Hi folks. I have the standard circa 2000 Norcold fridge in my 4788. Today I decided the ice buildup in the freezer needed a defrost. Usual approach of turning off the fridge and leaving the freezer door open for a while. I leave the fridge door shut as the ice melt water ends up in the fridge door top side tray. I've always tried to keep water leaking in the tray to a minimum by removing as much ice inside the freezer off the walls etc. Sometimes a little water would end up in the bottom of the fridge.
Anyway, I was off doing other things and came back to hear trickling here and there, plus noises of what seemed some large chunks dropping inside somewhere. In the top ceiling area of the fridge section there is a plastic tray which a few holes in the front that allow it to overflow into the door side trays. There is also a small drain hose from this tray - I've noticed this before but never connected the dots. Putting my hands thru the tray gap in front and distorting the tray slightly I felt some pretty large chunks of frost/ice and managed to extract two large curved hunks (probably back curved wall and underside of freezer), per the pic below.
After reading the Norcold manual, low and behold, it talks about a drain hose for the ice melt to drain away being attached to the back with an orange cable tie. The directions say to attach an extension hose to drain it into a lower (bilge) area. If it's still attached to the fridge back, the water will remain in the fridge. If it's floating loose with no extension hose, the water will flow out onto the floor which in the standard install, is on top of a drawer cabinet cupboard. I've had the fridge out on a milk crate at least 6-8 times accessing the forward cable conduits and I've never seem an extension hose or worried about it till now. Nor was there any evidence of water leakage at the rear of the fridge.
I guess it's another thing the Bayliner installers didn't think or worry about. Plug it in, push it back and screw it to the surrounding cabinetry. I guess if the drainhose is full, any ice melt water would back up and flow out the ceiling tray front drain holes. I don't intend to look at it till I need to remove the fridge again, but thought I'd highlight the potential issue to see if anyone has installed a hose extension into the bilge or had leaks in this area.
Cheers
PS. Can't upload the pic - upload failed.......
Anyway, I was off doing other things and came back to hear trickling here and there, plus noises of what seemed some large chunks dropping inside somewhere. In the top ceiling area of the fridge section there is a plastic tray which a few holes in the front that allow it to overflow into the door side trays. There is also a small drain hose from this tray - I've noticed this before but never connected the dots. Putting my hands thru the tray gap in front and distorting the tray slightly I felt some pretty large chunks of frost/ice and managed to extract two large curved hunks (probably back curved wall and underside of freezer), per the pic below.
After reading the Norcold manual, low and behold, it talks about a drain hose for the ice melt to drain away being attached to the back with an orange cable tie. The directions say to attach an extension hose to drain it into a lower (bilge) area. If it's still attached to the fridge back, the water will remain in the fridge. If it's floating loose with no extension hose, the water will flow out onto the floor which in the standard install, is on top of a drawer cabinet cupboard. I've had the fridge out on a milk crate at least 6-8 times accessing the forward cable conduits and I've never seem an extension hose or worried about it till now. Nor was there any evidence of water leakage at the rear of the fridge.
I guess it's another thing the Bayliner installers didn't think or worry about. Plug it in, push it back and screw it to the surrounding cabinetry. I guess if the drainhose is full, any ice melt water would back up and flow out the ceiling tray front drain holes. I don't intend to look at it till I need to remove the fridge again, but thought I'd highlight the potential issue to see if anyone has installed a hose extension into the bilge or had leaks in this area.
Cheers
PS. Can't upload the pic - upload failed.......
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