Kenmore refrigerator flood

Have a two year old Kenmore refrigerator. Don't have the model number handy. Was in the backyard for a few minutes only to come back into the kitchen and find a flood of water in the kitchen. Water was spewing out from underneath the refrigerator. I quickly shut off the main water valve.

In pulling the refrigerator out, I found out what the problem was. There is a small perhaps 1/4" hose that is internal to the refrigerator. If feeds out from this little box in the refrigerator. On the other end of the little box is the main water line.

To connect this small hose to the fox, there is a plastic sort of nut. You push this plastic hose into the box, the plastic nut is around it, you tighten it up and that is the connection.

What happened was that the plastic hose slowly slipped out over the past 2 years until it just 100% disconnected. Good thing I was home otherwise it would have been massive water damage to the kitchen.

This seems like a very flimsy design, and I worry that my fix (reattach and tighten) will give way again some time in the future.

Has anyone heard of such a thing and know of any recalls or such that would have a better solution? THANK YOU!!!

Reply to
JR
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I ran a copper tubing line to mine. It fastens the same way but has no give to work loose. The big box store can show you the parts you need with the copper tubing.

Tom J

Reply to
Tom J

friend just built a $200,000 house and had carpet throughout the house... he came home at 11 pm from work and the wife was still at work and he found that his plastic hose fell out just like yours did and he had about 2 inches of water throughout the first floor of his house..... insurance company paid for most of the stuff, but he had a hell of of job of getting the water out... he laterr wnet to copper tubing and never had the problem again.. that was about 6 yrs. ago......

Reply to
jim

as Roseanna Roseannadana would say ,if it aint somethin it will be

Reply to
mark Ransley

Hi,

Copper is the best to use for a fridges water line...

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Kenmore is made by several different manufactures and without a model# no one will know whom built yours...
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Recalls are normally done for safety reasons ( fires, electrical, ect ) but your local Sears should be able to check into your specific fridge.

Water leaks from the fills valves, lines, fitting is rare, but does happen!

jeff.

Appliance Repair Aid

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Reply to
jeff

Icemaker water line leaks are an important source of income for a floor contractor.

Reply to
MSH

When comparing how many fridges we sell, vrs how many leak, vrs how many just fail ( don't work ) vrs how many stop cooling...water leaks from fridge are low on the list and rare. I probably see 20 leaks a year, is that a lot...not really when compared to the 50 that just break and don't work or the 250 that stop cooling.

I was more refering to just fridges ( like the OP )and not household plumbing in general.

jeff.

Appliance Repair Aid

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Reply to
jeff

Reply to
James Keene

Hi JR,

If I understand your post correctly, the *outlet* hose slipped out of the valve. What you were probably seeing when you caught it leaking was the icemaker calling for a fill.

Your fix was correct, but I'd remove it again and cut off the original end, *then* reattach with the original plastic nut. You'll end up with a much more secure connection. There's usually enough excess tubing that you can cut 1/2" off and reconnect without difficulty.

While the refrig is pulled out, if your water supply line, that connects to the inlet side of the valve, is plastic, replace it with copper. And not 'icemaker supply' or 'water supply' copper. Go to a plumbing supply house and buy 'refrigeration copper' tubing, and you'll not have a problem for many, many years. Even if you have to buy a whole 60 ft roll, please do it! The 1/4" OD copper tubing they're selling today is thinwall junk that will pinhole in a year or two, depending on your water's PH. My own has been working for some 24 years now, but I regularly replace leaking

2-3 yo 'water' copper with the 'good stuff'.

Hope that is of some help.

God bless,

Dave Harnish Dave's Repair Service New Albany, PA snipped-for-privacy@sosbbs.com

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Reply to
Dave Harnish

In alt.home.repair on 18 Jul 2003 03:44:17 -0700 snipped-for-privacy@hotmail.com (jeff) posted:

Yes, frankly it is a lot, even when compared to those other things. For one thing, those other things don't destroy part of your house when they happen. And the makers KNOW this will happen at a rate something like you experience (20 a year just for you.)

I'm not angry at you, and I'll bet some of these people take it out on you for what happened to them, and that's likely to make you defend your original position.

I was at a party when the water supply to the host's refrigerator started leaking and dripping through the ceiling of her finished basement. Had she been asleep or out or anywhere but the basement, it would have gone on and on.

In my own case, the plastic tubing to the humidifier in the main air duct from the furnace sprung a leak in the middle of the tubing, not where it touched, (and there were only about two bends put in the hose, none sharp), and sprayed water over everything in range in the basement. Had I not noticed it within an hour, it would have been much worse. Not a refrigerator but the tube is made from the same material.

I don't remember the instructions for my 10 dollar humidifier, but typically if such things say anything, they say, "Plastic tubing is inculded but it's recommend that copper tubing be used."

BUT WHAT IT SHOULD SAY is that "because if you don't, the plastic tubing is likely to leak in a few years and spray water all over everywhere, even when you are away for 2 weeks."

And that's reasonable for a 10 dollar humidifier, but for a refrigerator that costs HUNDREDS, and which is installed in the first floor instead of the basement, and where the tubing is hidden, and where the installation is already done in most cases before the homeowner sees the manual (especially owners of new homes) I think it might be negligence to include plastic tubing when the risk is known, but not to the owner, and the cost of copper tubing would be such a small part of the total cost.

And the "warnings" in the refrigerator manual are probably still like that one I describe above. It's really no warning at all. It's a recommendation, but unless it lists the danger that is faced, it's not a warning. It should say, "the plastic supply hose for your icemaker is likely to spring a leak during the time you own this refrigerator, and spray water all over the floor which will run through the floor into the basement and across the basement floor and even across the floor to other rooms on the same floor as your refrigerator, to a depth of inches on either floor, until you happen to notice that it is leaking, even if you are away for weeks when this happens. It is recommended that you use copper." That is a warning.

Meirman

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Change domain to erols.com, if necessary.

Reply to
meirman

Thanks for your response (as well as Jeff and the others). It sounds like copper tubing is the way to go. Just to clarify on the above, I think you understand the situation but let me be more specific as an FYI. The plastic tubing was inside the refrigerator. The main water line feeds into the bottom of the refrigerator. To see what was happening, I removed the lower back panel. The main water line came into this small plastic box. On the other side of the box, was this

1/4" plastic hose that went up towards the ice maker (which I couldn't really follow it up, not without taking the entire back panel off the refrigerator). You slide the hose in, then tighten up with a plastic nut that screws into the plastic box, thereby making a tight seal (yea right). It was on the inside of the refrigerator, this plastic hose that popped out without any warning.

A two year old, near top of the line Kenmore (I have not looked further yet into who actually makes it) just popped out. This wasn't a slow leak. Within just a few minutes, while we were out back, it had created almost a 100 square foot pool of water. If it had been hours, or even worse days, the damage would have been enormous.

It seems like a flimsy design, especially for an expensive refrigerator. I'll look to replace the tubing with copper later this week. At a minimum, your point about trimming the existing plastic tubing is a good one and I appreciate it.

Thanks again for everyone's assistance.

Reply to
JR

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