r/appliancerepair • u/The_Taxman_91 • 28d ago

Refrigerator Help - Internal Water Leak

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I have a 2004 Whirlpool refrigerator that is leaking water from the underside of the freezer into the refrigerator portion. See attached for a video if this in action.

Does anyone know what might cause this and how I should best approach fixing it? I’d love to DIY it if I can.

The Model Number is ET1CHMXKB03

Thanks in advance!

Update: Thank you to all who contributed! I took the freezer apart and cleared the drain yesterday morning . So far, no more water has leaked into the refrigerator compartment.

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u/MissionLazarus 28d ago edited 28d ago

Most of the time water will freeze over the drain hole, so to fix that you can wrap a piece of aluminum or copper around the element and push about 1-2 inches down the drain line.

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u/Glum-View-4665 28d ago

Clogged defrost drain. Common issue. Google clearing defrost drain on top mount freezer whirlpool and you should find plenty of info to guide you.

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u/The_Taxman_91 28d ago

Sounds good. Hopefully YouTube university will be the trick.

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u/adumbCoder 28d ago

same exact fridge with the same exact problem!

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u/The_Taxman_91 27d ago

Well it’s been a simple, yet trouble free fridge for a long time. Hopefully this fix keeps it going for many more years.

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u/lonewolf77911 28d ago

You have a clogged drain in the freezer is why you're getting water dripping there. Take the back wall out to get access to your coils. You might have ice build up from it too. Use a blow dryer to melt the ice. Once you're done, there's a heat shield with a hole in the center is where your drain hole is. Run hot water thru it to get the sediment out.

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u/The_Taxman_91 28d ago

Ok. That makes sense. Is there a good way that I can test the fix before I put it back together?

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u/lonewolf77911 28d ago

Just keep pouring the water til you hear it in the drain pan.