Daewoo Frostfree fridge leaking puddles of water every other day?

My Daewoo Frostfree fridge has been leaking puddles of water every other day since monday it may have always done this but i only noticed because the puddle of water came out in front of the fridge. any ideas?
Mark, August 2004


done
Just followed the images and have sorted out the problem. It was a bit fiddly but all good now and hopefully no more problems.

Deb, August 2020
Great information and pictures through the link are very easy to follow.Thanks very much Steve M. Fixed in 20 minutes small jug ( under back drain hole)and towels at the front are needed to collect melted ice.

Meltyke, February 2017
Steve M, thank you veery much. Very useful, I fixed mine in a wink, following your step by step.+++

Patrick in Chile, August 2016
I've done this job today its not to hard. I've created an illustrated walkthrough if anyone want to look at it to see what exactly they have to do. This was on a FRS-U201a model.

http://sites.google.com/site/fixyourdaewoofreezer/

Steve M, June 2016
The drain is blocked with ice, I could not find any black plug so I made sure the drain at the back of the fridge was clear. if you take the lower back panel off you will see a plastic drain pipe which empty's into a white plastic tray,make sure this is clear.Next I had to open the freezer door and remove the fan and panels at the back of the freezer compartment,There are some screws but the panels are a push fit,these reveal the cooling coils and the heater which comes on for defrosting of the coils above. The water from the defrosting process drips into a tray and down the hose into the white tray at the the back,this was totally blocked with ice,after a good seeing to with a hair dryer, I tapped the ice through with a small screw driver.

laurie, June 2016
I have the same issue as Phil Bradley i.e. the waterpipe leading into the door hinge has snapped. How do I fix this?

Frank McGinn, May 2016
Our Daewoo FRS-U20IDS side by side American fridge freezer has been playing up and I have been very interested to see that many others have had the same problem. Food on the top shelf was defrosting although the lower stuff seemed ok. This had been happening for a couple of weeks and unfortunately we then went on holiday so could do nothing at the time. On returning from hols we found a new problem - the puddles of water as reported by others.

We unplugged and took the inside of freezer apart (fridge is ok) and found, as others had, the drainage hole at the bottom was frozen in a block of ice and water was overflowing from here and running out the bottom of the freezer, creating puddles. We defrosted all with hairdryer etc. Plugged back in and seemed working fine. For two days...

All apart again and finally sussed the cause of it all - the fan at the top seems to have an intermittent fault (surprised it with tester and found it sometimes works and other times doesn't! Eventually managed to catch it out as in there was power to the fan but the fan wouldn't turn - note that you need to keep finger on door switch whilst testing for 13v power supply to fan motor.)

So...it would appear that the fan has not been circulating the cold air to keep freezer cool at the top as well as bottom so things defrost, moisture runs down to bottom where it freezes, clogging up the drain etc and causing overflow situation.

Today I am ordering a new fan motor (from Daewoo, £39,99 plus postage) and we hope that will solve the problem. We were also going to replace the left side air sensor behind the blue vent and the sensor/thermostat at the back. However, it would appear you have to take the back off the freezer to do this and just a look at the way that is fixed on tells us it will not end well if we have to peel it all apart. It sure won't go back on like it comes off! This will be a last resort thing...

It isn't just Daewoo fridge freezers either. Our first was a Samsung and it broke down, lost its gas, after 13 months. It was beyond repair! Unimpressed and not sure if I would ever buy a combination unit again. This is not progress and I have already bought a small under counter freezer for emergencies. The beer fridge is currently stuffed full of food. It is all very inconvenient and stressful as we cannot keep shelling out for new kitchen appliances every few months.

Maysie, November 2015
My freezer was leaking as described. Behind the plastic cover from the inside is a small plate at the bottom secured with silver tape. Prise this off carefully with a blunt screwdriver and you will see the drain blocked with ice, might not be obvious at first, in the left corner. Poke what ice you can off then poor some hot water on, wipe off and repeat until you can poke a large cotton bud down about 3-4" and the block will be obvious. Couple more squirts with hot water and a few pokes and I will start to drain as it should. Easy enough and took about 3/4 hour.

Tayterash., November 2015
I have a Daewoo FRS U20 IAI fridge freezer and followed George's instructions. My tray was black, the 6" long drain tube was an opaque colour but did easily come off as it had a half turn connection which was straightforward to re-attach and the drain hole inside the freezer was more in the centre. Otherwise I found everything as George stated. Quite a bit of gunge in the tube which was blocked leading to an ice build up inside the freezer.

Roger, October 2015
I have an American style Daewoo fridge freezer and where the waterpipe feeds in from the unit into the freezer door, the pipe has cracked thus leaking water!
How easy is this to fix? do I have to remove the door etc...

Phil Bradley, August 2015
Just a note to say that I followed George Johnson's advice and everything turned out exactly as he said. Between the fix advised by George and a spring clean in, under and outside the Fridge Freezer the job took two hours. I am extremely grateful. Many thanks George.

Jarlath Conneely, May 2015
hii m hitesh .... m from panchkula .......m engeeneer as a frost free fridge deawoo fridge me any problem call me 9988430799/8283821337

hitesh kathuria, August 2014
many thanks all we had thisproblem did as suggested works as new now ,clean drain plug , use hair dryer to defrost the pipe

jfb, July 2014
If it's an FRS-U20DCB model then it could be the auto-defrost drain. Unplug from mains! Take the back panel off, you will see a white tray with a clear plastic tuve ( about 6" long ). Take everything out of the freezer. Unscrew the two pairs of lower runners, pull the long panel from the back of the freezer compartment. Lock to the bottom of the inside. You will the metal backing panel inside ends in an L-shape at the bottom, at the very far left is a little tiny drain. Yours will be caked in ice. When the auto defrost happens every 12 hours the water runs to that drain and out into the white panel out the back. Lift the bottom end of the little plastic tube round the back ( don't take the top end out! ). next fill a jug or indoor watering can up with boiling water, slowly pour the water over the metal plate on the inside and wait until it actually drains. Once it drains, put everything back as it was and put the freezer into super-freeze mode.

George Johnson, July 2014
The light at the back of the fridge is not working. We have changed the bulb and cleaned out the back of the fridge but it is still not working. Any ideas?

Thanks.

Sue

Sue, May 2014
I had a small leak at the bottom left of the front freezer door. I followed the instructions on taking the back panel off and unblocked the drain pipe however this did not work but the pipe was blocked. Next I removed the shelves inside the freezer and removed the bottom vertical panel at the back of the freezer. This exposes the freezer cooling pipes and fins. At the back bottom, because the pipe had previously been blocked, the drain was futher blocked with frozen water. I gently poured hot water over the drain to melt the water and it solved the problem. Make sure you have a towel to soak up excess water and put a cup under the drain pipe at the back to catch the water when it melts and the drain unblocks. You could use a hot hair dryer to melt the ice which is less messy. Happy days.

Rich, March 2014
Help my Daewoo is leaking puddles of water from the freezer section daily , we have defrosted the freezer and this has not helped what should i try next ?
i see various people have said to clean out black rubber cup where is located ?

karen, February 2014
My Daewoo fridge/freezer isn't working at all. Neither the fridge nor the freezer is cooling. All that seems to work is the light! There has been no leakage of water at all and it's been switched off for over a week now. I've been advised that the fridge may be beyond repair and that the gas may have now escaped. Any advice or do I get rid?

John D, August 2013
great answers above - thanks. worked with un-bunging the plug/drain-hole by using hair-dryer.

Peter S., July 2013
Just want to say thanks to the guys at www.agsrefrigeration.co.uk they came out and saved my bacon when my fridge started making a horrible noise the blade on the fan dislodge which they replace once again cheers

Dale, May 2013
Just had another problem with the Daewoo door frame getting hot and fridge running overtime. Turned out out to be a faulty condensor motor at the back of the fridge/freezer. Same again £30 and an easy fix seems like these motors are not too clever. But at that price 2 in 8 years is not bad.

hope this helps someone John T

John T, March 2013
We had similar problem and also ours was not cooling properly i attempted to fix but nearly damaged the evaporator has i was to later found out in the end called a few companies out none of whom seems to know what they were doing in the end got lucky and managed to get hold of agsrefrigeration.co.uk. a company who operated in the london area they came out and found that the reason the fridge wasnt keeping cold was due to a faulty door switch which had burnt out preventing the fan from activating. If you are in london and need a engineer give them a try. www.agsrefrigeration.co.uk.

Andy, December 2012
my daewoo frost free is leaking water checked the drain it was clear checked the back and found that a pipe which is sandwiched between the back of fridge and the condenser is soaking wet and dripping the condenser needs to be removed carefully great care needed as not to damage condenser coil and old lagging taken of and new lagging which has to be split to put on and taped with lagging tape as you cant get it on any other way hope this helps the people who cant see where the water was coming from good luck

mr Aynsley, November 2012
TonyH, I was just thinking the same thing! Mine is split, too, and wasn't very bunged up, so I'm not sure how it used to function! There doesn't seem to be much need for it - if the small amount of water in the puddles is anything to go by, then letting that amount of water into the tray to be evaporated by the heater won't be a problem, I wouldn't have thought.

I've removed it for now, and will see, but would welcome anyone's thoughts as to whether it's necessary or not!

Andrew, September 2012
I followed the thread re the black bung and found it to be bunged up and split.. Does it need to be there at all?

TonyH, August 2012
DON'T scrap your fridge-freezer ... I've just solved the 'leak' problem. As described above I kept noticing a small puddle of water on the floor below the freezer side of the unit. It's almost impossible to to trace because the leak is so intermittant BUT ... it comes from the covered compartment behind the bottom food drawers (which houses the compressor coil) runs down behind the drawers and then out the front bottom and onto your floor. SOLUTION!? ...You need to turn off the electricity and turn the whole fridge around so you can get at the back. Unscrew the bottom back-panel and you will see a shallow tray with a plastic hose, about 15cm long, running into it from above. This is simply unclipped (top and bottom) and then you need to poke upwards into the drain. Use a SMALL screwdriver or some such implement to clear this drain hole/plug of gunge etc. You'll quite likely get a stream of half a cup or so of water draining from the now clear hole - Then simply re-attatch hose, replace back panel, switch the electricity back on and hey-presto ... fixed - and much money saved!!!

Mr Fix-it-or-break-it-for-good, April 2012
I had this problem last month with my Daewoo american style fridge freezer and repaired it just as described.
I also had a problem with the fridge not being cold and the ice box not freezing. Turned out it was a slow fan motor at the back of the ice box picked one up for £30 quid. Easy fix with the downloadable repair manual off the net. I like this fridge when it’s easy to repair and parts readily available. Hope this helps someone else.

John T, February 2012
having leak prob with my daewoo thanks for all this helpful info

tj, December 2011
i had this problem
remove drawers and shelves
remove large back panel
ease forward the cooling element
carefully
watch that the copper heating element is cool first
in the middle there is two vents if not like
mine it was a solid block of ice
remove the ice
clear out the drain plug
job sorted

martin, November 2011
Where is this blackplug on the freezer ? is it at the back the front ?? Jeni

jennifer, October 2011
Yes, once again, the little black plug was the solution...

It can be found above our very dry drip tray and was obviously blocked! Now cleaned and replaced, we shall see what happens?

Robertsons81, October 2011
As Jeanette asked...where can i locate the black plug to clean the gunk out of

Karen, August 2011
I found the help on this forum very helpful, as I thought at 6 years old my frost-free Daewoo fridge/freezer was due for replacement.
I found the black plug at the back and cleared it of 'gunk', however the ice had built up in the channel at the back of the freezer section. I removed the back plate to find a lot of ice build up, used a hair dryer to defrost the ice and my fridge is working good as new!! Thank you all on here

John (Feb 2011), March 2011
I've had my Daewoo for 7 years and no problems until now - the famous intermittent puddles... Found this othread which would seem to indicate what the problem may be but where is the black plug i need to clear gunk out of? Any help appreciated! Noted the previous posters comments about the drawers breaking - will show my husband as he thinks I'm just rough with it but maybe it's not just me!!

Jeanette, January 2011
Mark's idea worked for me. The black rubber bung was clogged, so I cleaned it and the tray.

Paul, October 2010
Removing the gunk from the black plug worked brilliantly, thank you, just hope it lasts!

MARK, September 2010
Mine's been leaving puddles of water for last 6-months which we collect with a permanent T-towel! Finally the wife forced me to investigate and I found the black rubber cap above the drip trap atop the compressor was all blocked up! Removed the tray for a clean and then the black cap, warning a gush of water released, cleaned the gunk out of it and replaced. I will post if this doesn't solve the problem but taking this step can't do any harm.
Lambinator

Lambinator, March 2010
Yesss, this dripping is constantly happening to mine, have tried removing the black cap now and just hope this works. Another common theme with this model seems to be that the freezer drawers crack and break very easily; this has also happened to mine. I'd never buy a daewoo fridge freezer again; easily the worst thing I've ever bought!

sezzatee, November 2009
Hi,
I have a Deawoo fridge with freezer above it, since about 2 years.
Deawoo ion cooling frost free VR-17K 10/11/12

Water is dripping inside the fridge, from the controle box (with the light inside), located on the top right hand side.

The tray on the top of the compressor (on the back, bottom)of the appliance is dry.
There is no plug on the tube above the tray.(i can see the tray had water in the past)

Thank you for your support

Bernard, July 2009
I was having the same problem, and after i removed all the ice at the back of the freezer and made sure that the drainage hole was free i noticed that there was a small copper prong attached to the fittings, i presume it acts like an element to keep the water from freezing and letting it to run freely to the tray at the back, after removing all the ice you have to make sure than the copper prong (Shaped like a V) has a good solid connection around the fittings before closing everything up again, and I would suggest checking every so often to make sure that the tray at the back is receiving the access water.

Ciaran, July 2009
I had the same problem. Found a little black rubber cap (about 15mm dia) that was blocked so took it off.
It's at the back and feeds into a white plastic tray* that sits over the compressor motor.
Hopefully that will work!?
* tray holds the water and evaporates it due to the warmth from the compressor I think.

john, May 2009
have had all the above problems vith daewoo fridge freezer found a cap on the end of pipe over evaporating tray on motor. The tray hadnt seen any water in a long time the cap has flaps in the bottom to let water out of fridge freezer but it was blocked with crud. Have removed & cleaned hope now OK

jon, December 2008
Try Cleaning the grill plate with a stiff brush, to clear it of dust and fluff, this will aid the fan to evaporate the water, I had this problem with beer coolers in a pub. Cost nothing to try.

N.Power, September 2008
There's seems to be a theme here! My Daewoo Frostfree fridge is eighteen months old and leaks out the front. I'm going to try Anil's suggestion and will get back to you if it works.

James, October 2006
My Daewoo fridge has been leaking for at least 2 years now, and there is nothing in the manual about the problem. Its quite a big fridge which I regret buying now. I havent moved my fridge out since its been in place, bit loads of water comes out at various times I have towels around the fridge most of the time. I dread to think what the state of the floor is, and i'm planning to move soon, looks like ill have to invest in a new one.

Michelle, September 2005
Thats really bizarre, but it seems that there are too many coincidences with problems regarding the water puddles with this fridge. I wonder if we there is a body that we can contact where we can get daewoo can repair this problem as it seems that the fault is happening to all the users of this website.

My problem is the water is collecting in the tray but the rate at which the water is flowing into the tray is faster than the rate at which it can evaporate. Please reply

ali

ali, September 2005
Yes, us too, every day we get a nice puddle. Our 'Frost Free' but 'Makes Puddle' Daewoo is about 5 years old and cost a packet - not sure we'll replace it with another Daewoo.

Richard, August 2005
Well, guess what? Our Daewoo fridge freezer has leaked too, and there's been a huge build-up of ice in the bottom. A friend suggested a complete defrost as there may be a buildup of ice in the drainage pipes. He also suggested that a fuse may have blown for the fan that assists the defrost. I've scanned the back of the fridge, but can't see any inline fuse that I could easily get to. Have to see what happens when it's defrosted

Pete, January 2005
The freezer goes thru an automatic defrost every 8-10 hours. The 2-3 ounces of water is usually discharged thru the evaporator drain into a condensate pan below the unit. If the fridge is tilted too far forward, the drain water may not run in the drain hole, and will run into the freezer floor. Try raising the front legs to let gravity help in the drain process.

Anil, September 2004
Can't really help with this, other than say that we've just noticed that our Daewoo Frostfree fridge is leaking too. We've just pulled it out and the floor underneath is damp and rotting - yuk.

I've had a look at the back of the fridge, but there's nothing obvious that can be fixed. There's a "pan" which I think it supposed to collect the water that's been extracted from inside (to stop the frost building up), but there was no water in this. The pan is on top of main compresseor which heats up and evaporates this water.

I think it's been leaking from the front (water / ice has been coming out from the door when opened) and also from the back.

It may be time to get a new fridge?

Phil, September 2004
link Click here to see other fixes for Daewoo.