How to Fix a Leaking Refrigerator With a Bottom-drawer Freezer

LG refrigerator with bottom-drawer freezer

Don't you hate paying for a $75 service call for a repair you could have easily done yourself. Learn from my mistake and repair a leaking refrigerator or freezer for $0 and little effort.

Things You'll Need

• Access to back or fridge or its circuit breaker
• A cooler stocked with ice or access to a neighbor's fridge/freezer.

Instructions

1. 

   I have a LG refrigerator with a bottom-drawer freezer. Water would pool in the bottom of the freezer under the drawer, freeze and leak onto the floor after filling the compartment with ice -- once freezing the drawer shut.

2. 

   After several weeks of cracking the ice out of the bottom of the freezer every few days to keep it from overflowing onto the floor, I gave in and called a repair man. He told me that "something" was blocking a circulation channel inside the fridge and all I needed to do was unplug it for 24 hours and it would be good as new -- and that I still owed him $75.

3. Initially I wasn't thinking too clearly and managed to mess up his very simple instructions. I stowed all the items in the refrigerator in our large camping cooler, but didn't have room for the freezer items. My bright idea was just to use the freezer itself as a cooler, by keeping the door shut the frozen items would keep themselves cold. They did, but when I plugged the fridge back in, the freezer still leaked. I cracked ice out of the bottom on a weekly basis for about a year, convinced the repair man was wrong, but not wanting to call him back out.

4. 

   Finally Mother Nature took things out of my hands. We were without power for a full week in September. The refrigerator and freezer were completely emptied. When power was restored, my freezer was also restored to perfect working order. If only he had said that ice was the something blocking the channel I may have gotten the point. At any rate, it has been 3 months and no sign of any leak returning.

Tips & Warnings

• Use your 24 hours without the refrigerator on to thoroughly clean both fridge and freezer -- you'd be surprised what can accumulate.

• This is a great excuse to eat all your ice cream.

• Be sure to toss any food you weren't able to keep properly cold during the time the fridge and freezer were off.

• If this doesn't work, you may have a different problem -- call an appliance repair service.