Hello,
Our Whirlpool french door refrigerator is a bottom freezer with ice and water through the door. A few weeks ago, we had the issue where the drain freezes over. I pulled the rubber defrost drain and removed the construction debris (from when the fridge was assembled) and cleaned it well. I cleared the ice at the bottom of the evap. All seemed to be good.
A couple weeks later, we noticed it had stopped making ice and the refrigerator was running 5-12 degrees too warm. The freezer temperature is right where we set it.
I noticed some frost on the back plate in the freezer. Removing it revealed a ball of mostly clear ice on the corner where the lines come and go from the evaporator. I believe the rest of the evap had a very thin layer of frost on it. I thawed the ice ball and checked the heater. It was not open. The thermostat was warm by that time and did not show continuity. (I did not check the specific resistance, I just know it was ‘high’)
I checked the condenser coils. They were covered with lint, so I cleaned them. HINT, taping a long straight drinking straw to a vacuum cleaner is a really good way to get lint off the second row of coils under there. It’s flimsy enough that damage to the fridge is nearly impossible.
Still, no ice and fridge is a little warm.
The status of other stuff in the system as far as I can tell:
The damper is always open and air can be felt coming through.
The evaporator fan seems to run fine.
The condenser fan seems to run fine.
The fan behind the ice maker stays off 99% of the time. Every now and then (very infrequently), I hear it spin up for no more than two seconds.
The bottom of the ice tray is always cold.
When I open the ice maker, I see the ejection fingers going through a cycle but the fill never occurs.
Water through the door works normally.
I checked continuity of the thermistor near the ice maker. It was not open. (did not check actual resistance)
Any solid advice would be greatly appreciated and I will definitely be ordering parts from you guys if it needs parts. I really appreciate how you’re running the forum!
Thank you,
Jason