HOTPOINT FFA80 FROST FREE FRIDGE FREEZER?

Firstly thank you to all that have posted I found this to be a very useful thread.
So for my own FFA80 fridge drainage problem (11 years old). The V shaped drip catching unit on the inside the fridge at the bottom rear kept slowly over flowing, this required a tea towel to mop up the excess undrained water every other day. Being a reasonably confident individual I wondered if a component had failed and if I could replace it. Searching the web I couldn’t find a service manual. The user manual is everywhere, but a service manual seems to be hard to come by.

I started by visually understanding the layout of the fridge. At the rear is the compressor and condenser coils etc, However just above the compressor is a white drip tray. Viewing from the rear the freezer drips into the righthand side through a short black plastic hose. As there’s only one hose I assumed the both the freezer and the fridge dripped into this. It doesn’t!
Within the freezer, unfastening the four hex screws reveals the freezer components. I did nothing in the freezer compartment other than remove the screws and white plastic airflow director to aide a full defrost.
With no obvious access to the fridge draining tube or failed component I set about simply trying dislodge the blockage. Using garden wire, the type used to secure plants I rodded from the inside of the fridge. The wire only goes so far before hitting something that feels like a hard plastic base. Moving the wire up and down did not help. Next up, thicker plastic blue rope (available at any diy store in the UK) with a similar diameter of the tube. Rodding with the rope started to pull up dark brown water, progress I felt. However, there was no getting past the hard plastic at the bottom of the pipe. Reviewing the straw solution posted on this thread, I felt knowing my luck the straw would detach whilst rodding with no way of retrieving the straw. I avoided this. Next up, using the rope previously I had removed an amount of water from the draining tube. I thought hot water might help. I boiled the kettle to just under boiling and pour this into the draining tube. Using a turkey baster I stucked and squirted the hot water down the pipe. Again, no success but more brown water was removed.
Using the rope again I displaced the water to make space for the next solution. Next up, chemical sink unblocker. I poured this down the draining hole, left it for 3 hours and came back. The liquid had gone .... success! Where did the liquid go? Well as mentioned at the top on my post it doesn’t come out of the freezer black hose. It comes out of a hole just left of the compressor but the white tray does cover it. Pouring more cool water down the draining tube to move any excess chemicals proved this.

HTHs - Oliver

Oliver Brearley
December 2015

Should have said the plastic panel is at the back "inside" the freezer compartment

Janet
June 2012

I have this problem frequently and it is caused by ice build up at the back of the freezer compartment (so glad I bought a "frost free" model!). I was told by an refrigeration engineer that the only way to cure it is to empty the freezer, turn it off and wait for the ice to melt. If you remove the plastic section from the back of the freezer (just a few screws) you will see the ice and a hairdryer will speed things up. I have had to do this 3 times in the past year. Strange that it was fine up to 5 yrs old when the warranty expired! Won't buy Hotpoint again although I'm told it's a common problem with many makes. Hope this helps.

Janet
June 2012

It will be blocked by food crumbs. You will need a length of curtain wire long enough to reach from the drainer plug hole(situated behind the veg baskets) to the bottom of the freezer and a drinking straw of the sort that can be bent over at the drinking end. Tape the straw securely to the curtain wire and bend the straw to 45 degrees. Insert the straw into the drain hole and push wire down until you feel the straw strike the bottom of the inner .Give a little extra push which will bend the straw from 45 degrees to 90 degress.Rotate the wire back and forward between the palm of both hands which wil rotate the end of the straw thus agitating any bebris lying across the bottom of the sump hole. This will clear the blockage.

Gav
March 2009

I have the same problem that the water does not drain. I have tried a coat hanger and it will go all the way to the bottom of the fridge freezer from the fridge section, but still will not clear the blockage.

Looking for suggestions on what to try next.

John
October 2008

I have found that sellotaping two regular straws together gives enough length to clean the drain.

mach2027
July 2008