and see if the heater is on and compressor is off. That would mean, that the timer is fine. For other components you should check continuity between components with a multimeter, but it would be better to call a professional for that kind of work.

Control Board Malfunction

The board distributes power to all refrigerator’s parts. If it is faulty, then it wouldn’t power on the defrost system and cause the ice buildup inside. But such problem is not frequent and you should check other parts for faults too.

Defrost Thermostat Malfunction

The thermostat’s contacts close, when the the evaporator coils reach certain temperature. It triggers the defrost timer.

Frost Timer Or Heater Malfunction

The timer switches cooling and defrosting systems over time to keep the temperature low and internal parts dry. If it is faulty, then the heater or cooling system would not turn on. If the timer is fine, then check the heater for continuity with a multimeter and replace, if needed.

Defrost Control Board Malfunction

There may be a separate control board for defrosting, check it after you sure that heater and timer are working fine.

What If My Samsung Refrigerator Does Not Cool After The Defrosting?

The usual reason here is that the defrost timer my be stuck on defrost mode. The timer balances the fridge between cooling and defrosting modes. If it is stuck in either mode, then the fridge would not function properly and may accumulate frost inside. You need to replace the timer, if it is stuck.

How To Defrost A Specific Samsung Refrigerator Model?

For a double door fridge, hold down “fridge” and “power freeze”, the display should go blank. Then press any button, there should be “Fd” on the display. That means the refrigerator started the “force defrost”s process.

Detailed Guide To Defrosting A Samsung Refrigerator Power Freeze
This applies to most double door refrigerators, but there are other ways to defrost your Samsung refrigerator manually

Samsung RF28 Defrost

To start a “force defrost” on a Samsung RF28 refrigerator, press and hold at the same time “energy saver” and “power freeze/freezer” for about 4 seconds. Then you should hear a “beep”, and the display would show “OFF”.
For manual defrost press and hold “energy saver” and “fridge/power cool” for 12 seconds. That would power the fridge off. If you press the “fridge/power cool” button, then it will switch to forced freeze mode.
If you press the same button again for 3 times, then it would switch to forced defrost mode.

Samsung RF263 Defrost

Press and hold “energy saver” and “fridge” buttons for 8 seconds. The display would power off. After that, press the “fridge” button four times, the refrigerator would switch to “Fd” mode (forced defrost).
Samsung RF263BEAESR Ice Maker Defrost
Press and hold “energy saver” and “fridge” buttons for 8 to 10 seconds. The display wold go bland and the fridge would beep. Press the “fridge” button four times, both the refrigerator and ice maker would switch to forced defrost mode (“Fd” on display ). You cannot defrost the ice maker separately.

Samsung RF263BEAESR Defrost

There is an “energy saver” button on the left from the front side of the fridge. And there is “fridge button” on the right side. Press and hold both buttons for about 8 seconds, the display would go blank. Press 4 times the fridge button until there is “Fd” on the display.

Samsung RF24FSEDBSR Defrost

Press and hold the “fridge” and “power save” buttons for about 8 seconds, then press the “fridge” button until there is a “Fd” on display. The fridge would beep until the defrosting process is completed.

Samsung RF23J9011SR Defrost

Press and hold the “cool select” and “freezer” buttons for about 8 seconds, then press any other button for 4 times to switch it to forced defrost mode. There should be “Fd” on display. The fridge would beep for 25 minutes after that, which is normal.

Samsung SRF680CDLS Defrost

Press and hold the “fridge” and “energy saver” buttons for about 8 seconds, then press the fridge button, until there is a “Fd” on the display. The forced defrost mode is on.

Conclusion

You should defrost and clean you Samsung refrigerator at leas once a year to keep it in proper working condition. It is a simple, but long process.

Detailed Guide To Defrosting A Samsung Refrigerator Clean
If your refrigerator is a self-defrosting one, then a malfunctioning parts might have caused it to accumulate ice inside. If this is the case, than you should defrost it manually and call a technician for repairs.

Defrosting a Samsung refrigerator – FAQ

How To Defrost Samsung Ice Maker?

To start a force defrost process on your Samsung ice maker, press both “energy saver” and “fridge/power cool” buttons and hold for 8 seconds approximately. The ice maker should beep after that, then you press several times the “energy saver” button until there is a “Fd” on the screen. Wait for the fridge to defrost. It will beep in the process.

How To Turn Off Forced Defrost Mode on a Samsung Refrigerator?

To turn off the forced defrost mode push both “energy saver” and “power freeze/freezer” buttons. The screen will reset and the fridge will resume it’s normal operation.

Why To Defrost Your Samsung Refrigerator?

You need to do that to keep  your refrigerator in a working order. When the air cools down inside the fridge, the water vapor in that air settles on the fridge’s internal surfaces and turn to ice. Too much of that ice will block the normal air circulation and the refrigerator won’t be able to keep it’s temperature low enough.

My Samsung Refrigerator Does Not Defrost – What To Do?

If you cannot start the forced defrost process, then you must check thermostat, defrost timer, heater, control board and thermistor. If either of them does not work, then the defrost process would not commence.
Consult your manual – there may be instructions to replace a part yourself, or call a qualified professional to do it.

How Long Do I Have To Wait For My Samsung Refrigerator To Defrost?

I need to wait for at least 8 hours after you unplug your refrigerator. Forced defrost may take less time. Clean your refrigerator and let it dry before powering it on.

Is There A Forced Defrost Alarm On My Samsung Refrigerator?

Usually there is no specific alarm for a forced defrost mode. But the refrigerator will beep and show “Fd” on it’s display in this mode.

How Often Do I Need To Defrost a Samsung Refrigerator?

You should do it at least once a year, or more, if there is frost inside.

What Is A “Forced Defrost” Mode In My Samsung Refrigerator?

This mode helps you to get rid of ice buildup quicker, than a doing it manually. The refrigerator heats itself and melts the ice inside.

How To Use The “Forced Defrost” Mode In My Samsung Refrigerator?

If you have a tabletop model, then press and hold for 8 seconds “Power Freeze” and “Fridge” buttons, then press any other button to switch to “Fd” mode on display. You should hear a beep.
If you have a dispenser model, than press and hold for 8 seconds “Freezer” and “Lighting”, the display will become blank, then other button to switch to “Fd” mode on display.
Reset your refrigerator by disconnecting it’s power cord after that.

How Much Time Does The “Forced Defrost” Mode Takes To Remove Frosting?

Usually it will take only 20 minutes, which is way less, than waiting for a whole day in case of a manual defrost. The refrigerator may beep during the forced defrost process.