Common fault
Why does frost keep building up in my freezer?
Short answer
Frost that regrows within a week or two of being cleared means the defrost cycle is quitting before it finishes.
What is actually going on
Three parts cover the bulk of it: a defrost heater gone open circuit, a thermistor no longer reading the coil correctly, or a door gasket that has gone slack and is letting marine air into the cabinet. The ice then insulates the evaporator, so the freezer loses ground gradually instead of failing outright, which is why the display usually still looks correct.
What we check, and in what order
The gasket is the cause worth checking first in Pacific Beach. Kitchens here run humid for most of the year, and a seal that would be perfectly adequate in a drier inland kitchen admits enough moist air here to overwhelm a defrost cycle that is otherwise working correctly. Close the door on a strip of paper at several points around the frame and see where it pulls out easily. That is where the air is getting in.
The heater and the thermistor are the mechanical half. We test heater continuity and current draw, and we compare what the thermistor reports against a calibrated probe at the same spot. A sensor that has drifted a few degrees will keep the control from ever calling for a defrost, and the control is then doing exactly what it was told to do.
If that matches what yours is doing, say so when you call — it decides which parts come on the van.
Reviews
What Pacific Beach customers say
Our outdoor ice maker by the bar started dropping these little hollow cubes. I assumed the machine was done. It was the filter and a fill tube that had scaled up. He showed me the old one. Making full cubes again since.
Wine column in the bar wall kept reading 55 while the bottles sat warmer, and only in the afternoon. Turns out the west sun and no air moving in that cabinet were most of it. He cleared the intake, swapped a fan in the warm zone, and it holds now.
Found water creeping out from under the built-in and panicked a little, because we're on the second floor of a Crown Point building and the neighbor is right below us. Drain was iced shut. He cleared it through to the pan and checked the supply line while he was in there.
Rated 4.9 from 549 customer reviews.
Appliance down in Pacific Beach?
Tell us the brand and what it is doing — we can usually name the likely repair before we arrive.
Questions
Frequently asked questions
How often does a condenser really need cleaning this close to the water?
Shorter than the manual's every-three-to-six-months guidance, which assumes an average kitchen. Within a few blocks of the boardwalk the intake air carries salt aerosol and fine sand along with ordinary dust and pet hair, and that mixture packs the fin gaps and holds moisture against bare aluminum. The coil restricts sooner here, so a shorter interval is the cheapest thing a Sub-Zero owner can do for the compressor.
Will you have to pull my built-in out of the cabinetry to fix it?
Almost never. Sub-Zero built-ins are designed for service in place: the condenser and its fan are reached through the lower grille, and the panels come off from the front. In a remodeled cottage kitchen or a condo where the surround was built around the unit and the flooring runs right up to it, dragging the machine out risks the cabinetry and the floor for nothing.