Know anything about fridges?

[Brian Gaff (Sofa]

My fridge freezer a Fridgemaster MTFR225FF

Has started to puddle water in the bottom of the fridge, yet temperatures of both parts seem good and its auto frost fre in general works fine. There appears to be condensation forming on the back of the fridge inside to the right of the little vent to cold air is coming out of. this gradually over a few days trickles down to the bottom as the shelves have a gap at the back, and pools either on the raised up bit behind the vegetable drawer or under the drawer itself. I'd have expected a drain, but I cannot see any kind of drain in either surface, so if you open the door a mini tsunami comes out of the door onto the floor, but not all the time, its seemingly intermittent as if the idea that the water should evaporate and be carried away, but now not always. The freezer seems totally ok as it never ices up and is always between -14 and -22, though I accept it has to sometimes somehow take moisture out of the air. This should be something I could fix but its eluding me. Brian

[newshound]

I think your diagnosis could well be correct: that there is a drain and it is blocked. It's just that you have not spotted where it is yet. On mine, there is a sort of step behind the vegetable drawer and it is profiled to direct condensate towards a drain hole in the middle of it. IIRC the drain hole has a sort of grommet in it which might make it less obvious to you. This can accumulate biofilms which ultimately block it. In my case there is nothing particularly sensitive around there that you can damage.

[Brian Gaff (Sofa]

Well, I've had a pair of eyes on it too, but maybe its well disguised or so blocked it feels smooth. I'll have a poke around again.

Brian

[alan_m]

There is usually a condensation drain hole attached to a tube that takes any water from a defrost cycle to a tray fixed to the compressor where the heat of the compressor evaporates the water to the atmosphere. Perhaps this tube is blocked.

[Brian Gaff (Sofa]

Humph. Just been in there and things have taken a turn for the worse. There is a layer of ice starting to build up on that flat area on the top of the rear lump now, since this morning in fact. I have broken it up and that surface is really cold, much colder than I recall it being before, hence the ice. I think I need a talking thermometer one for the freezer and one for the fridge, maybe the fridge thermostat is doing something like reducing the temperature forcing the moisture out of the air now and freezing it to cold surfaces.. Still no sign of a hole or any slightly angled surfaces that would point to one. Brian

[Brian Gaff (Sofa]

I can see the tube and the plastic tray, well feel them, but no idea where they go since the back of the fridge is completely solid and the pipe vanishes behind it. My eyes, who have now left suggested the tray looked like it has not had water in it for ages, but with no actual drain, how can the water get into it. There is a fan behind the freezer section, you can hear it when the motor stops. I did wonder if its supposed to also circulate air in the fridge and the airflow is blocked so the dehumidifier for the fridge never gets its air, so to speak with the result it condenses on the back, and since its now also putting ice in the fridge bottom, I can see we may have a problem Houston. Brian

[Dave Liquorice]

That's almost a google whack. There is remarkably little info that google can find. Even if you hack off the FF, space the numbers from letters, and use MTRF instead of MTFR...

Is it a "frost free" model? That would explain the lack of drain from any of the compartments. The drain would come from a tray under the evaporator buried inside somewhere.

Common problem with "frost free" things is the evaporator icing up and blocking air flow and water getting to where it shouldn't. There should be an automatic deicing system, this sometimes fails or can't cope if a door is left open for a while accidentally.

As you say there is a drain to a tray on top of the compressor how about carefully shoving a bit of soft wire up it in the hope of clearing a blockage? Failing that a manual deforst is probably required, ie remove all food, turn it off leave door open untill it's all warmed up and frist melted... which might be difficult to determine unless there are access cover one can remove.

[Chris Green]

I think you probably have the idea right, I think the water is supposed to dribble to somewhere by the condensation/cooling coils on the back of the fridge and is evaporated there.

[Chris Green]

Yes, our freezer has done that once, the ice blocks things up such that the thermostat doesn't think things are cold enough and so you get more ice, etc.......

Just needs a defrost and it runs for a couple of years more.

[Harry Bloomfield, Esq.]

alan_m pretended :

A plastic prodder came with ours to clear the drain, but I find it easier to leave a bit of 1.5mm insulated cable in the hole, well kinked so it scrape the sides, and just work it back and forth a few times.

[tabbypurr]

That's the way to do it. I prefer uninsulated copper, it being antimicrobial and it being microbes/fungi that block the drain. I leave the thing in place, it's been fairly good at preventing blockage.

NT

[David LaRue]

"Brian Gaff \(Sofa\)" [e-mail]> wrote in news:rl7iiv$ljg$ [e-mail]:

Hello Brian,

It sounds like you need to allow the whole freezer to warm up and thaw. Once all the ice is gone the problem should be solved. Inconvienient but easy to do.

Perhaps just the freezer side needs thawing. Unplug it and move the freezer stuff to the referidgerator. Then open the freezer and let it all melt away.

I had to do that a couple times on one that was in a high humidity area. I'd open it up, put a fan on it, perhaps a hair dryer, and thaw it out in a few hours. Make sure there is extra time to thaw any drains after the visible ice and water have been mopped up. Then just put it all back and plug it in again.

Good luck,

David

[Brian Gaff (Sofa]

Yes, I guess I'll have to await somebody else with eyes. I've turned to thermostat down to minimize the issue, I hope, but its wet again this morning when I went to get the milk out. I also need to get some talking thermometer probes for the fridge as the inddor outdoor one I was using has broken its probe cable due to it going hard in the cold. Maybe I can put a couple of sponges in there for now, or maybe get some capillary matting as gardeners use!

Brian

[Brian Gaff (Sofa]

All this would be fine, if I had a hole, Ahem. That was the first thing I looked for. Brian

[Brian Gaff (Sofa]

Its not the freezer which is getting water or ice, its the fridge, which is at the bottom. From what I can tell the freezer has a fan which seems to be on at different times to the compressor, and I would imagine its job is to get the air out and dehumidify it and then shove it back. Of course what weds not know ifs if the so called dehumidified are goes to the fridge so if its not de humidified it will still carry enough water to condense out in the fridge. I will try googling the part number later on, and see if there is anything one can find out. Sadly my luck with such things has not been good since often the service details are a pictorial scan of the document and drawings making it blank to me. I do notice that outside of the fridge it is getting quite warm on the left hand side near the top and also along the line of the top of the fridge door seal on the body just below the freezer, but then of course, I've never had cause to have to look before. Who makes Fridge, it sounds like a made up name to me but they seem to have a pretty good reputation, and I cannot say I've ever had issues till recently. If I find a mysterious drain hole or other solution, I'll pop back and tell you. Brian

[Brian Gaff (Sofa]

Yes I fear you might be right. The part number was obviously not read by me, its in a very hard to get at place and a mobile phone was used to get a picture then it was written into the email so I guess it could be a bit wrong, due to general muck or something. So, I guess what I might need to do is hope the food survives. I have no other fridge or cold box. I'm sure the loaves would be fine, and maybe the boil in the bag fish and the cottage pies fro the microwave. I'll consult a foodist!

Brian

[Brian Gaff (Sofa]

Sounds like it needs a bit of a design change then. The problem is I guess trying to second guess exactly where the blockage is could be a little hard, and access is probably not easy to achieve. Brian

[alan_m]

I suspect that you will have no more luck than a couple of us who have already googled. The part number does not resemble any part number Fridgemaster currently use and even removing some of the part number letters, or a more generic search only produces results for their current range.

I think you are correct in assuming that its always been that way. To cool down the inside a fridge or freezer has to generate heat.

[Lee Nowell]

I intermittently have the same issue with mine. At the back of the fridge the condensation runs down into a very shallow funnel type thing behind a plastic cover. This has a drip hole in it which drips the water into a second tray at the back with a couple of loops of the pipe off the pump in the bottom. So water drops into there and the heat from the pipes evaporates it. Problem is that the hole is tiny and has rubber flaps attached to cause it to drip rather than pour. Hole gets blocked or too much water to drain in sensible time so the water freezes and then gradually builds up because the new condensation has nowhere to go.

Fix is to get the hair drier out and melt the ice plate/ bung that was created. After that it works fine for a bit.

It used to happen every month or so. I then wrapped a bit of copper wire around the warm pipe and stuck it up through the hole. Logic being it will be slightly warm and therefore will not only keep the hole open but stop that bit from freezing. Has gone a few years now without issue.