OK….here’s the deal.

The defrost cycle in the freezer comes on, melts any ice that might have formed on the coils at the back of the freezer, the water drips down into the tray below the defroster….and then, hopefully, flows down into the collection tray at the bottom of the refrigerator….where it evaporates.

Cool.

What actually happens is that the water in the tray in the freezer compartment doesn’t drip down completely….and, over time, re-freezes and clogs the drain hole.

When the drain hole is clogged….and the water can’t go where it needs to go…..the refrigerator compartment gets a lot of dripping water coming in….and you curse the crappy refrigerator that you used to be so proud of.

Anything new and shiny gets old…and when it doesn’t work right, you notice that it’s getting old even more….and you start thinking about spending MO’ MONEY!!!

So…I am going to fix our refrigerator tomorrow with this trick.

It makes sense…..if the ice is forming, bring the heat to it and let it go away like it’s supposed to.

That’s the beautiful thing about non-invasive, cheap fixes….if it doesn’t work, all you’re out is your time.

I hope it works.

I’ll just keep adding copper wire until it works.

We’ll have to move the peas over a little by the time I’m done putting 20 lbs of copper wire into the freezer compartment.

I’m not going to let this freezer beat me.

I’ll melt that stuff yet…..

 

 

4/16  Here’s an update…just finished the job….and ….then did some more research. From a repair site called Dave’s Repair, I found out that what you should do to avoid damaging the heater element is not to wrap the wire around it like in the video, but to take a 6″ piece of 14 awg wire and make a hook on one end, hang it over the element, and then let it hang down into the hole. Hang it loosely….he says …otherwise you might damage the coil. Oh, well….live and learn (hopefully). I’ll update how it worked out for our repair.

Here a link to his article….with illustrations….

http://www.davesrepair.com/DIYhelp/DIYrefrigdrainfix.htm

 

4/16….a little later. Man….that wasn’t even the video I meant to post. The video I meant to post had the wire wrapped around the element. This way is so much easier….just a hook over the element. Simple. We’ll see if the “hard way” that I tried works….but a hook would have been so easy and so fast.