What could be the problem?

[gadgetgary]

Just recently, my water dispenser thru the door(Sears SXS) stopped working,  The ice maker functions properly, but water thru the door takes about 4-5 min to start dribbling out, then it is the normal stream.  From that point, the water flows as it should, but, if you try it the next day, the same thing happens.

Could the water be freezing in the tubing?

What could be the explaination as to why this is suddenly happening?

 

 

Thanks,

 

GG

 

 

[hydralique]

So it . . .

Dribbles out at first, then a normal stream but does the same thing the next day?

 

Sounds like it's reached middle age, that's all

 

[qsd-dan]

Could the water be freezing in the tubing?

If the water feed tube runs underneath the house, then that could very well be the culprit. The same thing happened to me a few years back when temps were dipping below 27F.

 

[gadgetgary]

Dan

Thanks. I was referring to the tubing inside the fridge, since the ice maker works perfectly.

I am wondering if the water coming to the door is somehow freezing enroute.

I know there is a water storage series of tubes at the back of the fridge behind the vegetable bins.

 

 

[turquoisedude]

Hmmm.  I had the same thing happen with a Maytag side-by-side with the ice and water dispensers.  It worked great for years, then out of the blue, the water dispenser would work intermittently.  This happened in summer, so external freezing was definitely not a problem, however I think it may have been an internal supply pipe that was getting frozen.  I never did figure it out and the person who bought that fridge from me never said she had any troubles...  Most odd...

 

[combo52]

SLOW TO START WATERFLOW

This is usually caused by a leak in in the plumbing system of the refrigerator. Check for water under the crispers in the ref section and move the ref and look for any water on the floor.

 

[gadgetgary]

No Leaks anywhere!

However, I took off the bottom grate and the coils were covered in dust(don't remember when the last time was that I did that, but, it has been a while).

Perhaps it was making the things freeze because of the dust-covered coils.

 

We shall see!

 

Thanks for the suggestions.

 

 

 

[rp2813]

Our fridge also has a coil of tubing for for chilled water storage behind the crisper against the back wall.  It just so happens that some items located in the back of the shelf above the crisper or in the rear of the crisper itself can sometimes freeze.  It makes sense that the water in the tubing could be freezing.  You may have to turn your fresh food section's temp control to a slightly warmer setting.

 

[whirlcool]

We had a similar problem with our Whirlpool refrigerator and it was the water inlet solenoids that were the culprit. Fixed it myself for pretty cheap.

 

[gadgetgary]

Dusty Coils

I think I have solved the problem.  I cleaned the very dust coils underneath, and the water is flowing properly now.

Perhaps the fridge was working too hard and over cooling.

Could explain the frozen carrots and celery.

 

Thanks fot the input.

 

 

GG

 

 

[rp2813]

Yeah, apparently manufacturers are now claiming that vacuuming/cleaning coils under the fridge is no longer necessary, but I still do mine once or twice a year.

 

[laundromat]

In the models I have seen, the water that is dispensed for drinking comes from a seperate rolled up tube located behind the crispers (SXS MODELS)where it gets chilled. Not in the freezer section where it could get frozen and not flow properly.

 

[3beltwesty]

The Sears Kenmore dual door unit here is from about 1992.

It has the water cooler "pod" that chills the water behind the crisper.

It has many hotdog sized vertical chambers and an inlet and outlet with the dinky white flex tubing going to the freezer door's water/ice cube dispenser. The water is cooled here in this plastic pod in the refigerator; not a coil of tubing.

On mine the balance between the freezer and Refridge is with a shutter between the inner mid wall. If this shutter is clogged or gunked up one can can have the refridge get too cold and the water pod freeze. On mine the shutter's control is faultly and I have manually placed it where I get proper balance.

I believe my Kenmore is a Whirlpool

 

[whirlcool]

Ha! Then you have some fun coming your way!

On our Whirlpool, 1998 model, we have the same water reservoir as you do in the back of the refrigerator. What happened is that one day we started noticing these little white thing that appeared to be swimming in the water that came out of the refrigerator door.

The culprit is that the reservoir tank is deteriorating from the inside out and those white things are pieces of plastic from the reservoir.

The fix? Since the original reservoirs are NLA all you get from Kenmore/Whirlpool is a long coil of tubing that you hang in the back of the refrigerator. I didn't like this idea so all we use is the ice maker, which gets its water directly from the inlet on the wall.