Background:

I've never been thrilled with this fridge which is cheaply designed in many small ways. (I won't go into that). But as an ME I hate to replace something I can fix. I have the freezer-cold/fridge-warm situation. I've done a bit of debugging but I need some advice on something.

When I uncovered the evaporator, the coils were clear. Yes there was very fine frost on the coils, but definitely not iced up.

What was odd to me was that the metal drain pan was totally clear, as if the defrost cycle did it's job.

The pan drains into a sump under the evap fan. The sump was full of frozen ice, level like a frozen pond. The lower blade was embedded in the ice. My first thought was that the drain was clogged, not letting the melted water out. The water refroze, stopped the fan, etc.

With a hair dryer and a couple cups of boiling water, the sump drained all at once. (Water poured of the tube exit in the back.) I convinced myself that the drain hose wasn't clogged at all. It appears totally open.

As part of my poking around, I did test continuity on the heater coil. It was fine. I did not check the thermostat or defrost timer. Like I said, the place where the frozen ice was was not near the defrost area. So I'm thinking the defrost cycle system is working. The evap fan works fine again, now that the blades are free.

I suppose it could be possible that a random object clogged the drain and I just "happened" to flush it out when I melted the ice. But I don't buy this.

Here's my big concern. The styrofoam to the right side of the sump was COMPLETELY waterlogged. The left was fine. Not sure why the difference. You can literally squeeze water out of it like a sponge. To me, this means that the material has failed and to replace it, unfortunately, means removing the evap because the foam extends under and around it. I am not willing to invest in this repair because I dislike this fridge anyway and it's 10 years old.

My concern is that this frozen ice in the failed styrofoam refreezes the melt water at the sump and blocks the drain. Is this a real possibility? Is it possible that this is not really an issue and I should just carry on, having unclogged the drain?

I ordered a new fridge last week (before my debug) and it arrives in 4 days. I could cancel the order, but having discovered this failed styrofoam I'm wondering if my current fridge isn't just plain shot.

Any advice?

Thanks,
LD