Friday, April 29, 2016

Refrigerator Repair Achievement Unlocked!

So the fridge has been causing problems recently - water freezing at the bottom of the freezer compartment and then overflowing out onto the floor.

Finally sick of chipping away the ice I researched the problem and found that our fridge, among many others, had a really stupid design defect that is rather well known. Since Whirlpool, Kitchenaid and quite a few other names were all manufactured with the same dumb design, quite a few fridges are affected.

I found out that the little rubber grommet on the end of the evaporator tube is badly designed and tends to gum up, get blocked, and when the evaporated water has nowhere to go, instead of going to the evaporator pan, it backs up and then runs down onto the freezer floor, freezes and then cascades out onto the kitchen floor.

Natasha indicated her clear displeasure with the situation.

So, it was on me to set this right, calling a fridge repair place was not a preferred option.

Research online showed it was a relatively easy repair.

You need to replace the grommet and drain tube with this:

Thankfully, there is YouTube for an easy to follow video on how to do it:

Following the video, after unloading the fridge sufficiently to be able to move it, I attempted the repair and replacement.

It went not nearly as quickly as depicted and with somewhat different vocabulary (yes that metal edge is sharp), but in the end I was triumphant.

After cleaning the long unseen and really dirty area behind the fridge, I plugged it in and put it back. The fridge is working so that's a good sign.

The wet floor issue should now be a thing of the past, and no costly repair tech was needed for what was a pretty simple job.

This just goes to show, If the women don't find you handsome, they should at least find you handy.

1 comment:

Keads said...

I hate working on appliances. They alway cut me too. Good job!