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Item TBH18DATWH FEFRIGERATOR (1994)A continuing collection of apparent water on floor of refrig has developed over the past few months. Have ruled out spillage inside. In a week period sufficient collection of fluid to spill onto kitchen floor, perhaps 1/2-1 pint. Suspect clogged defrost drainage, but no visible sign of a drainage tube or outlet into frig compartment.Please confirm or deny suspected problem. Suggest other cause as appropiate and is it repairable. Freezer and refrigerator working fine temperature wise. Will appreciate your advice and recomendations. paul
Hi, my name is Chas, I am hoping that I will be able to help you with your problem today..Here's a little trick I've used for over 10 years now, and it's saved countless return trips on refrigerator jobs. One of the most common problems I see with frost-free refrigerators is drain freeze up. This is usually caused by the defrost drain clogging, then freezing. On older units, it can also happen when the insulation around the drain gets 'waterlogged', as it usually does over the years, and no longer keeps the drain above freezing temperatures.The first symptom, at least in top-mounts, is water under the crisper drawers, on the floor of the refrigerator section. Before I found this little trick, this was a frustrating problem that was hard to keep from recurring. Now I keep a handful of 'drain heat exchangers' in the truck, and use a dozen or two most summers, when humidity is highest and refrig. drains have to handle the most water. These are easy to make. Just cut a piece of #12 copper wire (strip from regular 12-2WG 'Romex' household wiring ) about 6 inches long and bend it around a 1/4 inch round rod. A screwdriver shaft works well for this, but any 1/4 inch dia. piece of metal will do. They look like this.Now when your refrig drain clogs and you find the trough under the evaporator full of ice, here's what you do. Clear the ice, open the drainand hang this little piece of copper on the defrost heater, so it extends down the drain. On most units, this is a black rod under the evaporator coil.This heater is responsible for melting all that frost that we don't have to deal with since the advent of Frost-free units, and it glows a dull red during the defrost cycle, so there's plenty of excess heat for our purpose.Anyway, since copper's such a good conductor of heat, some of the defrost heater's energy will transfer down the copper wire, into the drain, and keep it open. What I like to call 'stupidly simple', this uses no extra electricity and works very well!One precaution: hang this piece of copper *loosely* over the defrost heater. Don't squeeze or crimp it on, or you risk damaging the heater.WARNING, if you use the OPT OUT button on the tool bar, this will bar me from answering back to you. once pressed I cannot answer anymore of your questions...Use this button with caution...Your acceptance of my answer if helpful to you, requires that you press the GREEN ACCEPT button, this will allow me to get credit for helping you today, The deposit you paid in the beginning is just that and does not transfer to any experts until you press it... NEGATIVE FEEDBACK should not be given, I am willing if my advice is not SATISFACTORY to give you a refund of your deposit. I cannot know everything since I am not there with you to see all the conditions that the appliance we are talking about, Pressing the ACCEPT button will not stop me from continue to helping you in the future if needed on the problem we are working on..If you are on a SUPSCRIPTION PLAN for JustAnswers you still need to press the GREEN ACCEPT button, you will not be charged more than you monthly subscription rate you have?? Bonuses are welcome if I have helped you a lot, however they are not mandatory
Home Appliance Technician
Maytag, Whirlpool, GE & Kenmore Factory Trained Service Tech
I might seem quite uninformed and regarding a refrig I am. So heres my question is all simplicity.Where do I access the defrost heater unit, is it under the refrigerator, from the back side, from the inside, what do I remove to find it and any thing your experience would help me with. Also, once exposed would I not want to replace the drain tube or is the water log on the ooutside associated with insulation or other mass.
If you remove item 201, you will see the defrost drain in the bottom, the heater is located right above it.
thanks Chas
The attachment of item 201 to cabinet is not directly apparent, no screws. Is it a clipped item to be removed with alittle prying. I will explore tomorrow, but don't want to break attach points. i appreciate the diagram.
No problem, have a nice day...Chas
Good mid day Chas
Drain tube thoroughly clogged with solid that appears like insulation. Cannot probe it far enough or blow it by compressor to clear. Will attack from the rear of machine assuming there is access. I guess plastic drain runs from frezzer to a evaporator pan along back. If you already know I am heading for trouble please let me know.
You are doing good,,, did you make sure that you thawed it sufficiently for blowing it out?
Chas, For your notes in the future.
Accessing the back side of this model and attacked to the panel there is a detachable plasitc fitting built like a trap that drains the frezzer defrost tray below the heater unit on the inside. As a trap it had collected debri over the years and as trap could not be probed with a wire or other lead from the inside. Detached from the back panel and drain tube projection, it was a simple task to clean and replace. A separte tube leads from the trap straight down the outside of the rear panel to (I guess) the evaporator pan below. This tube was not clogged, but cleaning would have been easy.
As built the drain does not penetrate any insulation which might have lead to the problem as you described it.
I spent half a morning working the problem from the inside. Fixing the actual problem took 15 min, mostly moving the refrig.
I do believe that I might have put off fixing this problem for some time yet without the notion that you would be there to advise me. Even as the advice was not exactly on target you provided me a comfort zone . thanks.
To conclude this activity do I press Accept again.
paul
Glad I was of comfort for you to try and fix it,,,, You can click accept again or you can just ignore it... Have a great day.
Chas