Having a fridge that works appropriately is vital in every home. Furthermore, a fridge defrosts drain is one crucial part that makes it function well.
You may get worried about a clog in your fridge or a foul smell due to water pooling and want to find out the cause of the problem.
If the cause is a clogged defrost drain, knowing the defrost drain’s location is the key to cleaning it and having it function properly.
Typically, you can find the defrost drain of a fridge at the back of the freezer compartment. However, the defrost drain location of fridge brands like LG, Whirlpool, GE, and Samsung may vary slightly. With GE, for example, the location depends on the model. So, consult your owner’s manual if you don’t find the defrost drain behind the freezer.
In this article, I’ll explain where the defrost drain is in different refrigerator brands so you can easily find it in your fridge.
By the end of this article, if there’s a clog in your fridge, you’ll know where the defrost drains so you can clean it.
Where is the Defrost Drain on the LG Fridge?
If your fridge is an LG refrigerator, you can find the LG defrost drain behind your freezer’s back wall in the middle.
Knowing where the defrost drain is, is vital so your LG fridge can run the way it should.
For example, if there’s a problem with clogging or leaky water, you can quickly check the defrost drain to unclog it. If you’re using an LG refrigerator, this information is for you.
There’s a plastic panel on the wall; you must access it to the fridge defrost drain. Open the screw in the plastic panel with a screwdriver, then remove the panel, and you’ll see the drain hole there.
After gaining access to the defrost drain in your fridge, you can open it to see what is clogging your LG fridge. After that, you can remove the clog.
If you fail to remove the clog, water will continue to leak from it. However, when you know where your LG defrost drain is, you can quickly rectify the problem.
If the problem isn’t from the defrost drain, you can check for other options causing your fridge to leak water.
However, knowing where the defrost drain is, eliminates one of the options to check for when running your diagnostics.
Where is the Defrost Drain on the GE Fridge?
If the brand of your refrigerator is GE, you should know that only some GE fridges contain defrost drain in them.
If your GE refrigerator has a defrost drain, you can find it in different places depending on the model of your fridge.
When looking for the defrost drain, look for a hole. You can see this drain on the wall or behind the fridge. It can also be on the rear wall or side of the freezer.
Just know that the drain for all GE refrigerators is sometimes on different sides, but most times, it’s on your freezer’s rear wall.
Sometimes, you may see a plastic panel covering the defrost drain location. Open it with a screwdriver and remove the panel to access the defrost drain.
Also, the defrost drain in your GE fridge can be manual or automatic defrost. So GE refrigerators can have manual or automatic defrost drains or not at all.
The table below shows the difference between manual and automatic defrost drains.
| Manual Defrost | Automatic Defrost |
|---|---|
| You can also call it a natural defrost system. | It is also known as auto-defrost or self-defrost. |
| It is cheaper and consumes less energy than auto defrost. | It is more expensive and uses more energy than manual defrosting. |
| In manual defrost, you remove the food and open the fridge door to defrost. | In auto defrost, it melts the ice itself. You don’t need to do anything. |
| It takes more time to do manual defrosting. | Auto defrost doesn’t waste time. |
| In a manual defrost, the refrigerator makes less noise. | During auto defrost, the refrigerator makes more noise. |
Now that you know the difference between a manual and automatic defrost, you can tell which one your fridge is.
The table below can help you identify if your GE refrigerator uses auto or manual defrost.
| GE Type | Manual Defrost | Auto Defrost |
|---|---|---|
| Full-size models (9 cu ft or more) | Yes | |
| Older full-size models (9 cu ft or more) | Yes | |
| Chest freezer. | Yes | |
| Upright freezer. | Yes | |
| Older upright freezers. | Some | |
| Compact model | Yes |
Now you can quickly identify where your fridge falls and know if your model is a self-defrost or an automatic defrost.
Unlike in automatic defrost fridges, where you have a plastic panel with screws before the defrost drain, the manual isn’t like that.
A GE chest freezer has a drain plug that you pull out. Sometimes, these drain plugs have drain holes you can pull out entirely or a little to drain the water.
Where is the Defrost Drain on the Samsung Fridge?
For a Samsung fridge, you can find your defrost drain in the freezer at the back. It is usually at the base of the freezer, and sometimes you find a plastic or metal panel covering the drain.
It would be best if you opened the panel to fully see the drain and do what you want with it. Unfortunately, the only way to open the panel is by removing the screws and removing it.
If you want to locate your Samsung defrost drain to remove the clog in the fridge, you can pour warm water into it. The warm water will thaw the ice in it.
Whatever method you want to use to unclog depends on you, but the key to doing everything depends on the location of the defrost drain.
After opening the drain, you can as well remove the block in the drain manually. You can as well choose to empty it before defrosting the fridge.
For example, you unplug the fridge from the power source, empty it of the food, and open the door till the ice dissolves. That way, the ice will melt by itself; it would only take some time before it melts.
You can go faster by locating the defrost drain in your Samsung fridge and using a hairdryer to dissolve the ice there.
As much as the heat from the dryer will quickly melt the ice and clear out the defrost drain, I wouldn’t recommend you use it.
You could damage your fridge by doing it that way, so it’s best you do the defrosting manually.
Where is the Defrost Drain on Other Refrigerator Brands?
You often find the defrost drain of refrigerators at the rear of the freezer. However, this may vary slightly as all fridge manufacturers are not the same, so their designs might differ.
Let’s look at some refrigerator brands and where you can find their defrost drain to troubleshoot why you have a leaky fridge.
Below are the refrigerator brands we’ll look at and where you can access their defrost drain.
- Whirlpool.
- Amana.
- Haier.
- KitchenAid
#1. Whirlpool Refrigerator
For the Whirlpool brand, you can locate your defrost drain on the wall at the back of the freezer, below the evaporator coils.
You need to remove the plastic/metal panel to access the defrost drain in your Whirlpool refrigerator.
After locating the defrost drain, you can now check if it’s the cause of your leaky refrigerator or something else in the fridge.
It can also be from the defrost drain, but not because the drain is clogged. Instead, it can be because you used the wrong part to replace the filter or due to incorrect installation.
Whatever the cause, knowing the defrost drain’s location helps you save money you’ll spend on the technician who’ll troubleshoot and repair it.
Aside from that, it helps maintain the fridge and the foodstuffs inside it. If there’s a problem in it and you don’t quickly fix it, you can damage what’s inside the fridge.
#2. Amana Refrigerator
Although under the umbrella of Whirlpool Corporation, Amana creates different appliances, with a refrigerator being one of them.
So the design is different from the Whirlpool. If you have an Amana fridge, you can find the defrost drain on the freezer’s back wall.
The Amana defrost drain runs from the freezer to the refrigerator to a drain pan at the bottom.
Now that you know the location of your Amana refrigerator drain, you can quickly locate it in case of a clogged drain line.
First, check the freezer’s rear, and you’ll see a panel you’ll open to get to the defrost drain. Then, remove the screws holding the lower door panel in place.
#3. Haier Refrigerator
If your fridge is a Haier refrigerator, you can find its defrost drain in the rear of the freezer, in the middle.
Your defrost drain in this fridge can be manual defrost or auto defrost. So you have to check well or see your appliance specification before looking for the defrost drainage.
If you are still looking for the drain in your fridge, check your manual for more information on where to find it. You will find pictures in the manual which can point you to where the drain is.
You can then decide which defrost method to use when removing the block; maybe you’ll open it till it thaws.
#4. KitchenAid Refrigerator
If you’re using a Kitchenaid refrigerator, you might find your defrost drain in a different place for some of their models.
However, for most of its models, you’ll find it at the back of the fridge wall, near the drawers.
You can also locate it behind the refrigerator dispenser, the fruit and vegetable bin, behind the fridge, or the freezer compartment.
Your fridge defrost drain is bound to be in one of these locations. If it isn’t there, you should check your manual to find the location of your refrigerator’s model defrost drain.
Identify the drain hole and drain tube in the lower partition of the freezer by checking close to the fridge’s bottom. In some instances, plastic boards cover the drain pipe and floor opening.
If necessary, you can take off the panel by using a screwdriver. At this point, you should be able to see the drain tube as well as the drain hole.
