A pool of clear water collects under the crisper trays in refrigerator compartment of my Maytag Top-Freezer Refrigerator. (Depending on the time of day, the pool of water may have a thin layer of ice).

The temperature controls are located at the top of the refrigerator compartment.

The control for the refrigerator compartment is set at '5' (mid-point) and the food stays cold. The control for the freezer compartment is set at '9' (coldest) and the food stays frozen.

Where is the water coming from and what can I do to resolve this problem?

On 6/14/14, 3:47 PM, gary wrote:
A pool of clear water collects under the crisper trays in refrigerator compartment of my Maytag Top-Freezer Refrigerator. (Depending on the time of day, the pool of water may have a thin layer of ice).

The temperature controls are located at the top of the refrigerator compartment.

The control for the refrigerator compartment is set at '5' (mid-point) and the food stays cold. The control for the freezer compartment is set at '9' (coldest) and the food stays frozen.

Where is the water coming from and what can I do to resolve this problem?


Our Whirlpool does the same thing this time of year. Ice builds up in
the drain line that runs from the back of the freezer to the pan under
the bottom of the frig. Part of the auto defrost system (?) What ice
does melt then drips down the inside back of the frig and collects
under the crispers ( and runs out on floor if bad enough !)

We usually have to run a heat gun on it to thaw out the pool of ice
and the plugged drain line.

Does not seem to matter where we set the controls.

On 6/14/2014 3:47 PM, gary wrote:
A pool of clear water collects under the crisper trays in refrigerator compartment of my Maytag Top-Freezer Refrigerator. (Depending on the time of day, the pool of water may have a thin layer of ice).

The temperature controls are located at the top of the refrigerator compartment.

The control for the refrigerator compartment is set at '5' (mid-point) and the food stays cold. The control for the freezer compartment is set at '9' (coldest) and the food stays frozen.

Where is the water coming from and what can I do to resolve this problem?

Evaporator / defrost cycle.
Clear the drain.

--
..
Christopher A. Young
Learn about Jesus
www.lds.org
..

gary wrote:
A pool of clear water collects under the crisper trays in
refrigerator compartment of my Maytag Top-Freezer Refrigerator.
(Depending on the time of day, the pool of water may have a thin
layer of ice).

The temperature controls are located at the top of the refrigerator
compartment.

The control for the refrigerator compartment is set at '5'
(mid-point) and the food stays cold. The control for the freezer
compartment is set at '9' (coldest) and the food stays frozen.

Where is the water coming from and what can I do to resolve this
problem?

Ice is blocking the path out, so it drains into the refer. First thing to try
is remove all the food, the turn it off and leave it open for a day or two. The
ice should melt, and the problem may well go away. Put a pan where the water
drips to keep it from spilling onto your floor.

If I turn the refrigerator off for a day or two, all of the food will defrost and spoil.

Why can't I just run hot water down the drain tube?

How do I gain access to the drain?

What parts (if any) do I need to remove from inside the freezer compartment? How do I remove them?

Maytag model number MTB2656GEQ

On 6/15/2014 12:31 AM, gary wrote:
If I turn the refrigerator off for a day or two, all of the food will defrost and spoil.

Yes, and that may only temporarily fix the problem.


Why can't I just run hot water down the drain tube?

How do I gain access to the drain?

You said under the crisper. If you take it out is the drain exposed?
Sometimes they get blocked with gunk and crud and the water cannot pass
to be evaporated.

"gary" wrote in message
...
If I turn the refrigerator off for a day or two, all of the food will
defrost and spoil.

Why can't I just run hot water down the drain tube?

Getting access is the issue.

How do I gain access to the drain?

Depends on the model. Find the manual. On my old Westinghouse there was a
fitting on the bottom of the freezer compartment accessible via the
refrigerator compartment. I just removed one screw and the unit popped out
for cleaning. It usually had fine dog hair, dust and muck in it that I
rinsed out with detergent and a tooth brush.

When the freezer coils were frozen over from the freezer door not closing in
very humid weather, I had to fill empty squeeze mustard bottles with hot
water and give the freezer an enema until the ice melted. What a holy mess.
That's why the best advice is to unplug it and let it recover by itself.
Sometimes it does and the contents of the unit don't rise so much the food
is spoiled. A big picnic cooler with dry ice is often quite useful.

Then I would take a compressor's air hose and blow out the connection in the
back which lead to the drain tube that goes to the pan on the floor. Stuff
the front of the refrigerator with rags if you don't want to spray black
spooge on your pants.

What parts (if any) do I need to remove from inside the freezer
compartment?
How do I remove them?

Maytag model number MTB2656GEQ

That should all be in the manual. The new GE is remarkably hard to clean
and I dread having to do it, at least compared to the old box. FWIW, if the
coils are frozen, don't do anything more than pour hot water on them. I
punctured the old unit's coil trying to worry the ice off mechanically.
Turned out the 30 year old box I had nursed so long was really a horrible
energy hog. New one costs 1/3 to operate.

--
Bobby G.

On 6/15/2014 12:31 AM, gary wrote:
If I turn the refrigerator off for a day or two, all of the food will defrost and spoil.

CY: Yes, that's true.

Why can't I just run hot water down the drain tube?
CY: Most likely cause it's clogged with ice.

How do I gain access to the drain?
CY: Take everything otu of the freezer, and take the back out.

What parts (if any) do I need to remove from inside the
freezer compartment?

CY: Everything, including the shelves. And then the back panel.

How do I remove them?

CY: By hand, then using either phillips screw driver or
1/4 nutdriver, depending on what they used.


Maytag model number MTB2656GEQ

On 6/15/2014 1:57 AM, Ed Pawlowski wrote:
How do I gain access to the drain?

You said under the crisper. If you take it out is the drain exposed?
Sometimes they get blocked with gunk and crud and the water cannot pass
to be evaporated.

This symptoms are describing a blocked
drain under the evaporator, not under
the crisper.

--
..
Christopher A. Young
Learn about Jesus
www.lds.org
..

"gary" wrote in message
...

A pool of clear water collects under the crisper trays in refrigerator
compartment of my Maytag Top-Freezer Refrigerator. (Depending on the time
of day, the pool of water may have a thin layer of ice).
. . .
Where is the water coming from and what can I do to resolve this problem?

"Frost-free" refrigerators have a tube leading from the freezer
compartment out into the atmosphere (often towards an external
drain pan at the base of the appliance.) This vents humid air
from the freezer. If frost takes hold anywhere in the tube, it can
quickly grow to block the tube with ice: and then the runoff
humidity must go somewhere else, e.g. the bottom of the
appliance.

The cure is usually to expose the freezer vent tube (often by simply
removing the back panel of the refrigerator) and defrost it, e.g.
with a hair dryer. We needed to do this about three times for
the old fridge (15 years), not yet for the new one (5 years.)

--
Don Phillipson
Carlsbad Springs
(Ottawa, Canada)

On 6/15/2014 2:18 PM, Don Phillipson wrote:
"Frost-free" refrigerators have a tube leading from the freezer
compartment out into the atmosphere (often towards an external
drain pan at the base of the appliance.) This vents humid air
from the freezer. If frost takes hold anywhere in the tube, it can
quickly grow to block the tube with ice: and then the runoff
humidity must go somewhere else, e.g. the bottom of the
appliance.

The cure is usually to expose the freezer vent tube (often by simply
removing the back panel of the refrigerator) and defrost it, e.g.
with a hair dryer. We needed to do this about three times for
the old fridge (15 years), not yet for the new one (5 years.)

Where did you get this text? Sure is different than
I'd have thought. As the freezer is colder, such a
tube would allow humid room air into the freezer.

Where?

--
..
Christopher A. Young
Learn about Jesus
www.lds.org
..

"gary" wrote in message ...
A pool of clear water collects under the crisper trays in refrigerator compartment of my Maytag Top-Freezer Refrigerator. (Depending on the time of day, the pool of water may have a thin layer of ice).

The temperature controls are located at the top of the refrigerator compartment.

The control for the refrigerator compartment is set at '5' (mid-point) and the food stays cold. The control for the freezer compartment is set at '9' (coldest) and the food stays frozen.

Where is the water coming from and what can I do to resolve this problem?

Someone may have mentioned already -- the drain on our plugged up once and water backed up and froze in the bottom of the freezer. Powering the refrig off was enough to let everything melt and clear the drain. Never did know what caused the blockage.

This is nutz. Stormin Mormon's got it right, but no one's listening to him.

Welcome to Fridges 101:

In the freezer compartment of your fridge, you will find a removable panel.

Behind that panel will be the evaporator, the defrost heater, the defrost thermostat and the evaporator fan. The evaporator is a coil of aluminum tubing with fins all over it. It's the source of "cold" in your fridge. The evaporator fan draws air through the evaporator and blows that cold air into the freezer compartment (mostly) and also some goes in at the bottom of the fresh food compartment.

Underneath the evaporator will be the "evaporator pan", or more correctly, the "evaporator drain pan".

When your fridge defrosts itself every 12 to 24 hours, the defrost heater comes on and melts all of the frost off the evaporator coil. The evaporator drain pan directs the melt water to a drain right at the lowest point of the drain pan.

Normally, the water drains through that drain hole and then follows a channel in the "evaporator housing" (which is below the evaporator drain pan). The evaporator housing directs the water to a drain at the back of the roof of the fridge's fresh food compartment or "refrigerator section".

That melt water drips into a cup and a small plastic tube directs that melt water to the outside at the back of the fridge, where another plastic tube carries it down to a receiving pan at the base of the refrigerator.

The heat from the compressor then re-evaporates that melt water into the ambient air. You can help dehumidify your house if you were to direct that melt water into a drain instead.

NOW, it's common as a barking dog to have the drain in the evaporator drain pan clog up with food and stuff that drops through the vent holes of the freezer compartment (which are the ones where cold air from the evaporator fan comes blowing into the freezer, and where air that's already gone through the freezer gets sucked back over the evaporator coil to be cooled again in a circulation loop. Both the incoming cold air and the outgoing warmer air will have their own vents. A frozen pea dropping down either vent can result in the refrigeration equivalent of a ball blocking up a drain pipe.)

The fix is typically to use a piece of stranded wire to clear the hole in the drain in the evaporator drain pan. Even a hash brown or a frozen pee that drops onto that evaporator drain pan will end up clogging the drain.

HOWEVER, if that evaporator drain pan drain appears to be clear, check that the melt water is dripping from the drain in the roof of the fresh food section into that little plastic cup that directs the water to the back of the refrigerator and down to the receiving pan around the compressor. If that plastic cup is clogged, the melt water could be over flowing the plastic cup and collecting at the bottom of the fridge.

On rare occasions it's possible that the entire space between the upper evaporator drain pan and the lower evaporator housing can be clogged with ice. This happens when either styrofoam part absorbs water and becomes water logged. In that case, that part turns into a block of ice, and any cold melt water that comes into contact with it refreezes again. If this is the case, the only fix is to replace the waterlogged part, and that can be a very big job indeed. In my 30 year carreer, I've only done it once.

I agree that it's a good idea to simply have a helper pour a pint of water into the evaporator drain pan, and see what the water does. If it spills out the drain cup high up on the back wall of the refrigerator section, that's where the clog is. If it pools up in the evaporator drain pan, it's drain hole that's clogged and the water can be coming out anywhere.

That post that says:
"Frost-free" refrigerators have a tube leading from the freezer
compartment out into the atmosphere (often towards an external
drain pan at the base of the appliance.) This vents humid air
from the freezer. If frost takes hold anywhere in the tube, it can
quickly grow to block the tube with ice: and then the runoff
humidity must go somewhere else, e.g. the bottom of the
appliance.

The cure is usually to expose the freezer vent tube (often by simply
removing the back panel of the refrigerator) and defrost it, e.g.
with a hair dryer."

...is nutz. The freezer compartment will have a removable panel behind which are the evaporator and evaporator fan, but I have never seen a removable panel at the back of the fresh food compartment.

There is no "tube" coming from the freezer. There are styrofoam parts that are molded in such a way that they direct water to the drain in the evaporator drain pan, and then toward the drain at the back of the evaporator housing where the melt water drips out into that plastic cup. The only tubes there are are those that direct the water from the cup to the receiving pan at the bottom of the fridge.

(text inserted after my initials)
On 6/18/2014 10:47 PM, nestork wrote:
This is nutz. Stormin Mormon's got it right, but no one's listening to
him.
CY: Happens all the time.

Welcome to Fridges 101:

In the freezer compartment of your fridge, you will find a removable
panel.

Behind that panel will be the evaporator, the defrost heater, the
defrost thermostat and the evaporator fan. The evaporator is a coil of
aluminum tubing with fins all over it.

CY: And the fins are razor sharp, and very dangerous to touch.

It's the source of "cold" in
your fridge. The evaporator fan draws air through the evaporator and
blows that cold air into the freezer compartment (mostly) and also some
goes in at the bottom of the fresh food compartment.

Underneath the evaporator will be the "evaporator pan", or more
correctly, the "evaporator drain pan".

When your fridge defrosts itself every 12 to 24 hours, the defrost
heater comes on and melts all of the frost off the evaporator coil. The
evaporator drain pan directs the melt water to a drain right at the
lowest point of the drain pan.

Normally, the water drains through that drain hole and then follows a
channel in the "evaporator housing" (which is below the evaporator drain
pan). The evaporator housing directs the water to a drain at the back
of the roof of the fridge's fresh food compartment or "refrigerator
section".
CY: Most fridge I've serviced, drains through a tube,
to a pan under the fridge, or a pan on top of the
compressor. One or two low budget fridge do drain
down the back of the inside of the refrig, to a drain
hole under the salad drawers. But very few are like that.


That melt water drips into a cup and a small plastic tube directs that
melt water to the outside at the back of the fridge, where another
plastic tube carries it down to a receiving pan at the base of the
refrigerator.

The heat from the compressor then re-evaporates that melt water into the
ambient air. You can help dehumidify your house if you were to direct
that melt water into a drain instead.
CY: Yes, a few ounces a day.


NOW, it's common as a barking dog to have the drain in the evaporator
drain pan clog up with food and stuff that drops through the vent holes
of the freezer compartment (which are the ones where cold air from the
evaporator fan comes blowing into the freezer, and where air that's
already gone through the freezer gets sucked back over the evaporator
coil to be cooled again in a circulation loop. Both the incoming cold
air and the outgoing warmer air will have their own vents. A frozen pea
dropping down either vent can result in the refrigeration equivalent of
a ball blocking up a drain pipe.)

The fix is typically to use a piece of stranded wire to clear the hole
in the drain in the evaporator drain pan. Even a hash brown or a frozen
pee that drops onto that evaporator drain pan will end up clogging the
drain.
CY: I prefer solid wire, not stranded. Your spell check
got you, not many people freeze pee.


HOWEVER, if that evaporator drain pan drain appears to be clear, check
that the melt water is dripping from the drain in the roof of the fresh
food section into that little plastic cup that directs the water to the
back of the refrigerator and down to the receiving pan around the
compressor. If that plastic cup is clogged, the melt water could be
over flowing the plastic cup and collecting at the bottom of the
fridge.

On rare occasions it's possible that the entire space between the upper
evaporator drain pan and the lower evaporator housing can be clogged
with ice. This happens when either styrofoam part absorbs water and
becomes water logged. In that case, that part turns into a block of
ice, and any cold melt water that comes into contact with it refreezes
again. If this is the case, the only fix is to replace the waterlogged
part, and that can be a very big job indeed. In my 30 year carreer,
I've only done it once.
CY: What kind of career?


I agree that it's a good idea to simply have a helper pour a pint of
water into the evaporator drain pan, and see what the water does. If it
spills out the drain cup high up on the back wall of the refrigerator
section, that's where the clog is. If it pools up in the evaporator
drain pan, it's drain hole that's clogged and the water can be coming
out anywhere.

That post that says:
"Frost-free" refrigerators have a tube leading from the freezer
compartment out into the atmosphere (often towards an external
drain pan at the base of the appliance.) This vents humid air
from the freezer.

CY: And most climate scientists can tell you that freezers have much
lower humidity than room air.

If frost takes hold anywhere in the tube, it can
quickly grow to block the tube with ice: and then the runoff
humidity must go somewhere else, e.g. the bottom of the
appliance.
CY: That doesn't make sense.


The cure is usually to expose the freezer vent tube (often by simply
removing the back panel of the refrigerator) and defrost it, e.g.
with a hair dryer."

..is nutz. The freezer compartment will have a removable panel behind
which are the evaporator and evaporator fan, but I have never seen a
removable panel at the back of the fresh food compartment.

There is no "tube" coming from the freezer.

CY: I've worked on a lot of units which have a tube coming from the
evaporator drain pan.

There are styrofoam parts
that are molded in such a way that they direct water to the drain in the
evaporator drain pan, and then toward the drain at the back of the
evaporator housing where the melt water drips out into that plastic cup.

CY: I've found a tube, not a cup, under the evaporator drain pan.

The only tubes there are are those that direct the water from the cup
to the receiving pan at the bottom of the fridge.



CY: I've found clogged tube under the evaporator
drain, which then fills with water. And water
turns to ice. Need to thaw that ice, and then
clear the drain tube with a solid wire (you
wrote stranded).