How I fixed my leaking Fisher & Paykel E521T refrigerator.

by.  peter@poppasplace.au


My Fisher & Paykel active smart refrigerator was 15 years old when it started leaking water into the bottom of the refrigerator compartment.
It was otherwise working perfectly. Its only problem was that it leaked whenever it went through its defrost cycle.
Looking  above the water collection tank on top of the compressor I could see where the drain pipe exited the cabinet.
No water ever made it out of the drain pipe.
A search of the internet revealed the possibility that the drain was iced up so I turned the fridge off for 24 hours and directed a fan to blow into it.
A couple of defrost cycles later the water was back.



Turn off and disconnect the power before disassembling.



The drain pipe runs down inside the back of the cabinet behind this panel.

After unplugging the the refrigerator from the power.
I removed the panel by inserting a screwdriver in the gap near the bottom and disengaging the lip on each side.
The panel was prised out from the bottom and angled out so that the top lip was disengaged from the panel above it.

The drain pipe continued on up under the panel above.


















The upper panel containing the display was held by the screw shown.

The panel was lifted out from the bottom to disengage lugs at the top.

I was careful not to break the foam insulation.














I could see that the spout where the hose connects to the water collection tray had broken off.
By removing the sticky tape holding the hose and bowing it out in the middle I could lower the top of the hose and bring it forward.



































I used a bolt to pull the broken spout out of the hose.






















The hose has an internal diameter of about 13mm and I had a funnel that fitted.


















The cut down funnel was warmed with a hair dryer and squeezed through the slot.

Note the spout end of the funnel was also shortened a little.












It was necessary to shorten the hose by about 10mm before fitting it.

Unlike gluing the spout back on, this repair allows some misalignment and movement to occur without straining anything.

I have had a good 15 year run from this refrigerator. The repair man  I called on for this repair stated that this broken part was not replaceable and the refrigerator should be replaced. As of 2025 for the cost of a funnel I have had  another 12 years out of this fine product. The only other problem was with the door switch. When the door switch fails the fridge beeps at you to close the door and eventually shuts off completely. The read switch is located in the plastic housing between the doors. I opened the freezer door and taped some plastic across the opening to keep the cold in and removed the freezer door. I taped the lower door to the cabinet to hold it in place so I could remove the hinge pin holding the housing. The housing is fixed to the frame by a screw under the Fisher & Paykel label. I bought a small reed switch for about $1 and after checking that it would be operated by the magnet in the doors I soldered it in place.