My fridge is not cooling enough and the back is covered with ice. what could be the problem?

if the ice is on the back wall you have a problem with the automatic defrost system it could be one of 4 components

Have you cleaned off the fins at the bottom of fridg? look on back at bottom and bottom front. Take off covers and see if fins are dusty if so vacume off be careful not to damage fins.

Most likely the thermostat in the fridge, especially if it read 5 degrees until you reset it. Possibly the compressor in the fridge side as this fridge has twin cooling, or the circulating fan in the back of the fridge is frozen, which is a common problem as well.
Easiest things to try is to see if the fan is frozen and check if the fridge cooling is actually working. Turn off the fridge, remove the shelves, remove the 4 screws that hold in the bottom cover and the 2 screws that hold the water tank in. Cover should then come out a few inches. Reach behind and unplug the 2 plugs and pull out the cover. If the cover doesnt come out easily it may be glued to the back of the fridge by ice. Leave for a couple of hours and gently prize it off. Check for ice around the fan and that the fan spins freely. You could try sitting the cover inside the fridge, plug it in turn it back on for a few minutes (be careful) and then open the door and quickly look / listen to see if the fan is still spinning (it stops when you open the door). Leave the fridge off for a while until the ice disappears off the coils. Turn back on for half an hour. The coils should be icy again. Anything else call Samsung. If the deal in your country is the same as mine the fridge has a 2 year warranty but in the fine print the sealed compressor unit has five years on parts only. You could get the unit replaced for labour costs only. Check your warranty card.

I had the same problem and I discovered it was the defrost element that was shorted out which keeps the ice from building up located behind the back freezer wall.

Try cleaning the coils beneath the refrigerator. Its possible that they are covered with dust and blocking a fresh flow of cool air to help cool the refrigerator inside. Just a little cleaning there will make a big difference. Check your door seals also a small opening will let the cool out and the hot in. Thanks, Sea Breeze

Check to see if you have frost on the back panel of your freezer in your fridge. If you do your coil is frozen over and you'll have to defrost your freezer. I just did mine cause mine wasn't cooling properly on my fridge side. If it is that it's going to fill the pan under your fridge and overflow.

Your website is fantastic... it really helped me and saved me money!!!
I defrosted my fridge overnight. Cleaned all the water up. Plugged the fridge back in and it works likes new. Thanks :):):):)

Just had the same problem with my side-by-side.

In my case, the solution was to empty the freezer side, to access a back panel INSIDE the freezer covering the fan and cooling coils. Two screws held the back panel cover on, and when I removed the panel cover I found the cooling coils to be totally iced up, preventing the flow of cold air into the fridge side. I left the freezer open for a few hours until all the ice was melted, before replacing the inside panel. (I used a blow dryer to help speed up the ice melting).

Everything's working fine now for me - good luck with yours!

MW

If the frozen side is colder than normal and some extra frost is forming where the fan blows,and there is ice in the bottom of freezer compartment, and the cool side is not cool enough, their is a good possability the defrosting unit is not removing all the frost and ice . the defrosting unit has a timer (usually near thermostat) that turns off the cooling fan and compressor and turns on a small heater around the evaporator ( about 20 minutes every 2 days) (evaporaror is cold heat exchanger coil inside the back wall behind a cover near the recirculating fan0, the fan circulates air to both compartments through two small openings, if these openeing are closed by ice buildup cool air can not circulate to the cool side. cure 1. remove all food and leave fridge off for 24 hours with doors open (take precautions to ensure children can't get locked in side and suffocate, if you get a qt of water in bottom of unit (may leak on floor) ice buildup that the defrost heater can not remove melted and was your problem . turn frig on replace food on unit. cure 2. turn frig off, remove food from both sides, remove shelves that block access to evaporator, remove cover over evaporator if you see the evaporator coils free of ice look at openings (2) to other side, one may be blocked with ice the other with frost, carefully melt ice with hair dryer.
If the evaporator coil is solid ice heater or timer or fan has failed. good luck

Could be stuck in "defrost" mode. Happens a lot. See if you can hear if the compressor is running or the compressor cooling fan is running (in back underneath the unit). Worse case is the refrigerant leaked out and you have a sealed system problem.