Ice in the Water Cooler

Factual Questions
1

I have an old 5 gallon water cooler/refrigerator that used to belong to my father. He had not used it in about 6-7 years. I cleaned it up, and have been using it for the last month or so. The only thing that I was unable to fix was a leak from the hot water spigot (will look for a new one after the holidays. In the meantime, I just turned it off).

In the bowl where the jug goes, ice is forming. Thick layers of it. I managed to get it cleaned out, using warm water to thaw it.

I don’t know who makes the cooler, as all that info is either not on the cooler, or the sticker has long since faded. I asked my brother if this ever happened to him while he had it, but he said he never used the water cooler part, just the fridge. Any ideas what is causing this freeze-up? The only thermostat I was able to find controls the degree of hot for the hot water (ranges from hot to scalding), so I don’t suspect that.

2

I’ll use my one courtesy bump to get this thread back on page one for the next shift of Dopers to consider.

3

Tried turning the temperature controller down a bit??

The water cooler and fridge may be on the same cooling circuit.

Have a peek on the back of the machine, there may be a UL or saftey placard with the mfgr’s name on it somewhere near the compressor or power cord.

4

Did the ice form before you turned off the hot water part. The heat from the heater may have helped keep the level of ice down.

5

The only thermostat I found was for the hot water. It controls whether the hot water comes out tolerably hot all the way to scalding hot. I’ve tried adjusting that, since there is water in the hot water reservoir, but with no luck.

Nothing there. I don’t know if either my father or brother removed it years ago (why?), if it fell off, or was never there in the first place.

Yes.