Water in my fridge, ice in the freezer

Genius

Tue, Jun 29 2021, 4:58 pm

My freezer has a sheet of ice on the bottom, and my fridge is dripping water.
Anybody has experience with this?
Why does it happen, and what do I do about it?
Any advice (besides for therapy, I’ll do that too when I have extra cash and time) is welcome.

zaq

Tue, Jun 29 2021, 5:34 pm

Very common problem. In a frost-free fridge, the freezer actually defrosts on and off. A thin tube collects the water from the defrost cycle and channels it down to an evaporator tray. If the tube gets clogged with dirt, the water backs up, freezes on the floor of the freezer, and spills over to drip into the fridge compartment.

You can fix this yourself if you can find a video on YouTube. google "water leaking in fridge" and the make and model of your fridge. This is important because you need to know how to take things apart to expose the opening. If you're lucky, the opening is on the back of the floor of the freezer and no dismantling is necessary. If not, it'll take some doing even after you find the right YouTube.

You'll have to unplug the fridge and melt the ice before you do anything else. Since water freezes in the channeling tube, you'll also have to wait till that melts, and then use a pipe cleaner or something to clean out the tube. Usually you melt the water in the tube by using a syringe or turkey baster to shoot hot (not boiling) water down the tube.

be patient. If you don't melt all the ice in the tube, or don't clean out the tube properly, the water will back up immediately and in a short while you'll be back where you started.

ETA: If all this sounds like too much bother and your time is more precious than your money, call a service person.

Sunny Days

Tue, Jun 29 2021, 5:35 pm

Genius wrote:

and birth control of course Wink

Could it be maybe the freezer was left open for a bit or partially?

We had this happen often with an old fridge/freezer. Till I couldn’t take it anymore and finally complained to the management who sent someone to repair it. Iirc it was one of those old freezers that you need to defrost ice every now and then.

FranticFrummie

Tue, Jun 29 2021, 6:45 pm

I found a great hack to keep ice from building up.

Use some pan spray like PAM and coat the inside wherever you have an ice problem. The ice won't stick, and it will evaporate. Even if you do get a layer of ice, you can pop it right off without damaging the lining to the fridge or freezer, and you don't have to wait for it to thaw.

Genius

Tue, Jun 29 2021, 6:51 pm

FranticFrummie wrote:

Thanks

zaq

Wed, Jun 30 2021, 12:06 pm

FranticFrummie wrote:

While this will make it easier to remove the sheet of ice, it won't solve the problem of leaking into the fridge compartment. The leaking happens because the defrost drain tube is clogged and the water overflows. Unless you unclog the tube, the leaking will continue.