Chosen Solution
Why can’t I add my model .. when it is not among the pre-existing choices ? Anyhow, my std top freezer GE GTH21 is working fine .. at @ 12 years old except .. lately we get small water puddles on the floor at the front corners, a little more on left (facing unit). No water whatsoever in side, under middle or back. I saw it was dripping slowly into tray .. tray was about 25% full so we cleaned and reinstalled. I removed back service panel .. where I go to clean annually .. nothing looked wrong or out of place. Put back together and had a small puddle again next day. We emptied freezer and I was gonna try to gain access to freezer coil in search of drain “source" but plastic clips are tough and didn’t want to be too forceful until I had some idea of what I was getting into. Any help would be appreciated. I should have added that I don’t have any other water supply there .. no ice maker, etc. I also was thinking that there may be a way to electrically “force” an extra defrost “manually" to see if that makes a puddle OR helps thaw whatever may have frozen up. Latest … Apparently I was wrong about “nothing wrong inside”. We did have another “spill” and I found a puddle in bottom of fridge under veggie drawer. Still see no evidence in freezer so I think the defrost drain water is somehow getting into fridge. I recognize that my next step may be to remove rear panel and have a look-see but, I am also still wondering if I can “force” a defrost to see if it’ll misbehave while I watch, before dis-assembly. Appreciate thoughts on this. Thanks, Ron OK, another update .. I finally emptied freezer, took off back panel .. pretty easy. I didn’t see any ice build-up and with a mirror & light I could see bottom of drain about 2” down .. no sign of a continuation downward and couldn’t fish my thin hose into any continuation. I defrosted with my heat gun, and poured hot water into catch basin, but water came into fridge. I kept doing this & nothing getting to collection tray .. not a drop. I pulled fridge out and removed back service panel to look again where water would drop into tray and it was now dripping fast. I was able to push hose up into the hole but .. dead stop 17” up. Tried another thinner hose, same thing. Location 17” up from water “spout" would be somewhere in ctr back of fridge about 17” up from floor. I’ll see if she works now and if not I will empty fridge and remove back panel to look around. Will be tempted to shut it off and let it sit for 2 days as I cannot confirm I cleared blockage sufficiently. Also tempting will be to drill 1/4” drain holes under crisp drawers to let errant water into tray. Wish I had drain tube drawing. Interested in what others think … so please advise. Thanks, Ron
Hi @ron_co I don’t know about your particular model but usually the auto defrost cycle occurs once every 8-10 hours to melt the accumulated ice buildup from the evaporator unit There is a tube leading from the drain guide under the evap. unit down to the drain pan under the compartments, where the water should evaporate. If the tube is blocked for any reason then usually the water backs up and overflows into the freezer compartment. Where it goes after this, depending on how long before it refreezes again after the defrost cycle has ended would be hard to know. Is there an ice coating on the bottom of the freezer compartment? Worst case is if the drain tube has come adrift from the plug connector it is attached to on the bottom of the freezer compartment, but then you would think that there would be very little water in the pan. Unfortunately the refrigerator’s mini manual (31 46109) doesn’t show the tube. Note: There is a problem viewing the mini manual on Ifixit i.e. no images or text - when it opens click on History > Download and download it to your computer and view it there. It will display OK. I will inform the ifixit admin as there seems to be ongoing problems with their .pdf viewer. FYI - your model is most probably not listed by ifixit as usually only devices that experience a lot of problems and people have posted information i.e. repair guide/manuals etc get shown.
