Danby Refrig DFFC1WDB, two years old, in my vacation home that I visit one weekend a month. Lights flashing, power cycled (after req'd 5 mins). Discovered coils were packed with ice. See below:

1.) Danby Refrigerator DFFC1WDB, about two years old, in my vacation home that I visit one weekend a month 2.) Never defrosted it manually before (i.e. turned off and left to defrost) 3.) For some time I noticed the light inside the fridge was flashing, but the refrigerator seemed to be cooling okay and the manual says nothing about what the flashing light means. I attributed it to a power failure and the flashing stops once the unit is unplugged and plugged back in (power cycled) after 5 minutes or so. 4.) This visit I noticed the flashing lights again and that the freezer was cold (it was heavily loaded) but fridge was barely cool. I power cycled the fridge (allowing 5 minutes) and the flashing stopped but I was concerned about the issue and threw out some food. 5.) I unplugged the unit again and removed everything from the freezer. I noticed a thick coating of ice on the freezer back wall. I used a hair dryer to melt this coating of ice and then realized that the coils behind this wall must be covered in ice. I removed the back wall exposing the coils and discovered that I was correct: The coils were completely covered/packed with ice, so I greatly sped up the melting process with the hair dryer. After all, I had food sitting in coolers with ice and wanted to return it to the freezer and fridge asap. 6.) Once all the ice was gone I left the freezer open for a while for the coils and assembly to cool (since I had used a hair dryer to melt away the ice pack) 7.) I set the freezer and fridge to their coldest settings and plugged it back in. The lights do not flash when I plugged it back in. The compressor (I assume) ran for a while (the fan in the freezer ran also), and during this time I heard the unit lightly buzzing (with life), and then it stopped. But it seemed to have quite a way to go when it stopped and the freezer and fridge were not nearly cold enough at that point. I surmised that it might be entering one of its periodic defrosting periods, but after quite a while of waiting it still hadn't started running again so I power cycled the unit again and again the compressor/fan ran for a while and then stopped. It just doesn't seem to be starting on its own unless I power cycle it (waiting the required 5 minutes before plugging it back in.) At this point I don't have confidence that it is cooling well enough to keep my food fresh (and frozen). 8.) What do you think could be wrong? It certainly seems reasonable that the part/system responsible for periodically defrosting the coils may have failed. But since the unit is completely defrosted now, why does the unit only run for a short time after unplugging/replugging and never run again?