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NOT a GE Profile .. a standard top freezer GE GTH21 My 12 yr old GE GTH21 is working fine .. except we started getting small water puddles on the floor at the front corners. It was accumulating under crisp drawers until deep enough to pour out the front. Thanks to info from Jay, I eventually did remove back panel in freezer.. was easy. I didn’t see any ice build-up and with a mirror & light I could see bottom of this drain “catch basin” 2” down .. no sign of any continuation downward and couldn’t fish my thin hose into any continuation. I defrosted with my heat gun, poured hot water in catch basin with turkey baster but water came right into fridge. I kept doing this & nothing was getting to the collection tray .. not a drop. I should have waited a little longer, but pulled fridge out and removed back service panel and it was just starting to drip into tray fast. I pushed hose up into the hole but .. dead stop 17” up. Tried another thinner hose, same thing. Location 17” up from water “spout" would be somewhere in ctr back of fridge about 17” up from floor. I poured hot water a few more times using turkey baster and put everything back together. It’s been fine for about a week, I keep checking under crisper drawers.. all dry. I DO wish I knew how the defrost drain gets from top freezer catch basin to the bottom spout at rear of water tray. I even called GE .. no info available. Wish I had some way to confirm I cleared it completely. Also, wish I had drawing or schematic that shows how this is “designed”.. GE where R U ? Also wish I could initiate a defrost cycle to make it act up, to confirm prognosis. Before this “success”, (thanks to Jay!) I was beginning to think about 1/4" drain holes under crisp drawer to let water into tray. If you have this problem and have someplace to put your food, consider shutting it down for a day or two .. no other work required.
Hi @ron_co , You could try cleaning the tube with a mixture of vinegar mixed with warm water. (75% water, 25% vinegar) Block the outlet of the drain tube above the tray and then pour down the drain hole till it backs up to under the evap unit. Block the top of the drain and allow to stand for 10-15 minutes and then clear both ends of the tube to allow it to drain out. Flush with a measured amount of clean cool water and confirm that it all gets to the tray. Also check that it doesn’t take too long to drain when doing this i.e. doesn’t slowly drip out With the defrost action the water only drips down the tube. As the ice melts, it only drips off the evap unit and then makes its way to the drain hole. It doesn’t all go at once. Also it may be that occasionally some might freeze at the entrance of the drain when the defrost cycle ends and the cooling commences again but it should melt first and then flow down on the next defrost cycle. According to the mini manual that I linked in your previous question regarding this refrigerator, the defrost occurs every 10 hours and lasts for 21 minutes, so presumably you just may have to wait and catch it at the correct time. There is also a “service jig” mentioned which seems to connect around the defrost thermostat but I don’t know what it entails or how it works. If it simulates the defrost thermostat operating/releasing and allowing the heater to turn on/off I can’t see how it turns off the compressor, unless the compressor has to be unplugged at the same time or the temperature control altered to supply power to the heater(not mentioned). Otherwise to me this would mean that the evap unit is still getting refrigerant being pumped through it but it also would have a heater trying to melt the ice on it so that doesn’t make sense to me i.e cooling and heating at the same time
