Have a ColdTech refrigerator/freezer that the drain line on the center back wall of unit, keeps freezing up. Have had the drain line heater replaced twice in less than two months. Suggestions?

Hello John;

My name is Peter. I am a retired field service refrigeration technician.

A frozen or blocked drain may not be the problem, or it may.

You have one of two problems. Regardless of which problem it is you need to remove the back wall panel in your freezer. This is not a easy task. You must remove the freezer door, the ice maker, the side guide rails. There are two clips on the back wall air distribution center section using a screw driver to depress and then some. You need to install a hot wire from the bottom of the defrost heater to the drain. Do not attempt this, you may damage some of the components if you do not have the experience.

Ok, lets check out the frozen drain the easy way. Your unit goes through a defrost cycle every 8-10 hours. This is where everything shuts down for 20-30 minutes with the exception of your lights. Your defrost heater turns on during this time.

1.) Check the Drain:

a.) Pull your unit out from the wall to where you can get behind it. You may have to raise up the leveling jack screws in the front to do this. Remove the bottom toe plate. There are two Philips head screws holding it on. Turn the jack screws counter clockwise to raise.


b.) Having pulled the unit out from the wall, unplug the unit. Remove the bottom back cover. There are several hex head screws holding the cover on.
Pull the drain tube out. It just Pops in and out. If there is a black rubber grommet at the discharge end, remove it and throw it away. The initial intent was to keep warm air from getting into the freezer. However, over time they dry up and prevents the condensate from draining.


c.) Insert a wire up into the drain hole, such as a coat hanger, to check for blockage. If it is blocked with ice, you must unplug your unit for 24 hours to completely clear the ice.

2.) Obstruction or Refrigerant Leak:

Recently, I believed my friend had a frozen drain in the same unit that you have. Upon pulling the back cover I discovered a block of ice build-up at the refrigerant and capillary tube connection. The capillary tube is about 1/16" in diameter with a small needle size hole running through it. This tube can easily become plugged, which is common. This block of ice will continuously drip. A repair of this nature is about $450.00 - $550.00. The rule of thumb is: "If the cost of repair is 1/3 or more of the original cost of the unit, then replace the unit. You can get some good deals at a Sears Outlet (Scratch & Dent) Store.

Hello Jim;

My name is Peter. I am a retired field service refrigeration technician.

If you are getting cooling and not freezing your problem is not your overload relay or capacitor, otherwise you would get no cooling at all.

You have one of 4 potential problems.

1.) Frozen Drain - This is a common problem. Your unit goes through a defrost cycle every 8-10 hours, everything shuts down for about 20-30 minutes. This is when your defrost heater turns on and defrost your cooling (evaporator) coil. If your drain is frozen, a wall of ice builds up behind your lower back wall. This prevents the cooling fan from running and air flow through the cooling coils.

You need to remove the lower back cover to see what is going on. there are several screws holding it on. First remove the rubber seals on both sides. They just pull out.

If it is a block of ice, use a hair dryer to melt the ice and clear the drain. Do not try to chip away, you will damage the coils.

2.) If you observe the cooling coil fan not running and vibrating, then you need to replace the fan.

Part Number: Substitution: 3-60336-001 Cost from Sears: $115.00. You can search the internet and get this part for about $80.00.

3.) Defrost Heater - You may have a bad defrost heater. Observe, is the glass tube black or is the wire inside broken?
Part Number: Substitution: 3-80405-003 Cost: $40.00

4.) Refrigerant leak or obstruction - If you observe a block of ice in the upper right hand corner of your cooling coil, then you either have a leak or an obstruction. A repair of this nature with a service company is about $500.00.

5.) Bad Bi-Metl (Thermostat) - In the upper right corner is your cooling coil thermostat.

Part Number: Substitution: 1-81801-001 Cost: $30.00

If you observe the flat back has popped open, then replace.

you find that freezer shop it best if you fixed from shop where you freeze bought.

One of two things is happening, there is a heater inside your condensate line that prevents the water from freezing, this may no be working. You can check this with an amp meter if you have one. Or your condensate line is clogged with sludge which would cause the water to not drain and freeze. You will need to take the drain apart to defrost the ice and blow out your line.

The problem may be the freezer drain heater has failed, locate the drain inside of the freezer compartment and check to see if it is warm, if not you may need to replace the heater.

If you have a Freezer on the top model Kenmore, with warm temps in the fridge, AND water dripping onto the top shelf of the lower fresh food compartment (FFC), this is usually caused by a clogged defrost drain. Since Kenmore is not an actual manufacturer of anything, they take other brands, i.e. Kitchenaid, GE, Frigidaire, etc., take their names off and put on a shiny Kenmore nametag. This is a common problem with Kitchenaid refrigerators. You can determine if your Kenmore is made by kitchenaid by looking at the model # tag. the first three digits will indicate the manufacturer, Kitchenaids begin with the sequence, 106.*.If this is indeed how your model # begins, keep reading. Since the water cant go down the drain tubing to the pan at the bottom of the unit, it builds up on the freezer floor, eventually blocking the air return vents from the fridge to the freezer, and the vent from the freezer to the fridge. YOu can check this very easily. Look at the ceiling of your FFC, near the back. toward the sides you will see two square holes, about 2" square, stick your finger and feel around the inside of those holes, do you feel any ice/frost, or do you just feel styrofoam, you might even see frost/ice below the level of your ceiling? This drain usually gets clogged with defrost water that does not completely drain, then of course it freezes, eventually plugging up the drian hole located at the level of your freezer floor, behind the back wall. The water keeps accumulating, and freezing, on the freezer floor, eventually filling in and clogging the air vents..no air flow , the fridge wont cool. The easiest way to resolve this, empty out all contents and store someplace cold for 24 hours...a 2nd fridge, outside in a cooler if its cold like here in chicago. After its empty, unplug, open both doors and blow a fan for 24 hours. Prepare for an abundance of water due to melting ice.
After you defrost, you can plug it back in and it will be fine, HOWEVER, I suggest you take the back freezer wall off, you might have to take a floor cover off first, likely 2-4 screws in both the floor and the back wall. When you have the evaporator exposed, you will see a black cal rod defrost heater underneath the evaporator, as well as your drain hole just to the right of center underneath both heater and evaporator. Take a piece of 12-14 gauge solid, not stranded wire, removing the insulation and exposing the entire 6-8" piece of copper wire. wrap the wire around the diameter of the cal rod heater, 3-4 turns should be sufficient, and stick the other end of the wire down that drain hole. This will melt any ice that will build up in the future, everytime your unit goes into defrost cycle, so this wont happen again.

If air vents are clear of frost/ice, next thing to check is the back wall of your freezer, does there appear to be frost/ice/snow on the back wall? If so, your unit is not defrosting. On most Kenmores, this is usually caused by your defrost timer, located in the canopy mounted at the top of the FFC on Top freezer models, or your defrost thermostat, which is clipped onto the evaporator coil inside your freezer. Again, if its a 106 model Kenmore, this thermostat will have a pink and a brown wire coming into/out of it. My suggestion, if it isnt defrosting, change both. tjhe defrost control will connect with a plug, but you will have to hard wire the thermostat, ( cut wires from old, strip wire, and connect using wire nuts and electrical tape.)

Since y ou mentioned the water accumulation, more water recently, my diagnosis would be the former versus the latter, as the lack of actual defrosting coincides with lack of defrost water, however I'll never say never.

If your unit is a side by side model, check for ice on freezer floor...clogged drain. Check again for frost/ice on back wall, not defrosting, check same two parts, (the heaters rarely go bad on Kitchenaids, but never say never) You should also check for air flow into fridge, even if no frost / ice visible on back wall. Open the FFC door, and locate the air vent near the top, back of the fridge, on the left wall. While depressing the door switch, AND WITH THE FREEZER door closed, put your finger/hand near that vent. Do you feel any cold air? If you dont, you could have a bad door damper, not uncommon, or a bad damper control--> the temperature control WITHOUT the off or "0" position.

If any of this seems a bit overwhelming, I suggest you have a reputable repair technician check your fridge.

Oh, and lastly, you WILL NOT have two compressors, one for each compartment, nor will you have two sets of defrost heating elements, one for each half.
ALL cooling for 99% of refrigerators made in last 25 years takes place in the freezer, with the fridge being an empty box, except for an air intake vent, and an air exhaust vent which leads directly back into the freezer. When a refrigerator unit seems to still be cold in the freezer, but not cold enough or not cold at all in the FFC, its ALWAYS going to be caused by lack of air flow. But as you can see, there are a few things that can cause that lack of air flow.

There is a drain the back of the freezer that is frozen. Your trickle of water comes from the ice that melts off of the refrigeration coils during the defrost cycle. You need to turn off the freezer, then remove the rear cover from the back wall to expose the coils. With a hair dryer, melt all of the ice. You will find a drain under the coils. Melts all of the ice in this drain so water can get out of the freezer. When this drain is clear, you can put everything back together, and your freezer should work normally.

Check rear wall of freezer by feel for frost. Heavy, even frost indicates likely problem in the defrost system. Unplug unit. Defrost heater (in freezer behind rear wall panel), defrost thermostat (same area-must be checked at freezer temperature) or Defrost timer-located lower back outside of unit. Near compressor. Do continuity test on heater and defrost thermostat and if they show continuity (good), replace defrost timer. If not, replace the one that tests bad.

Defrost coils fully. Reassemble.

Please let me know if I have helped with comments and rating.

Refrigerator will work about 7-10 days after being defrosted until thick frost builds up again cutting off air flow to both compartments

Three things could be the problem. Most likely would be the defrost thermostat which clips onto the evaporator behind the panel in the freezer. 2nd would be the timer or control board (will have one or the other). 3rd would be a bad defrost heater. Alot of times the def. therm. will show obvious sign of being bad by the cap on top popped open. You can check resistance on the heater. Any resistance at all on the heater means it is good. If it has a standard timer turn it clockwise until it clicks. This is putting it into defrost. If the heater comes on the timer is bad. If it has a control board you would unplug the unit then unplug the power supply to the board and jump line 1 to the wire going to the heater. While unplugged from the board and jumped, plug the freezer back in. If the heater comes on then the board is bad. If you are not sure how to test replace the def. thermostat, which is the cheapest part and see what happens. Note: When conducting the test for the timer or board the def. therm. must be freezing so don't defrost first! Hope this helps.

No model # .. Im assumeing its frost free.. so that means a defost problem.. heaters, defrost themostate or timmer.