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Whirlpool freezers with ice accumulating in the bottom

14 years ago

I have two Whirlpool upright freezers bought about 10 years apart. Both accumulate water in the bottom that turns to ice. I had the repairman here once but nothing changed so there's no point in having him back. These are both frostfree. One in the heated like the house breezeway, the other recently moved to the basement from the garage. I can't use the bottom basket because it's always frozen to the freezer bottom.

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Comments (3)

netbat
14 years ago
there is a drain hose that gets plugged up. then the melted ice will freeze in the drain hole that drains to the pan under the fridge. the best thing to do is let the freezer thaw out then lay it down on the floor and blow into the drain hose to see if it can be cleared out. if it is plugged you will not be able to blow through it. mine was plugged with dog hair of all things and i could not clear it out until the ice was melted away from the drain hole.
another thing to check is the defrost timer. its on the back of the freezer. if you have not heard it go into the defrost cycle the timer or heating element may be bad.
some timers can be turned manually to the next cycle on the timer itself to start a defrost cycle.
pinch_me
Original Author
14 years ago
Dog hair. Sigh. I only have 5. Plus whoever is staying over. Groan. Empty it out. Tip it over. Hairdryer to melt ice. dig out dog hair (I bet). Lift it up. Replace everything. Repeat on freezer #2. But if that's the problem, I'll call myself lucky. Thanks.
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Thank you everyone for your helpful comments. It appears that my problem might have been water frozen in the tube. We took off the panel on the bottom back and did a cleaning of coils and the drip tray. Had dried gunk on it but no moisture or water. the drain tube is visible from the bottom of the fridge down to under the fridge and is clear. Was tempted to pour some colored water in vent on floor of fridge part but chickened out as the refrigerator is very clean and trying to keep it that way. So we got out the level and found that it was slightly out of kilter. And readjusted the temperature controls to the recommended ones. Had freezer and fridge too cold I think. Anyway since this tweak ice is no longer forming on freezer floor. This was my first post to gardenweb and I am impressed with the nice response to my question. We are rehabbing a 1400 square foot cottage and I am certain this will not be my last question. We are both in our 70's and probably too old to be doing this but "oh well". My husband was a commercial wooden boat builder but house building "not so much". But I guess the good thing is if our house ever needs to float, it probably will.
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netbat
14 years ago
i just don't know exactly where the drain hole is. my neiber's freezer backed up but it backed up into a space on the inside right side of the freezer wall. mine has what i will call a drain sink. its about 7 x 15 inches with the drain hole on the bottom where the hose attaches onderneath the freezer where it drains to a plastic tray for evaporation.
it backed up and the water was over flowing into the bottom of the freeser and re freezing.
it is in the back wall behind sheet steel. mine comes loose by removeing some sheet steel screws. then i melted the ice. maybe a coat hanger would work. for the hose. but i would be careful. it could puncture the hose.

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