Because I failed to clean the back end of the refrig regularly like I
used to and it was leaking some water, I chose to get my repair guy to
fix it. Prior I did try to thaw the freezer but that didn't help. I
did ask a question or two but afterwards realized I had more questions
I forgot to ask so here goes.....

I saw the repairman remove from behind the refrig (GE side by side), a
heavy plastic tube which he cleaned out (I assume this connected to a
drain hole inside the bottom of the freezer) while the 2nd repairman
used a C02 cartridge gun to blow thru this drain hole to help unclog
it. At that point I think they then put back the tube and sprayed
some strong alcohol solution on the refrig coil (???) and said that
would clean the coil. Closed up the back of the refrig and said
that's it.

I wonder if I can, in the future, pour some bleach and water down this
drain hole without hurting the heavy plastic tube? Years ago on other
refrigs, I never did this but rather just vacuumed the back end where
the guts were. Don't recall any water leaking then. Advice?

(BTW, the repairman apparently got it right because it no longer leaks
any water)

"Doug" wrote in message
...

Because I failed to clean the back end of the refrig regularly like I
used to and it was leaking some water, . . .
I saw the repairman remove from behind the refrig (GE side by side), a
heavy plastic tube which he cleaned out (I assume this connected to a
drain hole inside the bottom of the freezer) while the 2nd repairman
used a C02 cartridge gun to blow thru this drain hole to help unclog

If you wish to service this yourself, you must find a manual or
else figure out whence that particular leak came. Modern "frost-free"
fridges usually have a ventilator tube to lead moisture from the
freezer compartment to the drain basin at the base of the
appliance. A bone dry is often an indicator that the ventilator
tube is plugged by ice:
1. Briefly cured by defrosting all, so that the ice in the tube
melts and falls down into the drain basin.
2. But the problem will then probably recur, unless you look
closer at how your particular fridge works, and manage it
appropriately.

--
Don Phillipson
Carlsbad Springs
(Ottawa, Canada)

On Tue, 5 Mar 2013 16:55:01 -0500, "Don Phillipson"
wrote:

"Doug" wrote in message
.. .

Because I failed to clean the back end of the refrig regularly like I
used to and it was leaking some water, . . .
I saw the repairman remove from behind the refrig (GE side by side), a
heavy plastic tube which he cleaned out (I assume this connected to a
drain hole inside the bottom of the freezer) while the 2nd repairman
used a C02 cartridge gun to blow thru this drain hole to help unclog

If you wish to service this yourself, you must find a manual or
else figure out whence that particular leak came. Modern "frost-free"
fridges usually have a ventilator tube to lead moisture from the
freezer compartment to the drain basin at the base of the
appliance. A bone dry is often an indicator that the ventilator
tube is plugged by ice:
1. Briefly cured by defrosting all, so that the ice in the tube
melts and falls down into the drain basin.
2. But the problem will then probably recur, unless you look
closer at how your particular fridge works, and manage it
appropriately.


You're right about looking for the manual. Whether it tells me or
not, can't say without looking at it. And yes, this is a frost free
model. I don't blame the refrig because it's my fault for being
lazy... I know better. Thanks.

On Tue, 05 Mar 2013 14:37:14 -0600, Doug
wrote:

I wonder if I can, in the future, pour some bleach and water down this
drain hole without hurting the heavy plastic tube? Years ago on other
refrigs, I never did this but rather just vacuumed the back end where
the guts were. Don't recall any water leaking then. Advice?

Sure. After it breaks again, bleach should be okay.

Fix it when it breaks - next time.

Years ago bleach was put into the drain pan...prevented odor.

On Tue, 05 Mar 2013 16:21:34 -0600, Doug
wrote:

On Tue, 5 Mar 2013 16:55:01 -0500, "Don Phillipson"
wrote:

"Doug" wrote in message
. ..

Because I failed to clean the back end of the refrig regularly like I
used to and it was leaking some water, . . .
I saw the repairman remove from behind the refrig (GE side by side), a
heavy plastic tube which he cleaned out (I assume this connected to a
drain hole inside the bottom of the freezer) while the 2nd repairman
used a C02 cartridge gun to blow thru this drain hole to help unclog

If you wish to service this yourself, you must find a manual or
else figure out whence that particular leak came. Modern "frost-free"
fridges usually have a ventilator tube to lead moisture from the
freezer compartment to the drain basin at the base of the
appliance. A bone dry is often an indicator that the ventilator
tube is plugged by ice:
1. Briefly cured by defrosting all, so that the ice in the tube
melts and falls down into the drain basin.
2. But the problem will then probably recur, unless you look
closer at how your particular fridge works, and manage it
appropriately.


You're right about looking for the manual. Whether it tells me or
not, can't say without looking at it. And yes, this is a frost free
model. I don't blame the refrig because it's my fault for being
lazy... I know better. Thanks.


Found the manual. Doesn't go into a lot of detail but does say to
put a little baking soda and hot water down the drain hole once a
year. I guess that's easier than fixing it and cheaper too.

Doug:
I like to think I know a little about frost free fridges, and all that happened here is that the evaporator pan drain hole got plugged up with something. This is a problem that can happen on ANY fridge, and so far as I know, there's nothing you could have done to prevent it from happening.

You won't find instructions on clearing a clogged evaporator pan drain in the owner's manual. GE wants you to phone their local factory authorized service depot to come out and do that for you. Maybe see if you can find a "service manual" for your model of fridge at any of the appliance parts stores in your area, or even at your local public library.

That's not a "ventilator tube" on the back of the fridge, it's just an ordinary drain pipe.

Here's how a frost free fridge works:

You see, a frost free fridge is nothing more than an ordinary manual defrost fridge that has a timer and an electric heater to defrost it every so often.

In the old style of manual defrost fridges, the "evaporator" (which is where the refrigerant evaporates from a liquid to a vapour and absorbs heat as it does) consisted of tubing molded right into the freezer compartment housing.
Instead of that, frost free fridges have a coil of tubing (called the "evaporator coil") where the refrigerant evaporates, and a fan (called the "evaporator fan") that draws air over those cold coils and blows that cold air both into the freezer compartment and into the fresh food compartment.

Now, just in the same way that the old manual defrost fridges used to have frost form on the freezer compartment and would require periodic defrosting, exactly the same thing happens on the evaporator coil in a frost free fridge.

In a frost free fridge, there's a timer (called the "defrost timer") which DIVERTS electric power from the fridge's thermostat (now most commonly called a "cold control") to an electric heater in the vicinity of the evaporator coil for 15 to 25 minutes every 15 to 20 hours or so. Different defrost thermostats on different fridges will defrost for different lengths of time after different intervals.) The heat from that electric "defrost heater", melts the frost off the evaporator coils, and the resulting melt water then drips off the evaporator coils onto the "evaporator pan" under the evaporator coil. There's a drain hole at the bottom of that evaporator pan that directs the melt water into a drain tube which carries the melt water to a receiving pan at the bottom of the fridge. That pan will be on top of or around the compressor so that the heat from the compressor warms that melt water and causes it to evaporate back into the air again. (you can help dehumidify your house a bit by running that melt water drain tube into a sink drain, if you want)

Now, as long as there's frost on the evaporator coils to absorb the heat from the defrost heater, the air temperature in the vicinity of the evaporator coil will remain quite cool. However, once all the frost is melted off the evaporator coils, and the melt water drained away, continued heating by the defrost heater could melt (or otherwise damage) the plastic and styrofoam parts in that area of the fridge. So, wired in series with the defrost heater will be the "defrost thermostat", also called a "DTS" for "defrost termination switch". When the defrost thermostat detects that the air temperature in the vicinity of the evaporator coil has risen to a temperature of above about 10 degrees Celsius, it opens and breaks the circuit to the defrost heater, thereby stopping any further heating. The fridge then just sits there in a coma until the defrost timer finishes it's defrost cycle, and diverts power back to the fridge's thermostat again. (If the fridge has warmed up during the defrost cycle, that thermostat will be calling for cold and so the fridge thermostat will close the circuit to both the compressor and the evaporator fan. That will result in the evaporator coil getting cold again, and the cold air being drawn through the evaporator coil by the fan being blown into both the freezer and fresh food compartments.

Once the temperature in the area of the evaporator coil gets down to about minus 10 degrees Celsius, the defrost thermostat closes again so that it's ready for the next defrost cycle.

If you ever notice that your fridge has suddenly gone "dead", it's probably just in defrost mode. Since the defrost timer diverts power from the fridge thermostat to the defrost heater, then either the fridge will be operating normally or in defrost mode, never both at the same time. And, "operating normally" means both the time when the compressor is running to cool the fridge down as well as the time the compressor isn't running because the fridge is already cold enough.

Several points to note:

1. On most "freezer on top" frost free fridges, the evaporator coil, evaporator fan and defrost heater will be behind a removable panel in the freezer compartment. On side-by-side fridges, those parts will be in the wall between the freezer and fresh food compartment. On some small apartment size fridges, like the older GE 12 cubic foot frost free fridges, those parts will be under the plastic freezer compartment floor.

2. The defrost thermostat can get stuck. If it sticks in defrost mode, the fridge will appear to simply die on you. All fridge defrost timers will have a way to manually advance the timer, and typically that's by turning the output shaft of the timer motor with a screw driver. By advancing the timer manually, you can get the fridge out of defrost mode and back into operating mode so it springs back to life again. Since turning the output shaft of the defrost timer the wrong way can damage the timer, the end of the shaft will be designed so that it can only be turned one way. Typically, that will be done by having the end of the timer motor shaft molded into the form of two spiral ramps so that a flat screw driver works to turn that shaft in one direction, but not in the other.
Conversely, if the defrost timer sticks in operating mode, your frost free fridge won't defrost itself anymore, and the result will be frost accumulating on the evaporator coils, and preventing heat transfer between the circulating air and the refrigerant. The result is that the freezer won't keep food as cold, and you will eventually start to see frost forming in the freezer compartment where the cold air blows into it.

3. On every fridge schematic I've ever seen, the compressor motor and evaporator fan were always wired so they both go off (at the beginning of a defrost cycle) and came back on again (at the end of a defrost cycle) AT THE SAME TIME. So, if your fridge isn't cooling properly, and you can hear the compressor running, then feel for a breeze in the freezer compartment. That's because if the compressor is running, the evaporator fan should be running too. If it isn't then you know the problem is with the evaporator fan. Similarily, if you can feel a breeze in the freezer compartment, then you know that the evaporator fan is running, so the compressor should be running too. If you can't hear the compressor running, that's where the problem is. (In that case, it could just be a bad compressor relay, or perhaps a bad start capacitor.)

Doug: In your case, all that happened is that the drain hole under the evaporator coil got clogged up with something so that the melt water couldn't drain away down that tube to the bottom of the fridge. To fix the fridge, they simply unclogged that drain hole. This is a fairly common problem that can happen with ANY fridge. I doubt they sprayed the evaporator coil with alcohol because the parts in that area of the fridge are mostly made of plastic and styrofoam, and I'd think a strong alcohol might dissolve those kinds of plastics. Normally, the evaporator coil doesn't get very dirty, and any dust or dirt that does get onto it is continuously being washed away with the melt water of every defrost cycle, so I don't have any idea what they sprayed on the evaporator. But, I expect you could have cleaned it equally well with just some compressed air in a can which you can buy at any electronics or computer shop.

So, don't be beating yourself up over this one.

On Tuesday, March 5, 2013 6:25:10 PM UTC-5, Doug wrote:
On Tue, 05 Mar 2013 16:21:34 -0600, Doug wrote: On Tue, 5 Mar 2013 16:55:01 -0500, "Don Phillipson" wrote: "Doug" wrote in message . .. Because I failed to clean the back end of the refrig regularly like I used to and it was leaking some water, . . . I saw the repairman remove from behind the refrig (GE side by side), a heavy plastic tube which he cleaned out (I assume this connected to a drain hole inside the bottom of the freezer) while the 2nd repairman used a C02 cartridge gun to blow thru this drain hole to help unclog If you wish to service this yourself, you must find a manual or else figure out whence that particular leak came. Modern "frost-free" fridges usually have a ventilator tube to lead moisture from the freezer compartment to the drain basin at the base of the appliance. A bone dry is often an indicator that the ventilator tube is plugged by ice: 1. Briefly cured by defrosting all, so that the ice in the tube melts and falls down into the drain basin. 2. But the problem will then probably recur, unless you look closer at how your particular fridge works, and manage it appropriately. You're right about looking for the manual. Whether it tells me or not, can't say without looking at it. And yes, this is a frost free model. I don't blame the refrig because it's my fault for being lazy... I know better. Thanks. Found the manual. Doesn't go into a lot of detail but does say to put a little baking soda and hot water down the drain hole once a year. I guess that's easier than fixing it and cheaper too.

There is a fix kit available for a lot of these with this problem. It's basically a piece of metal that goes down the drain tube a little ways and attaches to the heat coil that's back in there for the frost free feature. You can do the same thing without the kit just using a piece of #10 or so bare copper wire. I did ours about 6 years ago and have not had to touch it since.