Refrigerator Drain Clogged

by Richard

I have an older Amana top freezer type refrigerator. It has the common water drain problem. If I could access the drain hole, I know what to do from reading many posts about it.

The problem is that with this model I can't find a way to access the drain hole. The freezer floor does not come out, it appears to be held in by the sides of the freezer walls and does not pull out the front either. I can jostle it back and forth about a quarter inch and that's all.

Also the fins behind the back wall panel go all the way to the bottom. There is no hole that I can see there and there is no "trough" there.

The water comes out wherever it can get out, either in the slots in the refrigerator section ceiling or at the extreme bottom corners of the refrigerator door.

Are you familiar with how to get that corrugated freezer floor out so I can access the space under it to clean out whatever gunk must be in there? I bought the refrigerator from somebody and it was obvious they didn't clean it at all. Other than the water dilemma, the temperatures and features are working great. Thanks

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Answer


Hi Richard,

This is Shawn creator of appliance-repair-it.com. I couldn’t get anywhere with the model number you gave me but I will still try to help. If my suggestions don’t help, recheck the model number. First look to see if the drain tube goes down the back of the refrigerator and if so remove it and clean it. If it doesn’t look good under the coils you should be able to see the drain hole.

More than likely to remove the floor you will have to take both doors off the refrigerator and remove the screws from the front of the door seal. There may be some screws inside the fresh food section pointing upward that you must remove. Note that if the coils are on the back wall of the freezer typically you don’t have to remove the floor of the freezer although at times you do.

Thank you,
Shawn

Hello Shawn,

Thanks very much for responding. As a senior citizen on a small fixed income, every dollar is important to try to save. In continuing to research, I found another answer site forum where someone posted great pictures. I will give you the web url if you would like to look at it yourself. It seems that even though I didn't see any ice build-up at the back of my freezer, I may have been looking too far back under the fins instead of looking where the two holes are that are in front of the fins. I have to look again and maybe just try heating that area or pouring hot water and magically a hole will appear. I also have to look for that defrost "rod."

I know it must be pretty gunky in that space between the reefer ceiling and freezer floor because I can see it is not clean looking through the vent slots at the front of the freezer. I have been able to get a trickle of water through the drain spout at the drain pan by blowing air into the tube using a small tire inflator compressor with a modified nozzle to stick in the hole. Every time I do that, water eventually starts running into the pan so I have to try and find that hole and pour bleach in it or something. I'm going to remove my food again and try hard to find that hole, hopefully as it shows in the picture. Mine also has a silver tube with a fatter cylindrical part that looks like a skinny balloon would as you start to blow it up. That is on the left side and extends across the fins. I don't know what that is. There is nothing like that in these pictures.

Also Shawn, the label inside the refrigerator on the upper left side gives this model number as the only number. There is also a serial number of 900 705 4329.

And : 8.5 oz R12
115 VAC / 60 hz

Design pressure .... 235 HS & 140 LS

Amps ...................... 6.5

If these pictures tell you anything to guide me, I very much appreciate your help. Thanks.
Answer

Hi again,

If the picture is of your model you do not have to remove the floor of the
freezer. However there may be a cover on the floor of the freezer that you
may have to remove. Now to do that you must remove the air duct that covers
the fan. Then remove the two screws pointing down at the front of the floor
of the freezer. Then the cover should be able to be removed. Once done you
can remove all the ice and clean out the drain. I always use a turkey baser
to clean the drain out by forcing hot water down the drain until water flows
freely.

I still couldn’t find anything on that model number and I am not sure if
the picture is for your model or just an example. In any case the drain
should be under the coils (likely covered in ice).

The copper wire trick should only be done if you have a metal defrost
heater. With that being said it is almost never necessary. Typically all you
have to do is clean the drain but if the heater is metal it won’t hurt
anything. Again if the heater is in a glass tube do not attempt this.

Thanks
Shawn



My friend I happened to be sitting at the computer still researching. No, the pictures are not the same as what the fins and fan section look like in mine. Somewhat similar, but not the same.

What I am going to do is try to take pictures for you of what mine looks like if you would still like to help me. There definitely is no tube running down the back of the refrigerator, no "cup" inside the refrigerator which apparently some have and I couldn't see screws anywhere, either in the freezer or on the refrigerator ceiling. No screws anywhere. It all seems to be like a "unibody" in the freezer section except for the panel covering the coils and fan.

I can tell that the corrugated plastic floor moves because I can jostle it back and forth about a quarter inch but that's all.

I’m going to look in there again possibly today or tomorrow and see what I can see. Thank you so much for your assistance. If it is possible to call you, I will gladly do that also. First, I will attempt to take pictures though if I don't find the hole. Again, thanks.



Richard

Good morning Shawn,


I still can't find a hole anywhere. So what I did yesterday is put boiling hot water in a pitcher and poured it over the fins all the way along. The water came out at the drain pan quite quickly and nowhere else that I could tell. I poured about a gallon and a half through there, mixed with 3-4 tbsp of bleach. After the last pouring I did, I heard a gurgling sound. The water came through almost instantly at the drain pan. It's been about 15 hours now. I still haven't been able to see any water in the drain pan yet, but there hasn't been any anywhere in the refrigerator either, or on the floor. So I don't know if it did a defrost cycle yet or not. I'm going to give it a shot now though, maybe I broke through something and cleared the drain. I'm going to be really ticked if I see water again below those crispers. This is the 3rd time I took my food out of that freezer lol. It's a great refrigerator except for this pain in the butt problem. The freezer control is set only on #2 and the reefer on #4. Yet everything is cold or frozen perfect. You are really a nice guy to try and help somebody. If hopefully I solved my problem, maybe the pictures will come in handy for you to use with someone else's similar problem if I can get them to you. If I didn't solve my problem, maybe it is something other than a plugged drain because it can't be that anymore. It came spurting out at the pan yesterday. Then we're back to needing the pictures again ha ha ha.

Richard

Richard,

I am glad to hear you got it repaired!! Just as a follow up I looked at the pictures and it looks like on this model you would have to remove the divider between the freezer and the fresh food section (freezer floor). The only way to do this is to remove both doors and center hinges. Then remove the cover off the front of the center divider then the supports that hold the hinges on. Then the divider should just slide out. This is complicated and if I may add a pain it is good you found a way to repair it without having to do this.