# Samsung Refrigerator pooling water



## 95PGTTech (Jun 24, 2014)

Update - caught it in the act. It drips heavily from this area.





In the more zoomed out view, of the two Phillips screws it drips from about 3/4" to the right of the right screw. With no clue what else to do and figuring most of the cooling goes on behind that center plate, I think it's about time I took off that plate and took a look see after dinner. Some sort of freezing/condensation/blockage issue? Temp gauge on the front of the refrigerator reads a constant 38-40 but I think it gets a bit colder than that at times if this water will freeze solid.


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## hardwareman (Oct 9, 2010)

take that rear panel off, your refrig. evap coil is back there. There will be a drain trough with a drain hole, I would bet the hole is either frozen or clogged with gunk.


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## Syberia (Jan 24, 2014)

Had the same issue. Drain hole was frozen. Pour hot water down it to thaw it, and to prevent it from happening, take the bare ground wire from a piece of romex, wrap it around the heating element, and put the other end down the drain. This will conduct enough heat during defrost to make sure it doesn't freeze again.

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## 95PGTTech (Jun 24, 2014)

hardwareman said:


> take that rear panel off, your refrig. evap coil is back there. There will be a drain trough with a drain hole, I would bet the hole is either frozen or clogged with gunk.


DING. More pics coming.












Drain hole in center of trough is frozen solid. Two pots of boiling hot water and I can stick screwdriver about 1/2" in and it stops. Water continues to pool in trough, no drainage.

Not much access from behind at all.



Water inlet from blue tube to pump, pumps up to white tube for icemaker. I found out by trial and error (I was trying to find how it drains eventually).



Any tips on how to thaw this out? Kicker is I have a backup fridge I moved everything to, but no backup freezer. I can't figure out how to disable fridge but keep freezer going. Right now, just leaving the fridge door open.


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## Syberia (Jan 24, 2014)

Turkey baster full of hot water, either down the hole directly or into some plastic tubing down the hole. You will eventually shrink the ice enough that you dislodge it and it flows down the drain hole.

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## 95PGTTech (Jun 24, 2014)

OK I'll keep at it. Had a little breakthrough, it finally drains. Not well, so I'll keep going.



Just to the left of the blue tube is a large white tube. There are two of these tubes. It comes out the "vent" at the top of the tube and flows into the gray plastic tray at the bottom.

Is it ok for water to be pooling in this tray? Even if it is, I'm sure it's designed to catch a lot less condensation than I'm putting in there manually. What is the other one for? Freezer?


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## Syberia (Jan 24, 2014)

Water is supposed to go there during the defrost cycle, then heat from the condenser dries it. I don't remember if my fridge had one tray or two. As long as it does not overflow you will be fine.

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## 95PGTTech (Jun 24, 2014)

Ok. I just added more hot water and it flows pretty good now. I will continue to so this tonight until tomorrow am. I am trying to leave the door open to the fridge to keep the drain from re freezing but allow the freezer to still operate


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## 95PGTTech (Jun 24, 2014)

Closed the door (chimes) for the night, still flowing good. We will see if it refreezes by morning.



In this picture from before, the rod towards the very bottom with the raindrop shaped piece of metal riveted to it is very very hot to the touch (I guess to keep the drain from freezing). I'm not sure if it was not working in the picture but it sure is now. I'm wondering whether it failed before or if its not of sufficient size to keep the drain from freezing. May see if I can add a piece of ground wire or other conductor like mentioned before.


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## 95PGTTech (Jun 24, 2014)

Well, still draining this morning. Not sure what to think. For now, I think I'm going to put it back together and put minimal stuff back in the fridge to get through a couple days (backup is in my shed a couple hundred feet out of house) and see if leak reoccurs. I am expecting it to since I didn't change anything.

When we moved this fridge it was unplugged for probably the better part of two weeks (I had to move some cabinets to get this one to fit in old ones hole). You'd think during that time even if the drain was a problem it would have melted completely. I guess if I have a re occurrence I am going to cut off the riveted "nipple" piece by the trough and do a wire like previously mentioned. Thanks for the help guys, I will keep the thread updated.


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## 95PGTTech (Jun 24, 2014)

I'm going to call the refrigerator fixed for now, no re-occurrence of problem. I think the settings of 0 freezer 36 refrigerator are the largest part of preventing the issue in the future. Thanks to everyone who had input resolving my issues.

I'll tackle the icemaker at some later date. As long as I remember to hit the TEST button every time I go in there I usually have more ice than needed on hand.


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## hardwareman (Oct 9, 2010)

your going to have to replace that icemaker to resolve the problem. Order 1 they are not that expensive


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## 95PGTTech (Jun 24, 2014)

hardwareman said:


> your going to have to replace that icemaker to resolve the problem. Order 1 they are not that expensive


What makes you say this, common issue? Just find an online site like I did for the dryer/washer? It does work but only when it is commanded to by holding TEST. The previous owner never hooked it up so I figured it was a programming issue of some sort since I don't have an owners manual I had to figure out the controls via trial and error. Thanks Chris


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## NitrNate (May 27, 2010)

is it still cooling like it is supposed to? coil is a bit iced over. could be the defrost bi-metal failing which could cause the drain hole to freeze. it happened to me, took me forever to figure it out and in the end it was a $12 part.

defrost cycle may be cutting off prematurely, causing minimal defrost and some drainage that quickly freezes once the compressor cycles back on. this eventually clogs the drain. if the defrost heater coil stays on for long enough like it should, everything warms up enough so the drips don't freeze in the drain.


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## 95PGTTech (Jun 24, 2014)

NitroNate said:


> is it still cooling like it is supposed to? coil is a bit iced over. could be the defrost bi-metal failing which could cause the drain hole to freeze. it happened to me, took me forever to figure it out and in the end it was a $12 part.
> 
> defrost cycle may be cutting off prematurely, causing minimal defrost and some drainage that quickly freezes once the compressor cycles back on. this eventually clogs the drain. if the defrost heater coil stays on for long enough like it should, everything warms up enough so the drips don't freeze in the drain.


So far, no re-occurrence of problem (pooling water in drawer). I'll keep my fingers crossed.


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