The internet is a great place for the do it yourselfer these days. I have a Kenmore 71033 Elite Refrigerator, 795.71033.010 exactly,  and the freezer had been filling up with ice in the bottom. After a while the ice migrated to leaking as water onto the floor. The kids were pleased with the freezer sized ice cubes they could smash outside however we were tired of it.

Fixing the problem was solved through some googling and I wanted to share a trio of videos that helped work through the problem.

First up was a search on searspartsdirect.com with my model information, 79571033010. The site was helpful in that it had some Question and Answers and the first question was titled, “Leaking from Freezer Area and Ice Buildup”. This was pretty much dead on with my problem. Unfortunately the helpful answer said, “Here is an image of a repair procedure that shows how to remote that back panel inside the freezer compartment: Kenmore Refrigerator Evaporator Grill Removal” followed by a dead link. Regardless of this, it was a great sign that my problem was pretty solved so I search for a repair video and found a general disassembly video that was was easy to follow by RepairClinic.com named, “LG Refrigerator Disassembly“. Watching this while waiting for my Thai food made me confident in my endeavor and I searched on. A little later I found a video with the problem explanation and a good overview of how to fix the freezer water leak: sgrddy’s “Fixing Freezer Water Leak on Kenmore Elite Bottom-Freezer“. He took the time to share experience and his tips such as using hot water and siphon were much appreciated.

Of course here comes the gotcha. The problem with my specific Kenmore Elite was the Evaporator Cover was different than all those I had seen. It had no obvious screws and no obvious prying points.

Being that my refrigerator was sitting in the kitchen powered off and half way disassembled one could appreciate that I really didn’t want to fuck this thing up but also did want to finish the job. I desperately poured over my previous clues. I tried using the internet archive to resurrect that “Kenmore Refrigerator Evaporator Grill Removal” image but with no luck. Nothing comes up for “s7.postimg.org/719voyior/KMrefrig_GRILLremoval1.jpg” but I did now know a new term for the back panel. I googled, “how to remove freezer Refrigerator Evaporator Cover kenmore elite” and hit the jackpot. A video by grateful patron, “Kenmore Elite Refrigerator Freezer Back Panel Removal” answered my confusion of how to remove the freezer back panel, or Refrigerator Evaporator Cover as they call it on the searspartsdirect site. Apparently you need a pull and pry bar which of course I didn’t have in the tool box. Instead, I took one of those Ikea wrenches that of course I kept and of course really was never to be used again but had it. I took it and hammered a 90 degree angle on the end and that was good enough to pry and pull on the upper left side of panel to dislodge the cover. I finished up by melting that ice and problem sovled!

So thank you RepairClinic.com, sgrddy, and grateful patron for your internet contributions. I hope this post ties it together and helps another one day.

and I just hope that freezer doesn’t hit another ice age…

Fin?