Topic: HELP!!! Fridge question

[my78k]

OK, I have been around long enough to be blown away by alot of the #$%* you guys seem to know!! I have posted numerous bike and non-bike related issues and someone always seem to chime in with something that works!!

OK enough blowing smoke....here's my ?:

My fridge is suddenly not staying cold but freezer is almost working too well! It is icing up and obviously very humid as there is frost/ice fuzz on everything!!!

Help!

Any suggestions? I will be hunting google obviously and other DIY forums but I am sure one of you have been through this...

TIA as always!
Dennis

[my78k]

never mind....I think I have figured something out here....

Will report back in a bit

[CycleRanger]

The fan in the freezer that blows the cold air to the fridge portion is probably not working.

[my78k]

close...but you are definitely on the right track!!

Believe it or not, the inlet or outlet that blows the air down into the freezer was iced up solid! So, the fan was blowing but the air wasn't moving!

My freezer has a tray/slide out and I didn't realize that underneath, the drain hole plugged up and water was slowly collecting and freezing until it finally plugged up solid! Or, at least I am hoping that clearing all that ice out of there frees it up!

If the temp starts to drop and I know it is fixed I will have to figure out how to clean out the drain pipe.

Dennis

[scunny]

hot water for the drain

[BeSeeingYou]

I remember having a similar problem many years ago.  At least on that old fridge there was a warming coil that kept that transfer passage from freezing and it was burned out.  It was a fairly easy replacement.

[demon78]

Not sure make and model/age of fridge but most frost free fridges have a drain system for removing melt water from evaporator when it goes into it's defrost cycle and depending on style of system depends on problems it comes down with, what you are experiencing is a build up of algae in the drain cup which prevents the water from draining down to the evaporator/condenser system where it evaporates away, so the simple cure is to (after ice has melted) take a roast baster with a little bit of bleach and some hot water mixed and gently squirt it into the cup or trough so that you can see or hear it running down to it's collector at bottom of fridge, if that doesn't work let me know make model age of fridge, the make and the age are more important to me than model number and I can walk you through it (between defrost timers and drain problems it would have accounted for 40% of my business).
Bill the demon.

[cb550fcafe]

I had the same issue, about every two weeks the fridge was warm and the evaporator coil in the freezer was a solid block of ice. There is a small thermostat about the size of a quarter with two wires on it, it clips to the evap coil tube. It is used to cycle the compressor on & off, well its common to fail and the compressor runs non stop, so evap coil ices over. This was my repair, a new thermostat. My brand was Amana.

[kirkn]

Yep on all the replies.  Mine was the failed thermostat, too, but it took me a long time to get it diagnosed and repaired.  I had to de-ice the solid-block-of-ice coils 4 or 5 times before I finally picked up the new thermostat.  Took about 15 minutes with wifey's blow dryer.  :-)   This was years and years ago.

Good luck with it all.

Kirk

[74cb750]

Glad you figured it out.
My new fridge needed a coi?l replaced less than a year old!

[vames]

The drain hole in my old freezer (where water drains when the frost-free heating coil cycles on) kept plugging up with ice. I just took a thick piece of copper wire, looped it twice around the heating coil and ran it about 2 inches down the drain hole (to transfer some heat to where it was icing up). It's never frozen up in there since and it works fine.

[Duke McDukiedook]

Had a problem with the defrost timer on mine, had to get it replaced with a similar unit that would work.

[my78k]

Yep the temps are back to where they should be so I did the drier and hot water trick. After some 15 minutes or so I was able to get the drain to drain!

Fingers are crossed that I will be good for a while longer!!

Thanks Guys!
Dennis

[CycleRanger]

Yep the temps are back to where they should be so I did the drier and hot water trick. After some 15 minutes or so I was able to get the drain to drain!

Fingers are crossed that I will be good for a while longer!!

Thanks Guys!
Dennis

You might try running a little bit of bleach through the drain line.  Sometimes it gets blocked by gooey mold gunk.

[demon78]

Did do as I suggested use a little bleach in the water? The reason is, where the transition is between temps is an ideal spot to grow algae and the bleach helps suppress it.
Bill the demon.

[my78k]

Will do!