What this usually is on these models
Two different complaints arrive under this heading on the Alpicool DD refrigerator: too little ice, on models that make it, and too much ice, on models that do not. The model record for this family is a single code, DD40, so everything below applies to one build rather than to a range of them. Decide which of the two you have before reading any further, because the causes below are ranked for both and they have almost nothing in common.
What the owner actually sees
- The maker runs its cycle and nothing comes out — Noise on schedule, an empty mould: the machine is being asked and has nothing to work with.
- Cubes are hollow, small, or stuck together in a lump — A mould that is not cold enough, or ice that has been sitting long enough to fuse.
- A sheet of ice across the bottom of the cabinet — Flat and clear rather than feathery — meltwater that refroze where it stood.
- NEAR MISS — the cabinet is also failing to hold temperature — Then this is a cooling fault first. Work the cooling page for this family; the ice is a symptom of it.
What it usually turns out to be, in order
- A setpoint colder than the job needs — First. Turned to its limit, a cabinet runs longer, the plate sits colder, and every bit of moisture that enters ends up as ice on it. This is the most common self-inflicted version of the complaint and it is corrected at the panel. The record holds only DD40, so this check is the whole of the family's exposure to that cause.
- Damp air getting in and freezing where it lands — Second. Where the complaint is too much ice rather than too little, the source is almost always air. Every opening, and every hour a seal does not grip, brings moisture that freezes on the coldest plate — which is why the build-up is always thickest nearest the cold and nearest the leak.
- No water reaching the ice maker, on models that have one — Last. An ice maker with no water still runs its cycle; it just turns out nothing. A valve closed after a move, a line squashed behind the cabinet, or a line frozen at its coldest point all look identical from the front: a dry mould and a machine that appears to be ignoring the request.
- Body: With one code recorded there is no older or newer build here to tell apart. With a single build in the record, the variable that is left is how the machine is being used, and the setting is the biggest part of that: a cabinet held at its coldest limit will ice up steadily no matter what else is right.
Check in this order, and why
- Set it where it needs to be, not at the limit — Give it a day at the new setting before judging. Ice already present will not disappear on its own — it has to be thawed out once. On DD40 that is the whole of this step.
- Test the seal and count the openings — A strip of paper round the seal finds the leak path; a lid that gets opened every few minutes in a warm room needs no fault at all to ice up.
- Body: The record holds one code for this family, so the order below is not a model matrix — it is the order in which these causes can be eliminated on the machine in front of you, cheapest and least invasive first.
Safety first
Safety
Switch the cabinet off at the breaker before any panel comes off, and treat a capacitor as live after the power is gone. Do not use a heat gun, a hair dryer on full or boiling water to clear ice — plastic distorts long before ice in a corner gives up. Warm water and patience are the tools for this one.
Models this page covers — The one model code recorded for this family.
Reference| Model number | Family key |
|---|---|
| DD40 | alpicool:refrigerator:dd |
When to call a technician
Call when water is confirmed arriving, the compartment is properly cold, nothing is holding the arm, and the maker still produces nothing — at that point the module is the answer and it needs parts. Call sooner if ice keeps returning within days of a full thaw while the seal grips and the drain runs, because that combination usually means the defrost arrangement itself rather than anything you can reach.
Other faults covered for this family
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