Permanently stop your Samsung French door refrigerator from freezing and icing up - Super Cheap Fix!

In today's episode of Tinkering With Tiny Humans, we show you how to fix the constant icing up / ice build up and lack of cooling associated with Samsung french door refrigerators that were sold in the last 10 years. Mine is an RF28HDEDSTR, but my appliance repair buddy says that he sees this issue with many similar models. Leave a comment if this worked for you or if you have any other thoughts!

At first, you might notice a ticking or ting ting sound when you open the door. That is the sound of the circulating fan blades hitting accumulated ice in the evaporator coil cover. As soon as you open the door, the ticking or clicking sound will stop. This is because there are two concealed magnetic switches in the door, and power to the fan is interrupted when you open the door. Eventually, the unit will ice up completely, the air will not circulate, and the food compartment temperature will start to rise. We show you the secret Samsung diagnostic codes that will reveal if your fan is stalled or if the coil defrosts cycle is not working properly.

It is always a good idea to get a Factory / OEM service manual when you are fixing stuff. Yeah, you'll pay $10-50 for a factory service manual, but it will save you SOOOOOO much time. These guys have everything from schematics to your Dennon receiver, to service manuals for your Caterpillar earth-moving equipment.

This is is the cover that my fridge uses, but here are some of my favorite parts dealers

Thanks for watching! ––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––
Happy and Joyful Children by Free Music

• Happy Children Ba...
Creative Commons — Attribution 3.0 Unported — CC BY 3.0
Music promoted by Audio Library

• Happy and Joyful ...
–––––––––––––––––––––––––––––– Melody of Happiness — Igor Khainskyi

Happy and Joyful Children – Free Music

Mr. Turtle – The Green Orbs

Upbeat Travel Pop by Infraction [No Copyright Music] / Ride It

Rainy Day Games – The Green Orbs

Upbeat Background Ukulele by Infraction [No Copyright Music] / Trip

Upbeat Acoustic Vlog by MOKKA [No Copyright Music] / Journey

Ikson - Walk (Vlog No Copyright Music)

[Dannydrake]

Okay for everyone wondering. I can confirm this 100% works!! It's a sealing issue. I haven't defrosted my fridge in 4 months! No fan noise no freezing up vents! I was defrosting manually removing everything every 3 weeks. Thank you thank you!

[thewayiseeit]

I solved my water/ice problem on my Samsung!!!! After a year of this problem and calling SAMSUNG who would not help, I did the perfect repair job!! I threw my Samsung fridge out and purchased a new one of a different

[TJCZNIK]

I did 3 things. First I changed out the temp sensor, just to be sure, and moved it to the inside then I put the new extended and bigger tab on the bottom of the defrost element and lastly I added 1/4 x 3/16 inch insulation foam tape around the cover. It’s been working great for 2 months now and no freezing issues. The fridge even seems quieter. Thanks for sharing your experience.

[colomacountry]

I love it when a DIY guy knows more than a Samsung tech, but I think the kids got lost when you grabbed the manual haha. Thanks for all this info. I'm on my 5th tech and still freezes up so I'm going to recommend these steps to the tech. The last time I called Samsung they said they would replace it if the tech couldn't figure it out so I guess I'll get a new fridge if this fails. All in all, I think you are correct about the fan not getting the ice off the coil, once that coil freezes it stars to creek, until it ends up in the ice compartment and then it's game over. I also did here the ticking sound from the ice touching the fan...that's when this all started. Awesome video!

[timothyspencer]

Legendary. I have been “fixing” this problem for two years and this is the closest to a true repair I’ve seen. I love the format, and including your children is awesome. I want to be your friend!

[maggiemm]

It's been about a month, and no signs of freezing up, so I figured it was a good time to leave a comment. REALLY APPRECIATE this video and all the comments below. We moved into our house in November and the fridge had likely never been defrosted so we had some MAJOR ice buildup. We defrosted with the rD cycle and steamed it back in November. It eventually froze over again. Decided to take it all apart, used a clothes steamer to get everything melted, including huge chunks of ice behind the fan blade. Based on WaffleStaffel's comment, we elected to simply move the thermistor to the location you pointed out in the video. As of today (~30 days later), we've had no issues with freezing and no signs of ice buildup.

TL;DR - move the thermistor and fix your fridge :)

[flchavi]

Spent less than $10 to try this fix over the weekend. If it works I'm going to be so excited because just like others we've been struggling with this problem for the past year.

[anghiggy]

It's absolutely awesome how you have your kids involved and they actually enjoy it!!
I just finished fixing the ice machine problem (hopefully permanently), but while following a link to that part and reading reviews one lady said it fixed her ice maker but didn't fix her issue with water under the meat and cheese drawer. I didn't know what she was talking about so I pulled that drawer out and holy moley there was a lake of water there! I had no clue that was happening! I'd been complaining to my husband for the last year or so that my cheeses were molding fairly quickly, which I've never had a problem with, ever, that just doesn't happen to this cheese lover, so I'm betting it's from that. So that's how I ended up here. First one I watched showed how to change the clip at the draining point and now you've showed the rest. I'm going to do all these things at once and have a permanent fix. Then I can go back to loving my Samsung fridge again!! Thanks so much for the very informative video!

[PaulTenorio]

The insulation alone fixed my problem. Posted after 2 months of no issues. Thanks for the help!! Next step is fixing the ice maker.

[easternkimba]

1 important thing I also found was that, you should keep the temperature of fridge @ 4 degrees & freezer -17 degrees Celsius.
This allows the fridge to turn off more frequently, hence reducing the build up of ice.
Most people have -20 & 1 degrees, this is too cold. And eventually ices up

[stacytilney]

I haven't even tried yet to see if this fixes my problem, but I don't even care whether it does. Watching dad with the kids doing this project, being together... this video made my life better today. 💛

[PhilNing]

I have a Samsung French door refrigerator that came with the house I bought in 2016. Had this issue recently and ended up calling a local refrigerator guy. He explained, just like everybody on this video has said, that this is an EXTREMELY common issue with Samsung (and he said LG's as well). Had to pay $560 for him to replace the control panel (of which some circuits had burnt out because of the moisture), thermostat and fan. I called Samsung and they said since the refrigerator was out of warranty the only thing they would have done was send their own technician and I still would have had to pay for it out of pocket. If it was under warranty it would have been covered.

[markied]

You're the man but such a shame Samsung requires us to have to do this for a fridge to function smh...

[jimfarber]

Thank you so much for the help! All it took for me was moving the thermistor. With all the “fixes” I’ve tried before, it would start icing up within a couple days. It’s now been about a month with no issues. Again, thank you — and your family!

[ChickyNugg]

ALMOST Every one of these fridges have the same problem. Also, this video is very wholesome. Thank you!

[tejtrambharatt]

I like the way you are teaching the kid that’s great parenting.

[patrickmorris]

Spot on. The magnet trick may be the greatest thing I've learned all year. Thanks for taking the time to make such a thorough and easy to follow video. Maybe I can stop living out of the camp cooler now.

[Dannydrake]

You sir are amazing! I've been defrosting Mt fridge with my wife's hair dryer every 2 weeks for a year! You have no idea how appreciative I am! I will try this TODAY!

[stevemann]

You nailed it! Samsung was no help in fixing the problem. We had to remove water from under the drawers every month for two years. Now, the gurgling sounds are gone too. Thanks for sharing this information. You've helped many unhappy Samsung customers.

[ronmahle]

Worked like a charm. Tried all the other fixes, but no joy. Been over three months now and no water under the drawer. Thanks, mate!