Early 60s GE Manual Defrost - Door LEAKING!!

[davidatlas]

I've got a 1964ish General Electric manual defrost fridge that I've just installed in my kitchen -- Noticed today that it's leaking water out the bottom openings of the door!!! The only place I see condensation collecting inside is above the freezer compartment on the ceiling. Everything is cold and the ice is totally frozen. I don't ahve a manual but this model does have a "Defrost" option on the temperature dial -- I'm curious now if that could be triggering heaters above the freezer compartment??

The fridge door has a new gasket that fits well.... The only other thought I have is that I've been opening it a lot today and there's hardly any food inside.....

Help me gurus!

 

[turbokinetic]

That's a beautiful fridge!  It is sometimes difficult to get a new door gasket to seal up properly. It may "generally" be closing against the body of the fridge, but there are some areas with a paper thin gap.

 

Try closing the door on a piece of paper at various points and search for any places where the paper is not held tightly by the door gasket.

 

EDIT: I forgot to answer your question; there's no heater in the freezer compartment. When you turn the thermostat to Defrost, it will allow the evaporator (the part where the ice collects) to warm up to above freezing temperature, so that the buildup will melt away. It just turns off the compressor to allow warming up, without any sort of heating element.

 

Any excess ambient air circulating into the fridge will constantly carry moisture with it, causing the condensation and frosting up. The water condensation will rust out your fridge, so it's important to get this solved.

 

Sincerely,

David

 

[rp2813]

I recently defrosted my '57 GE, which is a two-door top freezer model.  I've had this fridge for several years and for the first time, after defrosting I had water dripping from the freezer onto the top of the fresh food section door.  I also found water dripping from top front inside the fresh food section.  Otherwise the fridge was operating normally.

 

I checked every half hour or so and wiped away any water where it had dripped and where it seemed to be coming from.  That night I stuffed a towel between the two doors to soak up any more dripping.  By the next morning, the dripping had stopped.

 

I think maybe I had waited too long to defrost and some ice had formed in unusual areas, and it didn't refreeze after I started the fridge up again.  Your drip may resolve itself if it's something similar, but it's possible that this is an apples & oranges situation since yours is a single door model.

 

As for the new gasket, I agree with David's expert advice.  I replaced the gasket on the freezer door a few years ago and I had to make a major adjustment to the magnetic latch to get the door to close and seal completely.  Your fridge may need some adjusting on its latch, be it magnetic or mechanical (assuming the gasket itself isn't magnetic).  Also, if the gasket is getting hung up on the hinged side of the door, I found that applying silicone- based lubricant sparingly with a towel onto the fridge cabinet in the area where the gasket isn't positioning itself to make a proper seal will help fix that problem.

 

[combo52]

If water is leaking OUT of the bottom of the door

You have water inside the insulation of the door.

 

A door gasket not only seals against the body of the refrigerator but also the outer skin of the door, if there are any tiny spaces where the new gasket does not completely seal against the outer skin of the door you will build up water inside the insulation and it may start to leak at the bottom often around the hinge pin.

 

Also the moisture in your first picture is either caused by too many door openings in a humid environment  or a less than perfect seal against the cabinet.

 

Also what is the current humidly level in your home ? [ should be less than 60% ] This makes a big difference in performance of an older manual defrost refrigerator.

 

John L.

 

[davidatlas]

Gasket-to-Door Seal

Guys, thank you so much for your feedback. It is truly a blessing to have a community of enthusiasts at my fingertips to help me pull-off yesterday's kitchen of tomorrow!

Based on your feedback I did the following:

Paper test: the seal firmly holds paper in place and resists it being pulled out.

Humidity: I did have the windows open on Saturday as it was lovely out. Humidity in the house was around 70%, so the air-conditioner has been on since then to bring that contributing factor down.

Gasket Latch: appears to lock at the correct space, I can't really push the door in more.

Gasket-to-Door seal: THIS might be the problem. I found that many of the screws used to attach the metal-gasket-frame pieces to the plastic-door (and then into the actual door frame) were missing. I went out and picked up some more and screwed them into every functional opening I could find in that frame. I'm still thinking that the seal between the door itself and the gasket could be the weak point here, but I'm not sure how to improve that seal (without getting out the silicone caulk).

My other concern is that the plastic-inner-door has several vent holes throughout. That seems like a sure-fire way to make the inside of the door get cold and wick humidity out of all of the possible gaps in the seal. Obviously around the latch and the butter dish there are bound to be gaps into the inner-door -- but why would they add several more intentional vent holes? I'm considering sealing those up but obviously this was designed that way....

Here's a photo showing one of the vents (there's one in each corner, I think). This was a "BEFORE" photo -- the plastic has been bleached, and the metal treated for rust and repainted since!

 

[combo52]

Good Progress David, yes the problem is the gasket to door seal.

The holes in the plastic are to allow the small amounts of moisture that get into the insulation to migrate into the refrigerator and OUT of the insulation so the moisture does NOT build up inside the door and leak.

Do not seal up these factory installed holes it will only make the problem worse and if anything drill more holes. It is ok to seal the gasket to the door panel with clear silicone sealant, we often have to do this.

John L.

 

[davidatlas]

Replacing Insulation?

Thanks John. My father suggested replacing the fiberglass insulation in the door with sheet and spray styrofoam to eliminate any space for air to be drawn in and circulate -- and then maybe seal the plastic inner-shell directly onto the door (before re-installing the gasket).

It would obviously be easier to just seal up the gasket as it is -- but I'm hesitant about band-aid fixing so if replacing the insulation sound's like a smart move I'll go the extra mile now!

Cheers
-David

 

[davidatlas]

Crisis Averted!

Caulked up the door-side of the gasket last night and this morning, no drips!!!

Thank you, gentlemen!