Replacing fridge drain hose

[Radio]

Discovered the drain tube on my fridge has dry rotted to the point it crumbles like potato chips. Needless to say the condensation is not going overboard as it should. Better material would have been nice. :whistle:

And I was really hoping the tube could be replaced without having to pull the fridge out of its place. :pray:

I tried tinkering with the little drain "cup" (for lack of a better word) but not having a manual I didn't know how to release it from the inside of the fridge. I didn't want to break it. Now on my fridge, the drain tube is not visible from the inside of the fridge. YMMV. If so you might be in luck.

My tube was ribbed plastic and would crumble at a touch. Made for easy removal.

So I went to Lowes and got 3ft of 1/2 in inside dia. clear tubing. Stock #74222 for $1.47

You will now need

1. Darkness
2. Flashlight
3. A really long skinny flexible arm. (which I happen to have)
4. First aid cream

You can't do this outside in the day light. You just can't see up in there in the dark hole. The contrast of daylight and dark hole is too great. Wait till dark, get a good flashlight and everything is now in plain sight.

Turn the fridge off and let it cool. There are plenty of sharp edges up in there, it doesn't need to be hot as well.

Reach in and crush/pull away the old, cheap, inferior, crappy, dry rotted tube that should have been made of better material than it was. This will reveal the barbed drain outlet on the back of the fridge. Now just thread the new clear tube up in there in about the same route as the old one. You want to avoid getting close to the chimney. Shove the new tube on the barbed drain outlet. Extract your arm. Thread the tube through the cover and cut off the excess.

Done. Now go in the house and rub first aid cream all over your arm.

[NN5I]

It's June. You went outside. And you forgot the Deep Woods Off. So now you've got approximately twenty thousand mosquito bites, and if there are deer ticks where you live you've got Lyme disease.

What brand is your fridge? Probably Norcold or Dometic. Mine's a Norcold, and (1) the drain hose is stopped up, and (2) the icemaker has to be kept turned off at a little valve in there (reachable, fortunately) because the water supply line leaks and can't be reached. Maybe I'll try your nighttime method -- it's certainly blind up in there.

Incidentally, the cooling tower that goes up to the refrigerator vent on the roof is a pretty good path for feeding coax up to the roof. As you mention for the hose, though, you've got to keep it away from the heat. I installed a piece of 3/8" brake line in there and ran the RG58 through it for heat-shielding.

[ke0me]

TNX for the coax run idea, I'll check mine when I get time.

[Radio]

It's June. You went outside. And you forgot the Deep Woods Off. So now you've got approximately twenty thousand mosquito bites, and if there are deer ticks where you live you've got Lyme disease.

What brand is your fridge? Probably Norcold or Dometic

You are referring to the first aid cream? No there were no bug bites. But there was plenty of sharp edges up inside the fridge. If I had bug bites I would have wanted Champho-phenique or After-Bite.

The fridge is a Dometic. No ice maker. One less thing to go wrong.