"How to: Make a Mini Refrigerator Automatic Defrost"

By Ron Stultz

27 December 2010

Summary: Buy a plug in timer. Set timer to turn off power for one hour every night. Plug timer into wall and then plug refrigerator into timer.

Background:

Have a mini refrigerator. Ice maker compartment has cooling coils that cools entire refrigerator. Under ice maker compartment is defrost drip pan. BUT mini refrigerator does not have automatic defrost.

Frost can really build up on ice maker compartment metal to the point that hardly cools rest of refrigerator.

When frost very thick, only way to defrost is to turn off refrigerator and let frost melt into drip pan and then empty drip pan before it overflows.

Make refrigerator automatic defrost (sort of):

Decided to dump current mini refrigerator for automatic defrost type but upon searching could only find one or 2 mini refrigerators that had automatic defrost and both, 3 or 4 times as, expensive as compared to cheap one I had.

Finally occurred to me that automatic defrost is nothing more than refrigerator turning itself off for an hour or so and letting frost melt into collection pan that is then routed under refrigerator for evaporation.

So, bought an cheap electric timer. Plugged timer into outlet and then refrigerator into timer. Set timer to be "on" or supply power to the refrigerator 23 out of 24 hours in a day.

Now, each night around 3am, refrigerator is turned off and with door still closed, frost on ice maker compartment melts into drip pan.

Then when timer starts refrigerator again, water in drip pan freezes.

Yes, I have to take out drip pan every week or so and bang the ice out of it, so my timer solution is not fully automatic but way better than it was.