How to Unclog Your Refrigerator Drain

When you open your refrigerator and let hot air in or put hot food in a cold refrigerator, it will produce condensation in varying amounts. However, even your freezer produces small amounts of condensation on its own. If this condensation were to just sit, your refrigerator would be a much moister place. Instead, you will find that condensation and melted frost from the defrost cycle all drains away from your refrigerator to a drip pan located underneath. This pooled water will then safely evaporate away.

However, if you have found puddles of water or moisture inside your refrigerator, there is the potential that the drain it relies on is clogged. This can be caused by a number of factors from food particles to various mineral build-up, but luckily, it is a simple problem to solve.

In many refrigerator models, you will gain access to the drain hole by removing the vegetable drawers. In many cases, you may see the source of the blockage simply sitting on top of the hole. However, if you see no obvious blockage, you will want to get a pipe cleaner to insert in the hole. By gently pushing this in, it should break away the majority of the blockage. However, you may also want to run hot water through the hole to clear away the rest. It is important to make sure the drip pan is inserted when you do this and empty it when you are done.

For tough blockages, do not use any harsh chemical drain cleaners, instead, the abrasive power of baking soda will be enough to break up anything significantly difficult in there. It may take several times of inserting baking soda and flushing it out with hot water to ensure it is clean.

This is an issue that doesn’t really require you to track down a cause. A plugged refrigerator drain is something that just happens every now and then. Just check your refrigerator often and keep it clean as often as possible.