KitchenAid Bottom Freezer Drain clogged- need to remove drawer to gain access

[tcape]

Model-KBFS20EVWH3

The drain is clogged and I need to remove the main drawer and baskets and the ice maker so I can pull the back cover off so I can unclog the drain.

I don't see any easy way to do this. It has to be easier than it looks and I don't want to remove a bunch of screws till the thing falls out.

It seems as though there should be some kind of latch on the main bottom door slider that lets the whole door slide out and off the fridge.

Can someone help me ?


Or do I just point a heat gun at the hole behind the back plate and wait for the ice to melt out of the hole, then  blow it out from the back where the drain tube goes to the pan, then pour hot water down the drain through the vents on the back plate?


Thanks


Tony

[tgoods]

Pull the drawer all the way out.  About 3/4 of the way back of the rails on each side is a plastic locking tab.  Push the tabs in and pull the drawer the rest of the way out.

[tcape]

Pull the drawer all the way out.  About 3/4 of the way back of the rails on each side is a plastic locking tab.  Push the tabs in and pull the drawer the rest of the way out.

That worked perfectly, thanks so much for the tip. The rest of the stuff was still a small pain to get out till I could pull the back panel off and get the ice melted. At the back of the fridge there looked like a small rubber boot attached to the plastic tube, barely enough to slide a dime through on the outlet side of it. I pulled it off and there was a small amount of sludge in it, I ran hot water through it and the sludge was gone. I'm assuming this may be a noise reduction device to slow down the dripping?

[jimbo6679]

VERY interesting.  You might want to see my thread today under maytag, MBR2258XES and all the feedback.  Warranty repairman finally showed up after a week, and that drain grommet was super sticky...gummed up, etc.   He said the rubber deteriorates because of the heat, which I am inclined to believe because there is nothing there but water to gum it up.     He said the current fix is to just remove it ( they send the part to whirlpool for analysis).
 
There are dozens of models of Whirlpool, Amana, JennAir, I think Kitchen Aid, and Maytag all made in the same factory, presumably, hence the similar problems.

[tcape]

VERY interesting.  You might want to see my thread today under maytag, MBR2258XES and all the feedback.  Warranty repairman finally showed up after a week, and that drain grommet was super sticky...gummed up, etc.   He said the rubber deteriorates because of the heat, which I am inclined to believe because there is nothing there but water to gum it up.     He said the current fix is to just remove it ( they send the part to whirlpool for analysis).
 
There are dozens of models of Whirlpool, Amana, JennAir, I think Kitchen Aid, and Maytag all made in the same factory, presumably, hence the similar problems.

Funny you mentioned sticky, the rubber was sticky and even after running water through it, it still seemed a little sticky. It should be noted the customer's refrigerator is just slightly over a year old and out of warranty, according to what they told me, they called and found out the warranty was over.


Thanks

[jimbo6679]

My frig is 16 months old, but  I got service under a 2 year warranty I purchased from Home Depot.  GETTING that service was a different story, and I would not buy a warranty from them again. 
By the way, this drain part is accessed from BEHIND the frig.   There is a small panel at the bottom that removes for access.  That is a LOT easier than removng the drawers!
 
I contacted maytag "chat" about getting a part number to replace the duckbill.   Turns out they don't actually know anything, they just chat, about the weather, or whatever, but not about anything tech!!!!!!

[AJ]

I contacted maytag "chat" about getting a part number to replace the duckbill.   Turns out they don't actually know anything, they just chat, about the weather, or whatever, but not about anything tech!!!!!!

I have found this to be the case with lots of different website's the provide 'chat' as a customer service option.

I have to wonder if the person chatting is even a employ of the company or just a employ of a third party that is providing the chat service because as you said it turns out they don't actually know anything, lol...

[tcape]

The part I removed and cleaned was behind the fridge too. There was a little shoot that led down to the pan and when I reached my hand in to feel the tube, I felt the rubber piece. The customer bought their fridge at Lowes I think and they had decided not to go with the extended warranty.

[thordehr]

This thread fixed my problem too.  I had been fighting this for a while thinking the water system was leaking.  Where I saw a trail of water collecting in the bottom of the freezer was right below the ice maker.  I had water building up often enough that the periodic leaks wrecked the floor finish.  I removed ice from the bottom of the freezer multiple times, and even disconnected the ice maker water supply.  I started thinking there was a leak in a line inside the walls of the fridge somewhere.  When turning off the water supply to the fridge didn't do anything to help, I started searching google again and came across this thread.  Sure enough, in the freezer behind the back wall cover there was a big ice dam totally covering the drain area.  A heat gun, screw driver, compressed air, and a screwdriver/chisel revealed the drain.  Probing it with a screwdriver got a couple of bubbles to come through.  Hot water didn't do much, so I took the back cover off again (I had it off previously to map out water lines) and found the nasty little rubber bit.
Took it off and everything drained out.  It'll be going in the garbage.
The removal of shelves and interior bits to get to the back wall of the fridge was a pain.  Necessary though, since just removing the rubber bit wouldn't have done anything about the ice dam that had built up and waiting for that all to melt would have taken a LONG time.

[lesguns]

I go to rear and remove duckbill-insert zoom spout oiler with hot water up tube-it will melt the ice-or use a steamer it works great-install  P-TRAP part # W10619951 then remove freezer door 4 screws then lower basket and use steamer to remove rest of ice in drain-no need to remove back  panel or side rails.

[thordehr]

I go to rear and remove duckbill-insert zoom spout oiler with hot water up tube-it will melt the ice-or use a steamer it works great-install  P-TRAP part # W10619951 then remove freezer door 4 screws then lower basket and use steamer to remove rest of ice in drain-no need to remove back  panel or side rails.

Don't have a steamer or oiler so had to do the defrost the harder way.  The P-Trap is already on it's way.  I imagine it saves some energy by blocking cold air from dropping straight out the drain hole.

[DaleCaskanette]

the duck bill is a very common issue i just cut bottom off duck billtip  p trap kit works but ge uses that system and the trap gets full of  slime and plugs up usually works great for 2 or 3 yrs. the idea is to maximize efficiency but having an 1/8 in gap in duck bill does not have a negative impact

[Peyton]

this is the repair for the sticky duck bill. go here

[clewis]

Was able to remove all of the frozen stuff from the bottom freezer area using the hairdryer to buy myself some time... but after removing the freezer basket and drawer, upon locking the freezer rails back in place, it seems to be out of alignment and not sliding properly... I don't see any adjustments and i replaced the rails exactly as I slid them out?  Any assistance is appreciated.

[afterblast]

at the back of the freezer door is a bar with two geared wheels that mate up with the teeth on the plastic part the rails mount in... if you put the door back in cockeyed which is very easy to do then it will stay that way as it slides in and out.. on some models the gears disengage from the teeth when you push the door all the way back and the door evens out, on others you have to pull the door out again (at least far enough to get the gears off the track) and then carefully put it back in so that it closes evenly. also on some models the gears have flat spots that mate up with matching raised areas in the front of the teeth on the track, you have to be sure they're turned the right way when the door slides in,  and that the flat spots on the geared wheels are facing the same direction for both wheels..




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[870express]

this is the repair for the sticky duck bill. go here

This is very timely as my repair company tried to say this was not a covered issue under my extended service plan. If there is a technical bulletin that addresses this, I don't see how it could not be covered and or a common complaint for my KFIL27CXMS3 KitchenAide that is 16 months old. Thanks for the information!

[shbaker]

Thank goodness for this forum and for YouTube.   We had a puddle of water at the bottom of our KitchenAid French Door fridge.   Took a while but disassembled the freezer per the instructions on this forum.   Yup the duckbill thingy was clogged with bits of white styrofoam. Pull that sucker off, cleaned it, then put it back.   Then pulled the freezer apart with a gazillion little screws, tabs, brackets etc.   There was a dam of frozen water blocking the drain outlet.   I microwaved a cup of water until it was boiling like mad then used a turkey baster to melt it.  Took about ten minutes and then the water drained.  I noticed a bunch more little bits of white styrofoam in the back of the freezer by the thin steel blades.  I washed it all down the tube... and yup... then took the back off again and sure enough the duckbill was clogged up.  So I cleaned 'er good the second time and also cut a small notch (tip I saw somewhere) in it to help pass those little kidney stone fellas.  Hopefully this will last for a little while. 

Jeez.. the things I got through to have ice for my cocktails!   

[AJ]

That's great, thanks for posting!


 

[Tim Burr]

Followed the instructions several of you provided, clipped the bottom off the duckbill, and my unit is fixed.

I defrosted the whole unit to get the ice out (luckily I have a second fridge in the basement), and then went in through the back to get the duckbill.

THANKS!  Great advice.

[schleven]

This is an old thread, but instead of clipping the duckbill, use the new replacement defrost tube. part number w10619951
https://www.repairclinic.com/PartDetail/Drain-Pipe/W10619951/2887289