Liebherr water not draining problem

[simw3459]

Hi I have a Liebherr Fridge Freezer. I think it is a 7082 model – on the ID flap it says KGN 3836 Index 26/147. It’s certainly supposed to be a frost free model. It has been working just fine for a few years now, but we have recently noticed that often lots of water builds up in the little trough in the fridge part. There’s clearly a drainage hole here but it sometimes seems unable to drain away the water produced.

My questions are two-fold. One out of curiousity: what actually happens to the water that drains through the hole to the back of the fridge somewhere? Two (the practical question) is it possible that there is some sort of blockage out of sight on the other side of the drainage hole and if so is there any way to try and clear the blockage? If the answer to question two is (or rather are) yes and yes, any general guidance on how to take the fridge apart so as to access behind the drainage hole would be very gratefully appreciated.

Thanks

[kwatt]

Re: Liebherr water not draining problem

The first section of this article should explain. 😉

HTH

K.

[simw3459]

Re: Liebherr water not draining problem

Hi K

Thanks for that.

Strangely, I did find my manual and it suggested trying to clear the drainage hole with a cotton bud. I did this and did pull out a little bit of grunge, but the drainage hole from the fridge did actually seem clear. In my case it looks (and feels) as though the (first?) drainage hole just feeds through a kind of false wall on the back of the fridge into another drainage cavity between the false wall and the real back wall of the fridge. Is this possible? If so, is it possible that there is a second drainage hole going from this cavity to somewhere else? If so could that drainage hole be bloacked? It looks to me as though the false wall (if that is what it is might be able to be removed by taking out two screw type thingies (in the shape of round discs with slots in as though for unscrewing using e.g. a tuppence coin – a bit like the covers on say calculators covering those small round disc shaped batteies that claculator and the like often use). Do you think it would be safe for me to try and unscrew these and look for another drainage hole behind the false wall (if that’s what it is?).

On another more general question, I understand form the article that you pointed me to that there is some kind of evaporation process going on. Presumably it is this evaporation process that removes excess water from the system. It must be a very clever system which manages to regulate itself in such a way that the amount of water evaporated equals the amount of extra water entering the system (I imagine that every time the fridge door is opened some warm moisture-laden air enters the fridge and then gives up that moisture as it cools resulting in a nett addition of water to the system. Presumably since there doesn’t seem to be any water outlet, this must be matched by water being evaporated by the system. Presumably there must be some sort of storage tank for the water if it comes in sudden rushes as a result of defrosting the evaporation plate from time to time. Does it perhaps work by waiting until the water in this storage tank has dropped to a certain level before attemtping to defrost the evaporation plate and thus try to maintain equilibrium that way?

Any answers as all gratefully appreciated.

Thanks

[kwatt]

Re: Liebherr water not draining problem

Nope, nothing so complex going on.

Fridge thermostat occasionally enters a range that allows the collected condensation on the back wall to liquify, it rolls down to the drain channel, down a drain hose onto a tray on top of the compressor. The heat from the compressor evaporates the water.

Simple, effective, reliable.

K.

[simw3459]

Re: Liebherr water not draining problem

Hi K

Tanks again. So where is the compressor (is it in the bit of seemingly lost space behind the top drawer of the freezer part of the fridge/freezer)? If so, is it not possible that there is a drain hose starting some way behind the drain hole that I can see from inside the fridge and which could be getting blocked? Is it possible to get to that hose to try and clean it somehow?

Thanks again for any help.

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