I have a Hotpoint HTS20GBWW refrig (top freezer type) about 3 years old. A couple of days ago, we noticed water building up underneath the crispers, and eventually leaking out the front once it builds up enough to overflow the lip of the bottom refrigeration compartment. From a little research, I believe this is a result of a clogged defrost drain. Of course, my local appliance dealer says this should only be cleared by a professional at about $100, but I'm hoping someone will know enough about this particular model to give me the "how to" get at the drain and clear it myself. The unit is pretty well sealed up and I'm not quite sure where to start...

I'm not familiar with your model number but here's a couple of suggestions. Look underneath your refrigerator and you should see the defrost hose on or above a pan over your condenser. Check the end of the hose, sometimes the blockage is at that end of the hose, you may be able to insert something into the end. If that doesn't work you'll have to turn off your refrigerator and probably remove the cover that's over the coil. Once you can see the drain you can try running something down the line and then flush it out with some water or a light mix of bleach and water. Sometimes I've to use a small air compressor to open up the drain.

I was able to remove the back bottom panel to see the drain hose and tray. The tray was dry, the hose itself was not blocked, but connected to a drain about where the bottom of the fridge interior is. I removed the hose from this fitting, and was able to easily slide a piece of tubing well up that section of the drain until it hit something up about where the bottom of the freezer is, and whatever it hit was able to jiggle a little and sounded like plastic. So I've ruled out a lot of the possibilities, now I just need to figure out how to get to the area where my probing stopped. The back of the unit is well sealed, not sure how (or even if can) open it. Hoping someone can tell me if I can get at the area through th inside of the fridge (maybe by taking out the pices that covers the controls/light etc), or how to go about removing the back cover of this particular unit.

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Originally Posted by JackT

I'm not familiar with your model number but heres a couple of suggestions. Look underneath your refrigerator and you should see the defrost hose on or above a pan over your condenser. Check the end of the hose, sometimes the blockage is at that end of the hose, you may be able to insert something into the end. If that doesn't work you'll have to turn off your refrigerator and probably remove the cover that's over the coil. Once you can see the drain you can try running something down the line and then flush it out with some water or a light mix of bleach and water. Sometimes I've to use a small air compressor to open up the drain.

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I have a Hotpoint, freezer top fridge. My Crisper on the bottom was collecting water. I had to defrost the freezer, unscrew the bottom "tray" piece of freezer so I could access the water drain, which is located in the center of the back of the freezer, which was froozen closed. I poured lots of hot water down the drain and poked with a sraightened wire hanger. Of course, I had to make sure the water was draining to the pan on bottom of fridge. So I had to unscrew bottom back cover of fridge, which contains condenser and drain pan. I made sure to soak up water in pan so that it didn't over flow with water or spill when I pushed fridge back in to place, worked for me hope it works for someone else...