Hello All,

I need your expertise to solve a leak that I'm experiencing the day after fixing/replacing the ice chute door.

I have a Kenmore/Whirlpool side-by-side and the drain pan (evaporator tray) overflows and leaves a large puddle on the floor. I vacuumed all the water out of the tray, checked the door seal, freezer drain and water source inlet connections and all look good. When I had the freezer pulled away from the wall, looking in at the bottom of the unit, I could observe that at times water would trickle out of the drain tube into the evap tray and a pretty good pace, but then stop for a while and then start again. I would guess perhaps an ounce each time.

The day prior, I had replaced the ice door chute by taking off the front panel, disconnecting the main connector and the door chute connector (note the original ice door chute had a small heater ribbon circuit to evaporate condensation). I installed the new door chute (2180353) which doesn't have the heater circuit, reassembled the front panel and all controls work okay. And I no longer have the frosting/crystalization around the upper portion of the chute.

Is there a connection between the two? Could removing the door chute heater connector from the circuit be a factor, or is just a coincidence? Is it possible that a tube/pipe on the interior cracked while moving the unit out of and back into position? I haven't removed the rear panel yet, but expect that is the next logical step. Since turning off the water source, the drain pan doesn't fill and overflow, which leads me to think there's a cracked tube on the inside.

Let me know if this makes sense or if the ice chute door repair/replacement is a factor.

Thanks for your input!

Jon

Thanks WoodChuckie. I do have a filter, but water flows okay from the water dispenser. Would the bypass flow go through the main drain pipe that I see on the back, bottom side of the unit?

J

Thanks. I'd looked at the diagram, earlier, but didn't get a whole lot from it. Once I remove the back panel and turn the water source on again, I hope it will be obvious where the leak is.

More info... just turned the water back on and with extra eyes observing from the front, back and inside, we see a slow but steady (every 10 seconds or so) drip at the back of the water filter housing and the two front-most of the two tubes and the grey connector.

The water filled the ice maker tray with an appropriate amount of water and did not overfill. I'm going to observe a defrost cycle to see if I can again see water streaming out of the drain pipe into the pan as I did when the problem first happened.

So, at least I know I need to fix the connection(s) to the water filter housing. Hopefully this is pretty straight forward.

You may can repair it with an epoxy made for the same material. It may be worth a try since the new part cost 50 dollars.