The appliance manufacturer play these dirty little trick to get you into thinking that you need to go out and buy a new fridge. Thanks to people and videos like yours the power is going back into the peoples hands !
I read through the comments before my husband and I attempted this procedure. I used someone's suggestion to use a meat injector without the needle. Work wonderfully and was pressure to clean out the tube. My husband squeezed to tube to work the blockage out. I pushed 3 mug fulls of boiled water through the drain, using the injector. I added diluted white vinegar to the 2nd mug and finished with just water to rinse. My husband took care of the water that was filling up the tray so it didn't overflow. Worked very well!!! Thanks for putting this on! VERY HELPFUL in the times we are living!
Hi, saw a rather large pool of water under my French Door Whirlpool. My wife called a repairman and was quoted (over the phone) $169/to start. Then I got on RU-vid and saw your video. With my sons help we fixed the problem and within 45 minutes the fridge is running normal again. Thank you so much for the help.
This was exactly what was going on with our fridge for the past several years. We've just been chiseling out the ice every 3 months. THANK YOU. Commented, liked, and subscribed.
Protect this man at all costs!! I was losing my mind every 2 weeks or so. Sad thing is that I oversee 5 hotels engineers and was to lazy to figure it out!! Awesome video
I have the same refrigerator, same problem. Your fix may just do the trick. So many people are having the same problem, seems like a bad design issue. You may have saved me some money. Thanks.
Thanks for the video. Our refrigerator was out of warranty and didn't want to pay for a repair. We watched your video and the instructions were spot on. Repaired in about 45 minutes from start to finish.
Great video! After dealing with ice buildup on the drain inside the freezer…still couldn’t get the damn thing to drain. Found this video and problem solved! Outstanding!!
Thanks so much for this information my fridge has been leaking for months could not afford to call for repair. I can do this myself.Thanks too you.YEA!!!
This is a great temp fix but you need to order the replacement p trap kit as mentioned on other posts. When you take that nasty grommet off you’ll feel the cold air rushing out of the freezer. The new p trap kit will fix that. Happy fridge! Now I can put the hammer back in the garage!
Your video and advice did the trick. Thanks! The big takeaway for me was your advice about not underestimating just how much boiling water is needed to melt the ice. I almost gave up thinking it was another issue and then I heard the water flowing down in to the tray in the back.
Thank you so very much for taking the time to do this video. It is truly educational. I consider myself totally inept when It comes to fixing things, but with your help I was able to fix my refrigerator!!! I feel so happy for that. All the best to you and once again many thanks.
Praise the refrigerator Gods for you. I have been dealing with this freaking leak for > 6 years. I have been dealing with 1/2" sheets of ice, taking them out with a butter knife, having them break into pieces on my kitchen floor, always having to put a towel if front of the freezer. NO More you devil whirlpool! thank you, thank you.
Thanks for the video!! Very helpful! Just a couple of other items that helped me also. I was able to use a bucket of very hot water and a fish tank siphon to clear the drain hole without taking the door off and the drawers out.... Saves a lot of time!!!! Lots of water on the floor but it's still way better than taking everything off. Also I have a p-trap in the back instead of the chute. The p-trap also clogs with slime so you have to remove that and fully clean it out. Thanks again!!
Thank you for posting this. I have an Amana by whirlpool with the bottom freezer. leaking water and this worked! I will add for those wandering the actual procedure that I used a small driver to remove the hex screws from the back panel (where the collecting pan is) and inner freezer panel (which is necessary to access the drain hole) then a screwdriver-type-pick to break up the ice around the drain hole, and surrounding areas, and then used my gooseneck kettle to pour warm water down the hole to ensure that it was all cleared out. its been bout 3-4 hours and no water leaking . saved a technician fee of maybe $250 and a new fridge for maybe $800. took about an hour or less including cleaning up .
I can't wait to try this! Our floor is ruined under the refrigerator because it leaked so much for so long. I guess it didn't bother the previous owners of our home, but it sure bothers us! Thank you so much for sharing your knowledge with us! You are helping us all to save lots of money!
Great video. Have had our Whirlpool for about 2 years now and are dealing with this issue. Knew someone else out there would be having the issue and made a video about it. Thanks a bunch!
Great job on this. My side by side Maytag had the same problem. Took off back panel. Took off black rubber 90 degree fitting from the freezer defrost drain. It was plugged with purple goo. Cleaned under hot water with a stiff wire as a scrubber. Skinnied up a toothbrush so it fit up the freezer defrost drain pipe, (about 3/8" I.D. plastic). Took Dawn dish washing liquid on skinny brush and spun it up into the small drain pipe. Did this eight times until the dirt looking stuff was no longer coming out on the brush. Shop vac, (skinny hose) sucked it out just in case. Opened up freezer. 2 foot tall back panel had 3 screws on the top, (hex head). I took two off. One was impossible. Gently bent up panel. The drain sheet metal pan had ice between it and the drain fitting. YOU HAVE TO DO THIS IF YOU WANT IT TO DRAIN! Unplug fridge so you are not fighting the fan... Took heat gun and melted the 3/4" thick ice sheet, (just to speed up the melt/loosen the grab between plastic fridge shell and the metal funnel). Took big flat blade and broke ice out that was plugging the drain hole. Had cookie sheet below freezer to catch ice that I broke off the bottom of the freezer. FYI. The freezer coil is heated every few hours to melt the frost off the coil up behind all your frozen stuff. The water has to drain to to pan under the fridge. The water is evaporated from the pan with help from the fan. Any way with lots of tools ready, it took about 45 minutes. Just move stuff from freezer to fridge and it is fine in that amount of time without it running. Again. Awsome video! Saved me hundreds or thousands on a nine year old Maytag. (Vacuum all lint and dust off everything when you are back there. It gets nasty every 3 or 4 years.)
Thank you so much. I installed a kit to prevent the water build-up but it didn't work. After watching your video about adding hot water through the drain, I tried it. And it works. I confirmed that water was going to the drain. Thanks so much.
Thank you. My fridge started making a periodic high pitch noise like a stuck vent trying to move for a number months. Then came the bottom freezer icing up which I noticed when the slide out freezer drawer started dragging on the ice buildup. This solution is like taking a potato out of a car exhaust pipe ... the change in sound was noticeable. Some water flowed into the evaporation pan immediately when I removed what is in effect a plug. I absorbed some of the water in the pan to insure it did not overflow and then left it run for a few days. The result has been no more excess noise and the freezer has no more ice buildup plus I didn't have to remove the freezer drawer to get at the back pannel since removing the plug opened the dam returning the drainage back to normal. Good fix. A 1/4 inch socket is what you need to remove the back pannel.
Great video, thanks. I made the mistake of not completely thawing the drain hole with hot water. The purpose of the rubber duckbill is to prevent cold air in the freezer compartment from blowing through that drain hole and escaping into that rear compartment where the compressor and fan is. If you put your finger near that drain hole while the fridge is working you will feel that cold air. A P-trap is a much better solution because it completely blocks cold air in the freezer from blowing through the drain line but can't clog up like that duckbill. That drain line is so small that leaving the duck bill off probably has minimal effect, obviously you've proven it works fine without it. So you might be losing a small bit of efficiency but not affecting the overall operation. If you have central air conditioning in your house, you'll find a similar P trap in the condensate line, only it's much bigger. Without that P trap the cold air in your furnace plenum would blow out the drain line and be "wasted" by blowing into the basement instead of blowing through the ductwork into your house.
It's true anything can clog, but it's all relative. The duckbill will clog from just dirt and fluff, the ptrap would need something bigger, like pieces of food. The design of the tray and cover where the water gets collected makes it pretty much impossible for anything to get in there except the dustbunnies that blow around in the freezer.
This sorted my problem out perfectly - my water tube was in the shape of a under sink tube so I cant take it off as the drip tray isnt underneath the outlet ! other than that the hot water trick did the trick - thankyou so much!
This video helped me several years ago when my freezer started leaking - Revisited this again today to do the same fix - Thank you so much for posting this
Wish I saw this video 3 weeks ago when I made my fix. I bought the replacement kit ($15-20) removed the ice from the bottom floor of the freezer compartment, but didn't defrost the drain hole that you show. My fix lasted about 4 days before I had water on the floor. Then I had to go back in and melt everything and clear the hole with a few pipe cleaners just to be sure. Thanks for the video - you'll help others
Thanks for the great video! Solved our problem, took less than an hour. We actually ran a pot of hot water in the coffee pot then used a meat injector with no needle and put the water on the drain hole. Worked great!
Oh, that meat injector is a good idea. I don't have one so I just used a Pyrex glass measuring cup to pour the water all along the venting and in the drainhole.
That worked great!!! So GLAD I read the comments first! I boiled a kettle of water and used that. Used a mug full to fill injector. Once that went through, I mixed diluted white vinegar with the hot water and shot a mug full of water through. Finished with another mug full of water to rinse the vinegar out....didn't want acid left to eat the tube.
Agreed 100%. It’s such a pain. Multiple attempts. Still froze and dripped on the floor now I’m letting my refrigerator sit unplugged for 24 hours just to make sure what a nightmare. Thanks whirlpool.
I did this, unfortunately I did not have the groomer in my drain. My drain was S shaped and clogged with dust and pet dander somewhere in the middle of the drain. Had to remove the drain completely. Unclipped it. Ran high pressure water and it finally pushed out the clog. This was the first time I had this issue, and it took about 8 years to clog it up. $202 repairman problem. He also told me to clean all the dust out from under the fridge and clean the coils once a tear to prevent this problem, and any potential overheating issues.
Omg you're a life saver! I'm going to try this, ours is leaking so bad it completely soaked a towel we had down around the bottom. We live in an apartment and we are afraid to tell the landlord to fix it. So hopefully we can fix it by our selves. Thank you!
Thank you so much! I just did this, so only time will tell if it's permanent, but it sure looks like exactly the issue I've been avoiding fixing for several years. THANK YOU!
Thank you, sir! Electricity was out for 36 hours in January and I guess that was enough for it to finally catch up to me in July-August. Ice in the bottom 3-4 times and water in front of fridge on the floor. Although it took me 2.5 hours between vacuuming the back of fridge, finally relenting to remove the freezer front and drawers (found how to remove the drawers in another video) and pouring hot water all along the vents and the drainhole. Checked to make sure it was draining into the pan before closing it all back up. Now, let's HOPE it stays that way as I'm sure this refrigerator costs 2x more times what I paid for it 11 years ago.
After releasing the clog with boiling water - I used my shop vac from the back to suck all the crap remaining out then I used the blow side to force air through the drain from the front. I also used the shop vac to blow the remaining ice particulate and water into the drain so I did not have to remove the interior back of the freezer. Thank you for your insights !
Thanks for the tip on melting the ice in the drain, and how to get the drawer out! I'll be going with the replacement drain, though, which costs $15 on Amazon, I don't want to let the hot air in unnecessarily.
I made the same mistake in not defrosting the drain in side the freezer, did your fix of putting hot water down it and will see, should be god now. Thank you so much for this video!
I have a KitchenAid side by side fridge. I saw the video.. and I found the drain plug inside the fridge was easier to access than the French Door freezers. I cleaned the drain plug with a wire and ran hot water with baking soda thru it using a turkey baster. I saw the water drain. I was thinking of putting a thin tube like a ballpoint pen refill or a stainless steel straw into it and leaving it there. I think that will open the duckbill valve a little letting any water seep thru.
Moon Pie Yes, but less trouble than pulling the fridge out and replacing a part from the back. I found an old steel telescopic antenna from a kid's R/C toy and I broke a segment off which I inserted into the valve. I just jiggle it every month and remove it to wash and re-insert. Acts like a drain they put in the the body after surgery!
I performed this repair on my Maytag version of the Whirlpool refrigerator and added the P-Trap in place of the poorly designed rubber nipple device. The freezer trays were removed but I left the back panel attached and used a hair dryer to thoroughly melt as much ice as possible then allowed the refrigerator to thaw over night. The next day the drain was checked using a hot salt water and a turkey baster while checking the drip tray for water flow. The drain was thawed and now flowing water freely. Completed the job by installing the new P-Trap and re-installing the rear access panel and freezer trays. Success! Addendum: Searching the internet for the lowest price on the P-Trap using the part number listed on an appliance parts page (which had the highest price) a replacement part was found for only $12.95 plus $3.50 shipping. Very reasonable price.
Thank you SO MUCH! My husband was able to fix our freezer after watching this video even though it was a different model so the line was not exactly the same !
Glad I found this video. I think this may be my problem. Freezer ices up when the temperature drops down cooler after humid days. Fridge not cold enough when this happens. Already changed the control board thinking this was the issue. I can put it into forced defrost and it'll clear up for a few days. I don't think all the ice in the bottom is totally defrosting and draining properly.
Great video! Just upgraded the nipple in the back with the p-trap kit, but didn't get all the ice out of the line so will be using a turkey baster with hot water to clear it this next go-around.
Hey thank you very much for this video & the information it contains. It is much appreciated! We've already totally defrosted our freezer three or four times only to keep having the same problem. Armed with this information, it might actually work this time! Thanks again!
Thanks for this quick video. I think whirlpool made a change in my model. I had a tube instead of a shoot. I cleaned it the best I could but I think it will happen again.
Yep, this is exactly correct. I used hot water and a turkey baster right on the drain. Feels like it's a pattern of Whirlpool under-engineered appliances and selling upgrades when they become an issue. From them going back to an older ice maker retrofit, P-tube replacement for the drain. I guess the grommet was to prevent some non-existent splatter, but it should have been a hose in the first place just like the water going in. Big brains!
I was able to fix this, from the front, no tools required on a whirlpool side by side. I unplugged, remover the bottom slide out shelf, and poured hot water over the ice in the bottom of the freezer and got the ice sheet out. Then I soaked up all water with a sponge. I let a small electric space heater run in the freezer for 30mins, checking every 10 mins to clean up any water around the heater. I taped three large Starbucks straws together and fed it as far as I could down the drain hole and gave it a couple good blows and sucks. It seems as if it cleared up any ice or other obstructions. I poured hot water down the drain hole and it disappeared rapidly. Voila! Problem solved, no tools required, just three straws, which are hard to come by in California these days.
So if your freezer is full on ice and the drain pan is dry this is probably your problem! I followed your method of removing the Rubber grommet. Bad design that does not function as designed. Probably also what started the problem. I took an old ketchup bottle and 4 feet of conduit "1/2 " OD electrical Conduit" and pumped very hot water through. I used a wet vacuum to remove the flush water from the pan evaporate pan under the compressor fan in the back of the refrigerator. In the future I plan to use the same system but will add vinegar to the flush. I'm thinking that without the plug/grommet it should flush it just fine without needing to open the back. Thanks
If they get really out of level it can also cause ice on the bottom. I left my fridge off for 24 to 30hrs but didn't work. Has worked in the past as I've turn my fridge off 2x per yr as a prevented thing. But also has been iced up beside the unlevel thing. Fridge must be a decade old. Haven't been turning it off 2x per yr as I have this whiny roommate that throws a hissy fit if I leave it off for that long. I wish he'd grow some.⚽ 😂. Then again it might really be plugged this time. So another fun wkend. Thank you for the great video.
Dude, you are my FREAKING hero!! That could have easily been a 3-hr event with troubleshooting, still not removing the black nipple, repeating the effort - hr effort a month later, and still ending up with my heading exploding!! What did we do before guys like you and RU-vid!! Ditto to what John Gurcsik said. I will look at his reply, and your next 12-pack is on me!! I didn't see your Paypal address, but I did Subscribe, so hopefully you are getting advertisement $$$.
Worked for me too! Thank you. It took me aboit 10 cups of boiling water till it finally thawed and water ran through it. I removed the black cap completely
Thanks for this video. This is exactly what's happening to me. I've taken to placing towels in the bottom of the freezer to absorb the water. I eventually have to remove the towels, get the ice off them and dry them. I do it every couple weeks. Luckily I keep very little in the lower freezer, so I've just pulled out the grate that comes along. Question I have is how did you get the water poured down the grate in front on the front / inside of the freezer? Does that piece come off, or did you use a watering can.... Just trying to figure how to make sure the water gets down to the desired point w/o pouring all over the freezer linter itself? Thank you for your feedback, and good video.
You are my savior! This has been plaguing me for months. We referred to it as "water under the fridge" and it became an inside joke amongst my friends. It stopped being funny after a week. I had no idea what was causing this to happen but you're video perfectly explained it and provided the optimal solution. Thank you so much for taking the time to help others out. May nothing but good things come your way.
Great video! My Whirlpool is a later model but had the exact same issue....the issue was that the S trap in the drain line became clogged with slimy mold. One the tube was blocked, water backed up into the drain and froze. The fix was straightforward, melt the ice inside, remove the drain tube and clean it out. Not sure what caused the slimy mold or if it will come back.
