Refrigerator had water on ceiling/top shelf, now not cold, Freezer cold, but now has frost

I just noticed the refrigerator finally went off. I'm guessing the defrost timer kicked in? It came to my attention from hearing pop sounds from the other side of my condo. I opened the freezer and can hear a sizzle and hissing sound from the back, with a few pops and bangs here and there. Can't say I can feel heat yet, and haven't remove the back panel. Trying to think back, when I've turned the refrigerator off, don't recall hearing such  sounds then. So I wonder if the heating element is working and causing the sounds.

I looked under the fridge and there is a small amount of water near the drain hose, which the hose is also wet at the tip.

The door not sealing lead to heavy frost around the door. Also lead to extra frost in the back. The air returns filled with frost, leading to warm refigerator temps. The freezer worked extra hard to make up for the warm refrigerator temps, leading to even colder freezer temps, leading to more ice and frost. (Vicious cycle). Things should return to normal after everything you defrosted and ensuring the door remains sealed between openenings.

Thanks for the response. That sounds like a perfect explanation. I got up 4 hours after finishing up. Before I did make one more attempt in the back panel to make sure nothing was clogging the vent to the food compartment. It was clear. I see now that the dial in the back of the freezer just turns an oval disc, when set to the warmest, it opens the channel to the fridge more, set it colder, it closes up, increasing the air flow in the freezer. I left it on the lowest for the freezer, in hopes it let more air into the fridge.

Anyway, when I got up, the fridge was no colder, and was in a defrost cycle. Slight cool to touch, but the air was close to the room's temp. The freezer had a tiny bit of frost again in one spot.

I felt all the way across seal on the freezer, no problems, like when I checked before. I've been closing the main fridge door with a good push like I've always done for the last couple years, I then checked the seal,it seemed good. Hard to tell if there was a leak since the air inside wasn't cold.

I checked an hour later, this time without opening the doors, I found on the bottom left side of the fridge, the  door had cracked open partially. Enough to slip my fingers through. I must have never noticed since I always checked after just closing the door with a good push, then walked away before it opened. The spot is against a wall, out of view.

Here's how opened the seal was:
http://premium1.uploadit.org/TimothyB//refrigerator_003.jpg

So I take it if I make sure this is closed, it will return to normal, as long as things did not frost up too much in the last 4 hours. I'll order new parts for the door hinge, since it seemed grind away a part in the past that ever since made the seal weak, especially if the door was loaded with stuff. I have it closed carefully now, by lifting the door higher when open, then closing it. The moment it's opened, it will drop, but it stays up while closed and takes effort to make it open.

It's going to be fun telling my roommate how to lift the weight of the door as you close it.

Here's a macro photo of the problem hinge, with the parts labeled, and diagrams showing what's suppose to be there. What's looks to be wrong is like the washer grinded away to a powder, maybe rust?

In this photo, you see the door raised before closing, so you can see how the washer is misisng:
http://premium1.uploadit.org/TimothyB//refrigerator_004.jpg

All that dark powder where the washer use to be, or what the washer is now, also deposited on the floor over time. From then on the door had issues staying closed.

Can a simple missing washer be the cause of all this, with the seal coming open?

Also, when the refrigerator was dropped off from Sears, the doors never closed on their own, but I hear that's a problem with a lot of models these days. When my dad comes over, he's so use to his, when he swings the door to shut, I have to point to him he left the door nearly a foot open.

Well, I haven't had a chance to defrost the system yet. With the door sealed, the fridge is maintaining a 50-51 degree temp.

There is frost in the freezer, probably started from last night when the fridge door probably cracked open. But heck, the fan is blowing, and air is moving fast through the top vents in the freezer, yet, hardly even gentle breeze through the vent to the fridge. It's not blocked, clear all the way to the fan. But I can't recall how much air flow is normal from that vent into the fridge. Maybe the airflow changes when both doors are sealed, and the frost in the evaporator is really messing up the flow.

I'll try defrosting again.

Well, took another look at the back of the freezer. A layer of ice had built up around the back bottom. Like the defroster was working like normal, but the water wasn't draining and froze.

I took the back panel off after clearing the ice. While there was frost in the freezer overall, there wasn't really much frost on the coils, looked chilled, a few pea size pieces of ice here and there. Looked like it was up to spec, as even minor frost would be normal and what the defroster takes care of.

Then, I put my hand in the drain for the first time, but I found it was solid ice, straight to the top. My earlier photos wasn't to clear on this, but an over exposed one I have, upon closer look, showed it may have been frozen, close to the top, And since melting the ice last night, probably made it worse. So I've taken everything out of the fridge, and will let it sit 24 hours. I tried using a hair dryer, but after removing some layers, it was clear the ice is thick.

This is probably why I had water pooling on the top shelf over and over for the last few months, and finally, it reached this point.

After it was off for a short time, I checked the drip pan and some water was already slowly starting to come out into the dry pan.

PICTURE OF ICED DRAIN AND THE DRIP HOSE:
http://premium1.uploadit.org/TimothyB/refrigerator_005.jpg

Here's to it working again after it thaws. Time for a spring cleaning anyway for my fridge. I hope some of my post wil lbe helpful to others too, I will keep things posted.

TimothyBH said…

Can a simple missing washer be the cause of all this, with the seal coming open?

Yes, you might also want to try an EXTRA washer or two to raise the door to keep it sealing properly (may have sagged over time)

Also, when the refrigerator was dropped off from Sears, the doors never closed on their own, but I hear that's a problem with a lot of models these days. When my dad comes over, he's so use to his, when he swings the door to shut, I have to point to him he left the door nearly a foot open.

Raise the front of the refrigerator by adjusting the leveling legs, or by shimming the feet, so that the front of the unit is SLIGHTLY higher than the rear. This allows mean Mr. Gravity to aid in the door closing -- the door will swing shut if left open.

 

 

---

I purchased a KenmoreElite Trio, model 77572 refrigerator  made by LG (I'm sure it's been upgraded since my purchase) July 2006 and we truly enjoyed our new appliance.  In February 2009 I responded to a recall letter from Kenmore stating that our refrigerator did not meet the Energy Star standards as stated on the appliance.  Since that time I have had our refrigerator repaired 6 times, over a period of 1.5 years and it is still not right.  The vegetable/produce drawers freeze the contents, which is very costly, and the freezer was getting frost.  I did agree have our appliance upgraded/repaired and now we will receive a yearly check from Kenmore/LG for the extra power it uses.  I will never buy a LG product again.  I am very disappointed with Kenmore.  The last fix by the repairman resulted in using my silver HVAC tape to seal up the housing in the freezer, which was hanging.  This fix resulted in less frost in the freezer. 

Hi there, Sure Anders!  That does sound very frustrating.  Can we have SearsCares, the customer service escalation team, take a look at the problems you have had with your refrigerator?  Send me a private message with your name, email and phone number.  They will contact you directly to see what they can do to help.

I bought a GE side by side a year and a half ago from Sears.  It started showing problems with water condensing on the refrigerator side ceiling.  The ice cubes in the ice maker clumped together.  We had the Sears repairman out and he clean out  a back log of ice in the machine which hadn't even gotten as far as the ice maker but the problem didn't go away.  We had another Sears repairman out because there was water visible in the freezer. . .it would be wet, then freeze.  Frozen drips were everywhere.  We turned off the water coming to the ice maker, removed the ice maker (of no use anyway since the cubes were melting and forming log jams).  The problem continued.  We contacted Sears again as we notice a significant build up of frost on all of the items in the freezer.  Almost like it was snowing in the freezer.  This time the Sears repairman was scheduled but didn't show up.  Now we're up to our 5th visit.  When I took everything out of the freezer, I noticed that the seals on the back wall on the bottom of the freezer were damaged.  How long has that been going on?  This has been a very frustrating process but we will continue to call back repairmen until the problem is fixed and if they can't fix it we will demand our money back.  This is rediculous!  Our 20 year old refrigerator in our garage is purring like a kitten and runs without a problem. 

Hi Dots!  I am so sorry to hear about the problems you are having with your fridge. Did you purchase a protection agreement when you purchased it?

Come back to update us on how the next repair visit goes.

i bought kenmore fridge jan 2008 it has freezer on bottom woke up this morning fridge blowing cool,lost lots of food.help me please!

When reading these discussions prior to purchasing, it would be helpful to know the brand AND model number of the appliance discussed.