Abstract: A refrigeration device with a thermally-insulating housing enclosing a cooling chamber and an evaporator separated form the cooling chamber. Two temperature sensors are placed in the vicinity of the evaporator to sense the layer of ice, which can form during operation. The temperature sensors are placed such that only one is embedded in the ice layer for a given thickness of the ice layer. A monitoring circuit is coupled to the temperature sensors to measure the temperature difference sensed by the temperature sensors. The monitoring circuit determines from the temperature difference if a defrosting of the evaporator is necessary. The monitoring circuit provides a signal for the determination, which can be used in an automatic defrosting process.