First Clue of Trouble

Did you ever have one of those days? I awoke groggy I inadvertently kicked the cat water bowl and tipped over their food. While cursing and cleaning it up I noticed another spot of water near the corner of my refrigerator that was suspicious. Those that live on hardwood floors need to be really careful with water so I investigated. What I saw was a bit of an emergency. Floor cupping and a small amount of water. Could I have spilled some water there? Had an ice cube or two fallen there and not gotten picked up before it melted? This is the same side-by-side refrigerator that I had just replaced the defroster heaters in, is this becoming a pattern? I wondered.

One good thing about wood floors is that minor cupping caused by water may go back to its original shape but we will have to wait and see.

Condensation Drain

My first suspicion is that I had a leak in the water supply line. As I have reported before that can cause all sorts of problems with large volumes of water. I frantically pulled the fridge from its alcove and inspected the area. Not seeing any problems with the supply, I then removed the back of the unit and verified that the evaporation tray was dry. I quickly removed the bottom shelf of the freezer expecting to see a clogged drain line and sure enough there it was.

The defroster comes on regularly to melt off any build up from the freezer coils. The melted frost turns into water that flows on the back of the unit and out the little hole in the floor area of the freezer into an evaporation tray. In a top mount the water runs down a longer tube but ends up at the bottom too.

I tried to run a brush through but it was too curvy so I got my air tank and blew the hose out with compressed air. I then poured a cup of water down to verify I had it clear. Seeing water flowing freely into the tray was a relief. Who knows what the clog was I am just glad it is gone now. This one goes on the 15 year cycle of checking.

Some of the Removed Ice

I pulled out the heat gun and removed the piled up ice from the floor of the freezer and put it all back together.

The moral of the story is sometimes good things happen as a result of bad. Keep your eyes open and stay alert.

Oh sure I would have eventually discovered that there was a problem but it could have been a whole lot worse