FIXED Samsung RB1855SW - drain hole in fridge keeps freezing closed

[opac85]

Model Number

RB1855SW

Brand

Samsung

Age

6-10 years

Hi Guys, I have a Samsung RB1855SW fridge top, freezer bottom. The fridge drain hole is frozen. I have thawed it once before with a lot of effort end heat and made sure water drains through drain pipe down to the drain pan near the compressor. Because the hole freezes and doesn't defrost on its own, when it goes through a defrost cycle it ends up leaking into the bottom of the fridge area under the draws or sometimes into the draws because the thawed water has no where to go. I have been manually removing the water out of the fridge be very couple days. How can I make the hole not freeze? Potentially if someone can help me identify the heater for defrost, I can run a copper wire from that into the drain hole to keep it warm? When I removed the back cover to be able to see the evaporator coil /drain hole area, I saw ice building up on the bottom of that as well where the Styrofoam is. Wondering if I need to insulate something to prevent that area from getting cold somehow..

 

[Jake]

Hi,

Wait, you have a thread here:

FIXED - Samsung - RB1855SW - Freezer not freezing

Hello, I have a Samsung RB1855SW. Im not sure of its age. Maybe close to 10years or more. Top is fridge, Bottom is Freezer. The fridge on top seems to cool well but the freezer on bottom is not keeping food frozen. The icecream has melted and food is mostly thawed. I first noticed the...

www.applianceblog.com

What happened in that thread?

 

[dishboy]

This freezing up is a common issue with this model. Samsung later provided a fix in the form of an aluminum fin that would clip onto the lower defroster tube and had a narrow spike that extended down into the drain hole. Later years added a drain tray heater. You may be able to purchase the fin still or at least see a picture of it online. I duplicated that fix by getting some aluminum wire from the HW store and forming my own central "spike" by twisting a few inches of the wire together and then wrapping each loose end around that same defroster tube until there was a couple of inches of contact. This has been trouble free for over 10yrs. Copper wire would work, but the aluminum is more flexible and avoids dissimilar metal issues.

Aside from that:
Make sure the fan works - it should start when you hold the door switch for 10secs.
Make sure any heating elements and associated thermostat(fuse) are not open circuit. They should measure some low resistance (around 20 to 200 ohms I think)
Make sure the temp sensors are not shorted or open. There is a table of resistance vs temperature in the manual.
Another thing that can cause wonky behavior is a failed door switch which can cause the controller to think the door is open or closed when it isn't.

 

[dishboy]

RB1855
Edit: There is both an owners manual and a service manual available.
I remember the drain clip fin kit was only intended for the fridge evaporator drain. Depending on which source you use the freezer diagram may show heating elements for both evaporator and drain tray but the fridge side may only show a heating element for the evaporator, so the drain clip kit makes sense there. You really need to open it up to see what is there. My unit had problems with the fridge drain freezing and that's all I needed to fix. The entire unit was icing up from this one problem.

 

[opac85]

Hi,

Wait, you have a thread here:

FIXED - Samsung - RB1855SW - Freezer not freezing

Hello, I have a Samsung RB1855SW. Im not sure of its age. Maybe close to 10years or more. Top is fridge, Bottom is Freezer. The fridge on top seems to cool well but the freezer on bottom is not keeping food frozen. The icecream has melted and food is mostly thawed. I first noticed the...

www.applianceblog.com

What happened in that thread?

That was freezer issue. Has not returned.

This freezing up is a common issue with this model. Samsung later provided a fix in the form of an aluminum fin that would clip onto the lower defroster tube and had a narrow spike that extended down into the drain hole. Later years added a drain tray heater. You may be able to purchase the fin still or at least see a picture of it online. I duplicated that fix by getting some aluminum wire from the HW store and forming my own central "spike" by twisting a few inches of the wire together and then wrapping each loose end around that same defroster tube until there was a couple of inches of contact. This has been trouble free for over 10yrs. Copper wire would work, but the aluminum is more flexible and avoids dissimilar metal issues.

Aside from that:
Make sure the fan works - it should start when you hold the door switch for 10secs.
Make sure any heating elements and associated thermostat(fuse) are not open circuit. They should measure some low resistance (around 20 to 200 ohms I think)
Make sure the temp sensors are not shorted or open. There is a table of resistance vs temperature in the manual.
Another thing that can cause wonky behavior is a failed door switch which can cause the controller to think the door is open or closed when it isn't.

Im not sure what you mean by "defroster tube" that you wrap the loose ends on.
I have a service manual but didnt notice heating element mentioned on the diagrams.
Will consider making an aluminum the drain clip next time.


This time I noticed there was ice buildup under the drain tray as well, so I cleaned that up.
There is something like foil tape that is attached to the fridge back wall (only covering the bottom half area behind the evaporator coils. This foil tape attaches to the drain pan as well. I suspect the water that drips when defrosting, has gotten behind that tape through smalls holes on it as it has deteriorated a bit and then gotten under the drain pan and likely didnt drain properly and then later freezing over under the drain pan. I tried to push the I havent seen water underneath the draws for a few days so hoping its ok now.

 

[dishboy]

The defroster(heater) tube/coil is part of each evaporator along with the cooling coils. If you look closely you will see that the cooling coils come out of back wall of each compartment and wind around the evaporator fins. The defroster(heater) tube/coil also winds around the evaporator but has wires and a connector. If you search samsung defrost clip (images) you will see dozens of pictures of these fins for several models and exactly how they are attached to the lowest defroster tube. The idea is to extend the heat down into the drain hole of the refrigerator compartment. You aren't going to hurt anything by adding a heat fin (or twisted wire) even if you don't see your specific model listed. Since the freezer has a heated drain tray you just need to check that it isn't bad.

The freezing up for this model is almost a seasonal thing so it may not happen again for months or even a year, but don't fool yourself. If you have not identified and replaced a faulty component, then you have not fixed the issue.

There are only a few things that typ go bad, and you can check those with a cheap multimeter or just observation:
Two temp sensors in each compartment,
One thermostat-thermistor-fuse in each compartment,
One fan in each compartment,
One or two heating elements in each compartment,
One combo door switch.

If all you did was check those things, you would eliminate 99% of problems without needing to read the manual.
Foil tape and silicon caulk are cheap. The plastic of the compartments can crack due to temperature cycling and ice getting behind and creating pressure. Once defrosted, seal up any major holes/cracks.

...or plan on manually defrosting the unit every time you have the issue.

 

[opac85]

That's awesome advice and information. Thank you so much! Much appreciated. The drain hole hasn't frozen up since I did a thorough defrosted. But like you said it can still come back. I'll be more prepared next time.