I have a 19-year-old Whirlpool refrigerator (Model #GD25DIXHS02) which leaks water on the floor. After a few weeks of weekend diagnoses, I finally figured out the cause of the problem. I have been unable to find any mention of this specific problem on the internet, let alone a solution to the problem. The cause of the problem is that SOME of the water dripping from the defrost drain hose drips OUTSIDE of the drain pan and not into it. It appears to be a poor design in that the outlet end of the defrost drain hose is positioned too closely to the edge of the drain pan, as well as too far above it. Despite these shortcomings, it seems to have been working well until perhaps the past year or so.

This problem seems to occur only when the flow is weak. I cam to this conclusion after pouring a small amount of water into the inlet of the drain hose in the freezer compartment (using a turkey baster) while my son watched the water exit from the drain hose's outlet. My son said that, when the flow of water was weak, some of the water exiting the drain hose dripped outside of the drain pan. The hose and pan both appear to be in their original factory-installed positions, with the hose secured by a clip near its outlet end and the pan secured with tape. Moreover, there is a large metal tab sticking up from the floor of the refrigerator (on which the drain pain lies) which would prevent the drain pan from being moved so that the drain hose outlet would be closer to the middle of the pan.

It would seem to me that a better design would have the drain hose outlet positioned closer to a point above the MIDDLE of the drain pan, as well as being not so high above the drain pan. Maybe there is a new and improved replacement drain hose which satisfies these design criteria. If not, then perhaps there is some kind of adjustment I can make to correct this situation. I thought about adding a short length of tubing to the outside of the outlet end of the drain hose, i.e., in order to extend it some. But I don't have anything available at home right now. Also, there is not much length available on the outlet end of the drain hose to engage an additional tube. I also thought that maybe there is something in the outlet end of the drain hose which might be redirecting the exiting water, but I do not see anything. I also used a brush to clean the outside and inside of the drain hose's outlet end, and the problem persists.

Have you seen this problem before? Can you help me?

First the freezer isn't sealing so it's generating a ton of frost and ice. You can try rubbing petroleum jelly along the rubber seal and that might help.

Second, the drain hold could be clogged (usually by a frozen pea or other crud), so the water can't drain, freezes and builds up. If you can find the hole, defrost your freezer (you can use a hair dryer to help melt the ice) and then shoot hot water down the hole using a turkey baster. You can also try clearing it with a pipe cleaner. Make sure that the water runs into the drain pan.

Then, if the problem happens again, I found that our freezer was supposed to have a little piece of metal that runs from the defrost element to the drain hole... (all behind the back panel in the inside of the fridge). In our fridge that little metal piece had gotten broken off somehow.