Why Is Condensation Water Leaking From the Freezer Section Into My Amana TM 16 Refrigerator?

Defrost Drain

• The most common reason you’ll find water leaking into the refrigerator from a top freezer is the defrost drain. To prevent you from having to manually defrost the refrigerator when condensation on the evaporator coil forms, your refrigerator has an automatic defrost system. This system uses a timer that occasionally turns on a defrost heater. The heater melts away the accumulated frost and it drips into a drain below where it is carried to the bottom of the unit to evaporate. But if food particles in the freezer compartment clog the drain, or if ice clogs the drain then the water has nowhere to go. The result is the water backing up and dripping into the compartment below where your fresh foods are stored.

Clearing the Drain

• If you determine that a defrost drain clog is causing your leak, then you can easily clear it out and allow for normal drainage. If ice is the problem, simply melt the ice away with hot water. If you suspect there is something stuck in the tube leading away from the drain you may use hot water mixed with a small amount of baking soda and suck it into a turkey baster. Use the baster to blast the hot mixture through the line to clear it out.

Gasket Issues

• A leaky gasket around the freezer door could be causing the leak in your Amana refrigerator. If warm air is seeping in around a damaged, dirty or old gasket then the increase in temperature that results from it could be causing items in the freezer to melt. The humidity the gasket leak lets in could also cause condensation that potentially causes minor leaking into the lower compartment. You will need to replace any gaskets that do not appear to be sealing the door completely when it is closed.

Power Saver Feature

• Amana uses a power saver feature on its refrigerators to help cut down on the cost of running the appliance. The power saver actually saves energy by turning off the anti-sweat heaters inside the unit. When these heaters are off in the power saver mode it could cause the walls of the refrigerator and freezer to sweat and drip condensation. Usually the sweating happens in the fresh food compartment, but it could potentially cause dripping from the ceiling of the compartment, making it appear as if the water originates from the freezer. Turn the power saver feature off to stop this.

Defrost System Failure

• The defrost system could be causing dripping from the freezer into the fresh food area. When the defrost timer turns on the defrost heater it warms the evaporator coil and the area around it. It also shuts off the compressor and stops the cooling cycle. If the timer gets stuck in the defrost mode the entire unit could heat up. Items in the freezer can thaw and the resulting water from the melting could drip into the compartment below. The timer will need to be replaced to repair the system.