Fridge icing and won't drain

hubb

My Indesit fridge freezer (purchased in 2013) seems to be icing at the back, then any drain off when dial turned down creates a puddle at the bottom which freezes again when temp dial turned up. I have pulled out the plastic rod and twirled it round the drain hole which does not drain (probably iced) Sticking a cotton bud does not work. I then bent a metal kebab rod to a curved shape and gently fed that down. It eventually drained when temp turned down but again this morning (set at normal 3.5 temp before went to bed) I hear it as noisy and there is ice again at the back. I turned it down, the ice melted but the water again has not drained through it does drain better when I turn the dial down a bit more. It just seems to be freezing at it's normal temp setting except the fridge isn't as full as usual. I also left the door slightly open a few weeks ago overnight which caused icing at the back. I hope this didn't do any damage.

grumbler

The only way is to clean the plastic pipe thoroughly and to do this regularly to stop it getting blocked again. I believe that using some bleach can kill the mould inside. For cleaning I think you need something more flexible.

As a side note, why do you keep turning the dial up and down? I think it's an auto-defrost fridge that has to do this automatically - to melt the ice on the back wall during each cycle. If this works, ice doesn't build up on the wall.

Jonesya

Probably some gunk blocking the drain pipe, you need to clear the blockage. Have you checked the back of the fridge, there's often a tray on top of the compressor which the drain pipe empties into, sometimes that pipe can get blocked. If you unlucky it will be the pipes inside the fridge which can be harder to clear.

Obviously switch off and unplug before doing anything round the back, or playing with the pipes and drain tray.

neilmcl

If it's not a frost free FF then it's probably worth giving it a full defrost.

hubb

Managed to get the water to drain by inserting a straw. wife gave the fridge a good clean out without switching off and the back is icing up but the temp shows about 9 degrees but I suppose the icing is the fridge working hard to get it cold while the door is open. Came back and the temp after an hour and half is about 7 degrees but very icy at the back and noisy.

hubb

A few hours later and the temp is only just in the safe zone for chilled food and the back is really icing up and fridge noisy.

neilmcl

Cleaning it out is no good , you need to fully defrost the freezer.

hubb

Yes, defrosted and cleaned but temp in fridge has gone up to about 7 degrees. It was on number 3 so turned it to 3.5. Its a noisy fridge, always has been.

hubb

randall6z said:

It happens with my fridge as well, and I'm not quite sure what exact actions should I do for now to resolve it, cause I've tried already everything that people recommend all over Internet. By the way, here is a good article ( https://www.homelization.com/can-you-put-a-mini-fridge-on-carpet/ ), which helped me in understanding some specific information about fridges, and how you would maintain them, maybe it will help to you as well.

The article doesn't really address my problem but thanks anyway. I had it in the sweet spot for a while, woke up this  morning to find that it was just below freezing and more bags of salad, celery ruined. Its really soul destroying, especially as thee is no reason for it to happen now it is draining properly again.

Bogwoppitt

It might be a thermistor going open circuit, if it's frost free. It's quite a common problem. I think they're about £15 to replace.
There's a website called "white goods" I believe that may give you further help, if it does have a thermistor then google what the readings should be for your model and then use a multimeter to test - it's just a cable with a spade on one end and a plug on the other.

Bogwoppitt

Had a Hotpoint Mistral for 15 years, which I believe is a record for a Hotpoint FF. I was unlucky/lucky enough for it to fail inside warranty and the repair guy from Hotpoint didn't have a scooby and so replaced everything that he thought it could be whilst I hovered and watched, then he left the old parts - so I got a set of working baffles, an evap fan, thermistors and all sorts of goodies. It's not all that hard, I'm female and managed to maintain it myself after that.