I presume refrigerators are quite similar around the world. So I have this big tall, pretty new (but cheap) refrigerator.

There's this plastic bowl or something behind the refrigerator which gathers all the melting water from within, and I presume the idea is that the compressor or whatever it is under the bowl warms up the water so that it evaporates slowly to air and the bowl never fills up from water.

Anyway when I checked that bowl, it is full of all kinds of icky stuff, grown fungus or mold and such. I guess with the melting water some organic matter has ended there too which starts a new life in the bowl in the warm water. I have tried already earlier to clean that bowl with some towel, but it is quite hard as it is in such a narrow space, and the bowl has sort of "crevices" in it, it is not completely smooth or round.

So my question is, am I supposed to be able to detach that plastic bowl from the refrigerator, in order to clean it properly?

I've tried to yank it a bit but it seems to be tightly in place, and I don't think I see any screws there either (but then it is hard to see as it is in a tight spot). And I don't want to break anything either. I also read some user's manual for some other refrigerator but I didn't see it mention anything about detaching or even cleaning the melting water bowl.

I recall HereForBeer is a machinery expert so hopefully at least he knows.

Oh, a refrigerator question! Let's consult the master engineer, Vladimir Nabokov:

Crash!
And if darkness could sound, it would sound like this giant
waking up in the torture house, trying to die
and not dying, and trying
not to cry and immediately crying
that he will, that he will, that he will do his best
to adjust his dark soul to the pressing request
of the only true frost,
and he pants and he gasps and he rasps and he wheezes:
ice is the solid form when the water freezes;
a volatile liquid (see “Refrigerating”)
is permitted to pass into evaporating
coils,
where it boils
which somehow seems wrong
and I wonder how long
it will rumble and shudder and crackle and pound
Scudder, the Alpinist, slipped and was found
half a century later preserved in blue ice
with his bride and two guides and a dead edelweiss;
a German has proved that the snowflakes we see
are the germ cells of stars and the sea life to be;
hold
the line, hold the line, lest its tale be untold
let it amble along through the thumping pain
and horror of dichlordisomethingmethane,
a trembling white heart with the frost froth upon it,
Nova Zembla, poor thing, with that B in her bonnet
stunned bees in the bonnets of cars on hot roads
Keep it Kold, says a poster in passing, and lo,
loads,
of bright fruit, and a ham, and some chocolate cream,
and there bottles of milk, all contained in the gleam
of that wide-open white
god, the pride and delight
of starry-eyed couples in dream kitchenettes,
and it groans and it drones and it toils and it sweats
Shackleton, pemmican, pegnuin, Poe’s Pym–
collapsing at last in the criminal
night.

Thanks, I think that answered my question. I presume in this cheap model I have it is firmly attached on top of the compressor so I am not supposed to remove it, but I'll still look if there are any screws. Maybe it is glued in place or something, that article mentioned a "perm gun", not sure what that is.

I guess I'll try to clean it again with some towel then without detaching it. I think I've had the refridgerator for less than a year, and this is already the second time it feels that bowl is almost full and full of some kind of icky smelly stuff. Yuck!

One option I have I guess is to redirect that short plastic pipe from where the water comes to an external cup or something, but then I'd have to remember to empty it from time to time. Plus, the article pointed out something I didn't know, that there is supposed to be some water all the time in that bowl as its evaporation will also help cooling down the compressor.


The poem was cool too.

Shit, that reminds me, I forgot to let my nephew out! How much air does one of those things hold?

He'll be fine. If it's plugged in, he should be good for days - maybe weeks - without spoiling.

All no-frost refrigerators implement this, its evaporation area where condensate is dumped. Its better to clean it, because the blowing fan in proximity acts as bacteria spreader around kitchen. Also its nice to remove the dust from heat exchanger(cooler block) that is usually in close proximity with a vacuum cleaner - reduces strain, boosts fridge life expectancy.

Good, nothing worse than a spoiled brat!

Okay, big +1 for that! Well done.

I'd rather have medium rare.

Aw, shucks!

Had the same thing happen on ours several years back. Stunk to low hell (why do they say "stinks to high heaven"?) It required a pan-ectomy, which wasn't a whole lot of fun. I hit up duckduckgo to look up the manual for the fridge, and it showed how to get at the pan. And then I came up with my own plan since these manuals are always at least somewhat wrong. It involved a couple sockets and a Philips screwdriver ("plus", as my wife calls it). And I had to tip it forward and lean it against the counter to finally get the pan out.

A bit difficult, but worth it just to get rid of that stink. If you go that far into it, may as well clean everything else you can get to while you're in there.

On the upside, this is the type of task that gets you out of cleaning the bathroom and doing laundry that day, and you get to drink beer because some of these jobs simply require beer for inspiration.

I moved the refrigerator to a place where I can easily access the back of it where that plastic pan is. There was slimy water in it, not quite full but not that far from it either. There were some kind of violet slimy pieces in the water too, not sure if they had grown there or if they were e.g. pieces of peel of red onions, they at least looked a bit like it.

It didn't seem the pan could be detached, it is somehow attached in the middle to the compressor. I didn't see any screws anywhere, the pan can be rotated a bit, but it can't be lifted nor slid. I didn't want to break anything so I decided to leave it be there, apparently in this cheap model it is not meant to be removed.

It was in such a tight spot that I can't comfortably put even my hand there, just my fingers, barely. So I ended up using a damn spoon to take the slimy water out of there into a cup, as much as I could. I think there was maybe one desilitre of slimy water there. I couldn't yet wash it properly, maybe I try that with some small towel later.

Now at least I know what to check next time if and when I buy a new refrigerator. I feel it is a must that the condensation water pan can be easily removed and washed. I am a bit surprised that isn't a norm because I was under impression that warm still water with bacteria can be a real health hazard (if you can't regularly wash or replace it), considering e.g. "legionella pneumophila".

Use either vinegar or diluted bleach to clean it. Each is effective against various types of bacterial life.

He'll also be perfectly safe from nearby nuclear detonations. : |

Drop some of this stuff in the hole inside your fridge: https://www.kierratyskeskus.fi/files/2793/201/etikka_pieni.jpg

My fridge comes with a kind of strainer in that hole that can me removed by just lifting it and rinsed, presumely there to hinder food from going down the hole.