If you see water dripping in refrigerator, it can be fixed easily.
My name is Rich and my company is Western Appliance Repair located in Boise Idaho. I’ve been in the appliance repair business for 20 years. I hope this article answers some of your questions and leads to a proper refrigerator repair. OK, let’s get going.
The problem I’m going to address on this page is: water dripping in refrigerator or water leaking from your top freezer into your refrigerator. You may see water dripping from refrigerator ceiling around the back-vent area.
The defrost drain hole in the freezer is clogged with ice and/or debris. Instead of the defrost water going down the drain, it freezes up in the freezer defrost pan. It will then overflow the vents during the next defrost cycle and you will then see water in refrigerator. I’m going to show you a PERMANENT fix that I’ve been using for years. Follow this procedure closely.
1. Unplug the refrigerator. Open refrigerator and place a deep-dish under the vent, like the picture shows. This will catch the water drip-page as your completing the repair.
2. Close refrigerator door and remove all food from the top freezer. Remove the food-rack if there is one.
3. Remove the ice-maker like the picture below. Use a ¼ inch hex driver to remove the three screws. There should be two on top and one on the bottom. Once the refrigerator ice-maker is dismounted, disconnect it from the connector and set aside.
4. Using 1/4 inch hex driver, remove the screws securing the back panel. There should be from two to six screws. Remove the back panel, gently. If it doesn’t come out easily that means it is “iced in” at the bottom. Obtain a yard sprayer, like the one I have in the picture, and a wet-vac. Fill the sprayer up with hot water and spray continuously on the lower part of the panel while sucking up the melted water with the wet-vac. Sometimes it takes awhile. Hang in there. If the freezer has a plastic bottom tray, the remove is also. Remove ALL of the ice using water sprayer and wet-vac.
5. Now, I’m assuming you have successfully removed the back panel and the bottom plastic tray, if installed. You should see ice buildup under the evaporator. My next step – spray with hot water and suck up the melted water as you go. Do not use a pic or screwdriver, you may regret this if you puncture something.
6. Find the drain-hole. It should look like the picture below. Direct the nozzle into it and spray. This can sometimes last for 15 minutes. Wait for the water to stop pooling up. While your spraying, you should see water go down the hole and not pool back up. When this happens, you have cleared the hole. Now comes the good parts. We want to make sure this doesn’t happen again.
7. Find a thick piece of copper wire. I don’t know what gauge it is but look at the picture below. It should be a similar size. Cut the wire about 7 inches long. You can pick this up at Home Depot in the electrical section. You may need a salesman to cut it from the spool. Stick the end of the wire down the hole and see how far you can get it without dropping it down the hole. You may need to bend a curve in it like my picture. Add about 2 inches and cut. Using a screwdriver or needle-nose pliers, curve one end and loop it around the evaporator heater, just under evaporator. Why are we doing this you may ask? When the defrost heater turns ON, the heat will radiate down the copper wire, into the hole, and prevent the drain-freeze from happening again. You may need to trim the wire a bit for final fitting.
8. Don’t worry about melting or damage from it getting too hot. It won’t happen. I’ve done hundreds of these fixes and haven’t had one problem.
9. Reassemble and you should be good! You should no longer have water dripping in refrigerator. Cheers and Congrats!
