Does anyone know how to clean a non-removable drain pan at the back of the fridge. It is very hard to get at and I think that may be where my problem is.

Thanks :)

Hard to say without seeing it. You could at least try pouring some bleach in it. Maybe even through a drain inside the refrigerator. Even if it only cut the smell temporarily, you would identify the problem and could work on a more ambitious plan. Also, check with a store that sells the brand or the manufacturer's customer service. A pan that can't be removed and cleaned seems dumb to me.

It's a frigidaire... I agree it's dumb that you can't remove it. The manual suggests cleaning it w/ soap and water but you can't even reach inside of it.


Where would a drain be inside the freezer?

It's a frigidaire...I agree it's dumb that you can't remove it. The manual suggests cleaning it w/ soap and water but you can't even reach inside of it.


Where would a drain be inside the freezer? ussualy they are accessible. Some pans do slide out... if it is in the front you have to take off the front grill... if you could see it from the top; you could clean it by using hose(small)/ wetvac/ long brush (tooth brush tape to woodenstick)... the drain for the freezer ussualy go down to the same drain( directly/indirectly) you having problem with

How old is your refrig? I have a frigidaire under/over & the pan is very accesible. Its sit upon the compressor behind of the frig.

It's brand new (probably bought in April). I was going to pour bleach down the back of the inside of the freezer (which should drain down) but the guy at the store said that was a bad idea because of electrical, but I don't see how electrical should be back there.

Any owners manual?
Don't see how pouring bleach would hurt the electric inside the freezer. Its not like your pouring gallons inside the freezer.
Don't pour straight bleach, but dilute it w/ water, if that's what your going to do.

It's brand new (probably bought in April). I was going to pour bleach down the back of the inside of the freezer (which should drain down) but the guy at the store said that was a bad idea b/c of electrical, but I don't see how electrical should be back there.

They put exposed electrical parts under a drain in addition to a pan that can't be removed? Are their engineers Larry, Curly, and Mo? Lets hope the guy at the store is just a dummy. What happens if you spill something and it goes down the drain? I suspect it is safe to run liquid down the drain, and there is some way of getting the pan out.

Have you been able to resolve this? If not, get me a model number and I can try to help. I am a Frigidaire factory authorized technician.

I realize this is an older post, but I have the same problem. Have a Kenmore purchased from Sears in 2005. Unable to remove evaporation or drain pan. Took part of your suggestion and used a large spoon and put distilled vinegar in with water, will use toothbrush on a stick after soaking, then I'm thinking of getting a turkey baster & removing the water that way. There is insulation looking stuff on bottom , I put baking soda on that, hosed off the grill, will hose off the soda later. When the fan on the bottom of frig kicks on there is a dirty odor that I'm trying to get rid of. Tried Lysol, works for a couple days. We have a dog, he might have laid on floor in front of frig, the frig might have picked up his odor and is now recirculating it? Dog's quarters are now outside. Soaking the ceramic tile in front of frig with vinegar as I speak, will wipe that up and then use baking soda on the floor for awhile. I cannot imagine who made these refrigerators like this, will check out the next one more thouroughly (might be soon & not a Kenmore or Frigidare as the other person had). Thanks for any suggestions or comments good or bad. I checked owners manual no suggestions on removing evaporation tray as they call it.

Thanks,
Joanna

Well hurricane Irene came through CT and knocked out the power for about a week. I failed to take the frozen cows liver out of the freezer in time and blood dripped down the back wall and into the drain and then to the drain pan. All set right? I mean that's why those things are there. The problem lies in the genius design that doesn't allow you to remove the drip pan without taking the fridge apart! Rotting cows blood is stinking me out of my house! Whirlpool Gold side by side model #GD5DHAXVY. Anyone out there have an issue like this with this fridge? To design a fridge so the drain pan doesn't just slide out is beyond stupid.

I have the same problem with mine , I had a bad smell in my kitchen I took a rag and wrapped it around a stick also sprayed some freebreeze on the toe plate

This is a horrible design problem with this fridge , mine is less then a year old

$200 for a tech to come out and get the pan out. Ridiculous.

I always take it outside and use the water hose on it. Then take off the cover to freezer coils and use hose to flush out drain line and clean the whole unit. Clean the coils under it, as well. Using this method to clean every inch of the refrigerator will make it work well again. There is no better way to do this. DrTom4444

I have a frigidare and the smell from a drip pan that is seemingly unaccessable is running me out of my house. I live in the middle of nowhere so a tech is hard to come by. Somehow shrimp juice got in it and it smells like a dead body in my house. I have taken off the front panel but there is no access. I don't see where to access it from the back either. The only suggestion that seems remotly feesable I have seen so far is to take it outside and turn it on its side to drain and hose it down. I am afraid I would do more harm then good and since I am a genuis that built custom cabinets around a fridge and freezer that is a size not made anymore I need this one to work. Anyone has seen how the repair man accesses this please write back. Baking soda and vinager are not going to fix this one, It has to be emptied out some how. If anyone has actually seen a tech access this drip pan please tell me how they did it. Yes, I will take it apart if I have to, Just please tell me what to take apart and where to start.

$200 for a tech to come out and get the pan out. Ridiculous.

Did you see him do it? I live in the middle of nowhere so a tech is hard to come by. I am assuming I have to take the thing apart somehow to get out the shrimp (or dead body) but I am wondering where to start disassembling. The front seems not accessible, did he seem to go through the back somehow or from the inside somehow. Id just get a new one, but I have a side by side and would need a fridge and freezer both and then new cabinets since I am the genius that built custome cabinets around a pair that is a size no one makes anymore. Agghhhhh!

Well hurricane Irene came through CT and knocked out the power for about a week. I failed to take the frozen cows liver out of the freezer in time and blood dripped down the back wall and into the drain and then to the drain pan. All set right? I mean that's why those things are there. The problem lies in the genius design that doesn't allow you to remove the drip pan without taking the fridge apart! Rotting cows blood is stinking me out of my house! Whirlpool Gold side by side model #GD5DHAXVY. Anyone out there have an issue like this with this fridge? To design a fridge so the drain pan doesn't just slide out is beyond stupid.

Same problem, and it seems common. Mines shrimp and disgusting too. If can be done because someone else said a tech did it for $200. If you figure out how he did it let me know and I will do the same. I live far from any techs so I am on my own in this. If I figure it out though, I will let you know too. PS this must be a racket because mine is a frigidare

The compressor support bracket drops down. All you have to do is lean refrigerator against a support and remove 4 bolts around bottom, but be careful not to sharply bend any tubing. You can then get enough clearance to clean out drain pan with bleach and a water hose. You can also slide out cover on freezer coils by removing a few screws and wash out under coils, which I would do first.

Non-removeable drip pans are disgusting. I strongly urge anyone that has one and has bad smells or can see mold in it to take photos and file a report with CPSC. My son has been really sick this winter with skin and breathing problems. We were told he has mold and dust mite alergies. We had a long list of things we needed to do to help. One was clean the fridge drip pan at least once a year, and inspect it regularly for mold. Ours can not be removed according to maytag except by a tech, and should be replaced if it is. It's a $90 part plus the cost of the tech. Ridiculous for something I should be able to pull out and bleach. I filed a complaint with the CPSC as I feel drip pans that can not be easily cleaned are a health hazard and they are looking into it. Unfortunately one person's story will not likely get much attenton. If a lot of people have problems these could get recalled and have to be replaced with something cleanable. The companies should know better!

I agree totally with you. They are a nuisance to techs as well as the general public.

Thank you Dr Tom. I hope if enough people say something it may make it harder for companies to stick consumers with them. I have a really great local repair man and he thinks they are awfull. He gave some advice to help the situation but it won't be a permanent fix. Our fridge is dated so I will probably replace it with our tax refund but I don't think I should have to. Not everyone can afford that. I think it's crummy.

I have a frigidaire modelFFTR2126L. Please help! I have tenants and need them to stay.

I have no way of looking up those numbers without a description like whether it's a side-by-side or bottom mount freezer, etc. Here are some manuals: https://dl.dropbox.com/u/8010163/Frigidaire%20Refrigerators.zip
If you were in Jacksonville, FL I could help. Please write Mitt Romney and get him to repeal the Montreal Protocol which outlaws good Freons.

Hello all: I have the Frigidaire Professional PLRU1778 refrigerator. I have been experiencing the problem of water collecting at the bottom of the refrigerator, and not draining. After weeks of monkeying around with the darn thing, I think I figured it out. My solution is specific to the Professional model/series, although I hope this will help those with similar series.
Step 1: clear the drain line: if you open the refrigerator, remove the crisper drawers, in the back, center, you will see the drain port opening. Usually this is clogged and will require clearing. To do this, I removed the frig lower grill cover (this covers the base of the refrigerator) and look under the refrigerator to locate the drain line. The drain line is black plastic, and is .50 in dia -- you can spot it coming down from approximately where the drain port is located from inside the refrigerator. Be careful when you are trying to clear this drain tube, as you do not want to poke a hole in it as you are working. Once located, this tube may or may not be clipped to the drain pan. If it is, to unclip it, you may have to drop the drain pan down.
Step 2: drop the drain pan: the drain pan is held in place by four screws, which will be visible if you open the refrigerator door, and look at the lower bottom area facing you (I was unable to find any info on this problem, and finally figured it out after a lot of messing around under the refrigerator). My drain pan seems to have some warming elements running along the bottom of the pan, so if yours has the same, be careful when you unscrew, make sure to support the pan, so you do not damage the pan or the heating element. The drain line should be held in place in a slot through a vertical plastic wall roughly in the center of the pan. To remove the drain line from the pan, gently slide the drain line toward you (toward the face of the refrigerator) and slide the tube out.

Sorry, had to take bathroom break.
So, to continue, I know all this work is done under the refrigerator, and in tight space, but stick with it. Now that I have the drain line, I connected it to my shop vac (I cut an old plastic 20oz soda bottle at the base, and taped it to the shop vac hose, and slipped the drain line into the drinking end). Now, I open the refrigerator door, turn the shop vac on, and with something small and pliable, poke down the drain port from inside the refrigerator gently, to the rewarding sound and sight of a swoosh as the collected water is evacuated. With the shop vac on, I pour some hot (NOT BOILING) tap water into the drain port inside the refrigerator, until I am satisfied that all is clear and clean.
Step 3: re-install the drain line to the drain pan, re-install the drain pan, using the reverse steps, and you are done. Once again, I recognize that there is not a lot of space under the refrigerator, but I was not able to tilt it up (custom cabinet around top) or pull it out (the refrigerator is big, and I am lazy). This was the best way for me to do this. I have a lot of pictures of the drain line under my refrigerator for reference, so if anyone is interested, PM me and I can send them to you. I am not a professional repairman, just a homeowner, so please be careful, and note that I can not be held liable if you follow this and something goes wrong. If you are not comfortable, you should call a professional.

You still need to wash out the condenser coils with cleaner and water from a hose nozzle to get it clean. Otherwise you will burn up the compressor.

Lots of speculation in the answers here. Has anyone tried some of these suggestions? Pleez! You pour bleach in the drip pan and you'll get a new disgusting smell.

This is what I've done and it worked. My Frigidaire has the pan on top of the compressor.

Unplug the fridge. Get a pillow for your knees--you'll be more comfortable. (You'll thank me) Rubber gloves. Large sponge--7 by 3 by 1. Pan with bleach solution. Newspaper to place around the pan.

Dip the sponge in the bleach solution. Wring. Work the sponge into the opening of the drain pan. There's enough room and the pan is plastic and can be manipulated. Hold on the end of the sponge.

Let the sponge soak up the gunk. Pull out the sponge. Some of the nastiness will drip on the paper.

DON'T put the sponge back into the bleach solution. Take it to the sink and wring it out down the drain. Rinse out the sponge and thus start with a "fresh" sponge to put back into the bleach solution.

It took me about 3 repetitions to completely empty the pan. You can stuff a dry rag into the pan when you're done to know that it's dry. At best, you'll have a pan dampened with the remnants of the bleach solution--far better than a standing puddle of bleach that you'd get a snort of every time you pass the fridge. (Then again, maybe a good diet strategy.. . )

My Fridge has a smaller unconnected pan, the opening of which is "conveniently" blocked by the freon tubing lattice. I used a smaller sponge and worked it behind from underneath. Providing "extra fun", the bottom of the lattice is like a sharpened picket fence. Afterwards, with various punctures on my hands, I realized that putting a strip of tape on the bottom of the lattice would have prevented the punctures and made it easier to slide the sponge behind the lattice.

Whole job took about half an hour. Yet I don't understand why the refrigerator can't have a simple removable pan on the bottom of the unit that you can remove and make this a 30-second job. I guess the company is just creating business of appliance repairmen--the rationale being that the smell will eventually get so annoying and/or disgusting that you'll pay pretty much anything to get rid of it.

To end on a political note: Many people ( i.e. businessmen) complain about government regulation of business. We need MORE regulation to prevent companies from imposing this kind of product on the public. So I'd be quite happy with Regulation #100,879,368,298: All refrigerators will have easily removable drip pans.

I agree with having easy-to-remove drain pans. What is bad is the outlawing of R-12,22, &502 which are the most beneficial refrigerant gases that save the most money. One thing you need to do is to clean the condenser coils because it will keep the refrigerator from burning up. Any time that drain pan is dirty you need to clean the coils, too. You should spray the coils down with a good soap and wash out with hose nozzle using a fine mist of water to get them really clean.

Most disgusting thing ever!! I used febreeze dusters. Worked fine, soaked all the gunk out first. Then used a new one with soap and water.. At least they attach to a handle so I didn't have to touch any gunk..

I know this might be out of date a little , but I have this same issue and I totally agree it's a health issue. I will never buy another Frigidaire for this reason. Also had issues with the condenser leaking about 2 years after we bought it. Tech came out' and rebuilt the whole condensing unit.. piece of crap and I would totally be on board with a CA lawsuit...

k, so I decided my best course of action is to take the EMPTY fridge outside and hose the holy out of the drain pan and condenser area. Step 2 is to cut the drain hose away from the pan and use an EXTERNAL drain pan made of an old Tupperware container that I can easily remove, Frigidaire can kiss my lilly white...

I was able to take the drain pan out, not easily this time. Next time I could probably get it out pretty fast.

I have a late-ish model Fridigaire (2006?) It was stinking up the place so much I was convinced a rat or something had died up inside it. After looking at the back I found the drain pan was full in the front and spilling into the back part of the pan and that was stinking the place up.

After trying to force it out various ways, I stumbled across this link in another forum: http://www.bluetoad.com/publication/?I=16090&p=11. If you look in the lower right corner there is a picture of the clip that holds the pan in. To get a better idea of how it all looks, see this picture of the pan that is inset into the compressor parts pic (part 26). http://www.searspartsdirect.com/partsdirect/part-model/Frigidaire-Parts/All-Products-Parts/Model-FRT15B3AW5/1428/0166000/R0403083/00004?blt=06&prst=&shdMod=
This pic does not match the one in my fridge exactly but it gave me a pretty good picture of what it looks like. It is a view backwards from the way you would see it from the back of the fridge.

There is a tab to the left (looking from the back to the front of the refridgerator) of the compressor sticking out of a slot in the top the pan. You want to slide the a deep socket above the tab to force the clip down that holds the pan in place. The guy in the previous link says to use a 9/16". That was too small for our fridge. I tried different sizes and found a 16mm worked perfectly for mine. I think I still had to push it down with a drill bit extension too to unlock it. (I was trying a lot of things to unlatch it). Or maybe I pushed it down by hand by reaching inside and around the pan. Once I got the clip depressed, it came out very easily. I didn't spill a drop, which I was very concerned would happen and be an even worse thing to clean up.

Hope this helps

OOPS! I neglected to put the pan picture in: http://www.searspartsdirect.com/partsdirect/part-model/Frigidaire-Parts/All-Products-Parts/Model-FRT15B3AW5/1428/0166000/R0403083/00004?blt=06&prst=&shdMod=