Any tips for reducing frost/ice build up on cold plates ?

[Imagineou812]

Does anyone have any novel methods for reducing ice and frost build up on cold plates ? I have a Seafrost air cooled refridgeration as well as freezer system and am getting abundant frost build up on the refer side of the 2 seperate systems ?

[Bill O]

Have you checked your door seals?

[Imagineou812]

Yes , they’re old and probably not in the best of shape !!! Probably need updating and replacing!!!

[ItDepends]

Water (i.e.; ICE) comes from two places.

What you put into the freezer, and air that leaks in. There are no other sources of water (ice).

Everything that goes into a freezer should be hermetially sealed. Vacuum sealed is best. This is a special nightmare for people running fridge/freezer combination boxes. It is a serious downside to a combination box that is rarely discussed.

The lid/door seals need to be totally air tight.

If you keep water from leaking out of the food you put in the box AND keep air from leaking in, you will go months without defrosting the freezer.

[sailingunity]

I just switched out my fridge / freezer combo for a fridge only. My main culprit was kids opening the door 8000 times a day.

[hzcruiser]

Well, has anyone tried adding a desiccant to the fridge or freezer to absorb the humidity that gets in during normal use?

[hzcruiser]

As I'm about to build my own fridge/freezer combo, I'm also thinking:

How about covering the evaporator(s) with a thin silicone film or cover? Once there is ice on that it would be a matter of quickly shaking it off?

[Rjt]

Couple of things worked for me.
A) as above, stop moisture getting in.
B) add a small PC style fan. 50mm 12v works wonders. Fridge temp evens out. Fridge uses less power too.
C) put a drain in the fridge. Coil the drain tube below the fridge (stops cold air leaking out) and run it to your bilge or a jar.
Good luck finding your best solution.

[OS2Dude]

A Sure-Fire 100% effective remedy is to chip a can frozen in the frost out with a sharp object. I did that and that cooler never frosted over again!

You could raise the temperature a bit if you're not trying to keep frozen food in there. Could save you some amps if you're running it off the house bank.

[Centreboard2017]

Hi, having just had our fridge checked by an engineer I can share a couple of thoughts around excess frosting on plates.
It can be a symptom of an issue with the system of cooling - from your post you say the ice build up is on the plate?
The other thing is, also from our lovely fridge engineer, dont cover up the plate with anything as this will interfere with the processes.

We had the opposite issue, the cold plate was not frosting right to the top - does yours? If not it could mean a coolant leak somewhere.

[Mlp48]

I have managed a boat with 12V and 120V cold plates prior and have worked very diligently on "demon frost".

I began thinking there wasn't enough insulation but that adding more was next to impossible but for a rebuild and/or surgery.

Warmer than box AIR intrusion, I thought, was the contributor to frost seen in this application and it may be yours -- esp. with what you say of your door seals.

We renewed the door seals after going through several options but also found an attractive, affordable insulating pad to cover beyond the perimeter of the opening's top. The result was a good bit LESS frost.

Oh, there was a box drain so I reckoned a need to shut that air off too -- as hot air .. what else... rises. Reaching that took a very dedicated long arm to reach so the right sized stopper for the hole was found, drilled -- and then a rod was glued to that.

I came away with a new appreciation for household fridges and freezers which are now frost-free for the most part. They use heating elements and fans and those are a 120V convenience and not one so practical with many boat which are 12V or less voltages than 120/240V.

[boat driver]

new seals

[sailorboy1]

Originally Posted by Imagineou812

am getting abundant frost build up on the refer side of the 2 seperate systems ?

It is from the humidly in the air. But mine ices up (on the refrigerator side) mainly from not having good air flow. Air needs to be able to freely flow into and out of the unit and upper/lower sections of the box. I installed a 2" fan on a pvc pipe that blows air from the top to the bottom of the box. I also rewired the evaporator fan at the tubes to run all the time

[skipmac]

Originally Posted by sailorboy1

I installed a 2" fan on a pvc pipe that blows air from the top to the bottom of the box.

I did exactly the same. Several benefits:

Shorter run times so increased efficiency
Reduces frost build up a little
Keeps stuff in the bottom from freezing when the fridge is really full and air circulation restricted.

[astokel]

My 12V fridge-only uses the Peltier effect. The build-up of ice on the fins was troublesome. After a lot of experimentation, I discovered that putting the fridge on a timer, 30 minutes on, and 30 minutes off all day helped. In the 30 minutes it is off, the ice melts off the fins and it doesn`t seem to affect the fridge temperature (usually around 6 degrees Celcius). On the downside, there is quite a bit of water build-up in the bottom of the fridge.