Talk of The Villages Florida - View Single Post - Freezer section of upright Refrigerator frozen up again
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Old 07-21-2021, 07:31 PM
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Quote:
Originally Posted by C. C. Rider View Post
I've had the same problem with refrigerators before, and nearly always it was due to a stopped up defrost drain line.

What you need to do is unplug the refrigerator and TOTALLY get rid of ALL the ice on the cooling coils by applying hot/warm air. You can just open the door and blow a fan on it, or you can use a hair dryer to blow HOT air to speed up the process.

Here's the important part. You need to make sure that the water from the melted ice runs down through the defrost drain line to the evaporator pan underneath the refrigerator. If water doesn't run down that drain line, then the line is stopped up with something. It could be stopped up with ice or a particle of food that wasn't wrapped well when you put it in the freezer. Whatever it is, you MUST make sure that line is open and draining well.

Then, after you get all the ice out of the coils and you're sure the drain line is open, plug it in and it should be good to go once it cools down good. Note: Be careful removing ice from the coils. It's best to just MELT the ice. If you try to chip it out with a knife or ice pick, you may damage the thin copper tubing that the coils are made of.

Also, you will likely have to empty the evaporator pan several times during the manual defrosting that you will do. Once you get it defrosted and the drain line open and the unit is back in service, the water that runs into the pan will evaporate when the fan blows air across it. That's why it's called an "evaporator pan".

If you do a good, thorough job of this defrosting and making sure the drain line is open, and then the problem occurs again in a month or two, then the defrost timer may need replacing. You might also check for any loose wires that run to or from the defrost timer.
agree I would completely defrost it first, sounds like it wasn’t totally defrosted the first time it happened. If that don’t work then I start troubleshooting process or call some one.