Recently the ice maker in our Maytag freezer (model AFD2535FES - freezer is the bottom drawer) has started to drip dirty water onto the existing ice in the tray. It will form a stalagmite of ice on one cube in the tray with the top of the stalagmite tainted a dark, dirty brown. I just now looked into the freezer and the cube in that position (left front of the tray) is stained with a rust color (no stalagmite.) Needless to say this makes us wary of the entire contents of the ice tray. Thoughts?
SOURCE: ice maker is dripping and forming an icicle at the front right of the ice maker
you need to defrost the drain hole and clean it out... sounds like it is frozen
SOURCE: ice buildup in freezer drip pan and water overflow
Your evaporator coils frost up in normal use
and every eight hours or so the entire unit shuts down and the defrost heater
comes on to melt the frost. This cycle last about 20 minutes. The melted frost
drips into a drain pan and through a drain tube to the drain tray under the
freezer/refrigerator where it's evaporated by the condenser fan.
Your drain tube may be stopped up with ice at the upper end
because it drains too slow because it's stopped up at the lower end in the
evaporator pan under the unit at the floor. It can get dust and mold in it.
Once you get the ice out at the top a little pressure with a turkey baster will usually clear it out. Flushing
it out with hot water and clorox may help.
Make sure it drains quick enough to prevent
refreezing. . The drain should be located below the evaporator coils on the
lower back of the freezer.
SOURCE: maytag fridge water dripping from inside freezer side
This sounds like the evaporator drain may be clogged either in the freexer compartment or at the outlet to the drain pan under the unit. Every defrost cycle the defrost element makes water by melting the ice on the evaporator coils. If the drain is clogged there is no other place for the ice to go. Many times the drain may just have ice buildup in the evaporator drain funnel that can be corrected with a manual defrosting.
To do this manual defrosting all you do is first unplug the unit then remove everything from the freezer compartment. After that place a fan blowing into the freezer section for a little over 2 hours. Please NOTE this will make more of that pesky water mess so be ready to tend to the mess as it presents itself.
After the 2 hour fan session plug the unit back in and reload the freezer compartment with previous content. Monitor for the possibility of the water manifeting itself again.
In addidtion to the above there is a drain pan catch basin in the bottom of the unit near the compressor. They are usually white plastic on Maytag units and not to rugged. Make sure that the drain pan is not loaded with debris. There is about a 1/2 inch diameter opaque plastic line that drains into the catch basin. That is the Evaporator darin tube. Ensure the very end of the tube does not have caked up debris in the very end of the tube. Sometimes this tube cakes up and then the debris dries hard inside the tube near the end. Make sure the tube is free of foreign objects and clean.
After all of the above / cleaning and clearing / manual defrosting it is still making water then most likely the lower panel under the defrosting element / evaporator may have become disconnected allowing defrost cycle water from the melted ice into the freezer compartment vs exit via the drain. To fix the disconnected power metal panel problem the rear freezer panel would have to removed to re-attach / repair the metal panel that guides the water into the evaporator drain.
Thanks for using FixYa.
Kelly
SOURCE: My Maytag MDF2561FES, Bottom freezer
I believe this is a classic symptom of what they call wicking. Water deposits build up in ice-maker tray and eventually that causes you situation. The best solution is to replace the icemaker unit but you can buy at the local appliance parts store an icemaker cleaner and remove it and carefully clean it out then reinstall and you should be good to go for a while. there should be one screw along the bottom of icemaker remove that then loosen sometimes remove 2 screws on top of icemaker. carefully unplug wires. Follow instruction on cleaner bottle for cleaning.
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