Don’t chip the ice
Knives and screwdrivers puncture the coil, and then you have a refrigerant leak on top of the ice.
Repair guideARC AU 30896
Freezer room or display case icing up?
Ice on the coil, frost on the product, or a display case slowly turning into a block of ice. It keeps coming back until the cause is found. Here’s what usually causes it.
Before you do anything
What not to do
Don’t keep forcing defrost
Manual defrosts clear the ice for a while but hide the real fault.
Don’t block the air
In display cases, stock above the load line or over the vents stops the air curtain working and makes icing worse.
Common causes
What I usually find
Ice is a symptom. These are the causes behind it.
Defrost not working
Failed defrost heaters, a faulty defrost sensor or the wrong defrost settings let a little more ice build up every cycle.
Doors and seals
Warm, damp air getting in through a torn seal, a door that doesn’t close properly or a door left open turns straight into ice on the coil.
Evaporator fan faults
When a fan stops, that part of the coil gets colder and ices over. In Doreen a failed fan had a freezer room down for seven hours.
Read the Doreen repairBlocked drain
Defrost water that can’t drain away refreezes in the tray and grows back up into the coil.
Drain problems explainedOpen display case airflow
An open display case in Forest Hill was icing up. A proper service brought it back to normal operation.
See recent job photosCondensation on glass doors
On a display freezer in Burwood East, condensation on the glass doors had a specific cause. I diagnosed it, ordered the parts and booked the repair.
Display freezer repairs01Can I just switch it off to melt the ice?+
Defrosting it fully clears the ice for now, but it builds up again unless the cause is fixed, and the stock has to go somewhere while it’s off. Ring me first.
02Is some frost on the coil normal?+
A light, even frost that clears on each defrost is normal. Thick ice, ice that doesn’t clear, or ice on the fans or the ceiling isn’t.
Call James
Something stopped cooling?
Day or night, 7 days a week, anywhere in Victoria.
Call now0413 750 483 Available 24 hours · 7 days a weekWritten by James, refrigeration technician · Updated 2026-11-01