Dripping Fridge, now stopped, now not working! HELP please :(

[lesliedonnelly]

Thank you for reading this message... please let me know if you can help!

Here's my problem: In the refridgerator section, near the light on the ceiling, are 2 "holes". For over a year, water has been gradually dripping... so I put 2 cups to catch the water. When it was full, I dumped out the water (which was always half frozed and half liquid).

As of a few days ago, I noticed that the freezer is EXTRA cold with frost (that's a first!) and the fridge is extra warm. So I think I am blocking the flow from the freezer to the fridge, because those two holes are now frozen like snow (therefore no water is dripping).

I have now unloaded the fridge/freezer, unplugged it, and am letting all defrost. Does anyone, by anychance, have any idea what I am doing or what to do next?!? I am a school teacher, and CANNOT afford a few hundred $ for a new appliance :( Please, help...

[paul_h]

Drain is iced up. Water dripped into the fridge because everytime the freezer defrosted the water couldn't get into the drain, so it ended up leaking into the fridge.

Defrosting it for 2 days might help, but you may have a faulty drain pan heater or a physical obstruction in the drain that needs to be manually cleared from the inside.
Letting the problem go for so long would have made huge amounts of ice in the fridge duct, could have damaged the damper t/stat too.
Try the 2 day defrost first, but if that doesn't work, it's not going to be an expensive repair, it's a fairly common fault.

[lesliedonnelly]

I want to thank you, sincerely, for your post. My father took apart the fridge this past weekend, so we will have to see if it continues to work. THANK YOU!!!!!!!

[Cyborg-mechanic]

homer is correct, might be a blocked drain pipe, but now look, i can't actualy make out what type of fridge is, has it got an auto defrost and does it work with fans, or is it just a normal static evap, that's the cold plate at the back wall of the fridge, if it's the static one, you'll see there's a sort of a tray which runs to the middle hole, take a long thing and stick it in there to get all the dirt out, but what it also could be paul! is that the fridge is not switching off and it's running and running and building up ice,, untill now to such an extent that it couldn't do it anymore, i mean look paul, if the therm is on the the evap and it's iced up it should have switched off long ago, so mam, it might need a new thermostat, if you got a husband or son that has some experience with electric and such, changing the thermostat is easy, your fridge will work now but after a while it will have the same trouble, but for all we know the compressor burned out and that costs half as much as a new fridge to replace and it must be done by someone that knows how to do it, paul! it might also be icing up because the door gaskets are very badly warn out, if air enters the fridge it will struggle to swtch off and in this it will build up alot of ice, so mam, chech the door seals, chech if the fridge ever switches off, and check the drainpipe, but then also another thing which Will cause this is if you have set the thermostat to coldest, it will NOT work anyfridge on planet earth WILL NOT WORK if the thermostat is set to the fullest, this might be your problem, set the thermostat to quarter from all the way warm..

if this was any help to you then good, but if you're still struggling then tell us, what fridge is it, is it a freezer at the top or freezer at the bottom or side by side? is it an automatic defrost system? just check for any fans then it is... to check if it's the thermostat give it slight tap or a hard tap then the fridge will go off and you've set it low, then it is the thermostat, then tell us then just get someone with a bit of knowledge and i will give the explenations on how to change the thermostat..

my regards.
Cyborg-mechanic:cool: