One repair leads to another, and another..........

It's funny ???  kind of, how these things work out. I went out this morning to add a little more water to the holding tank as water hoses and 19 degree weather don't mix.  When I opened the bay door to get a hose, I noticed a drip of water on the bay light lens.   So, I remove the plastic lens cover, and the cover is FULL of water!  What the heck?  This was on the street side of the RV and the bay is right under the refer in the slide.  What, there isn't water piping on this side of the coach, is there?  I look at the 6" opening between the top of the bay and the floor of the slide.  It's wet on top, a little anyway.

Could it be from water thrown up from the tires? It was raining lightly when we pulled in.  Nope, I don't think so.  Look farther up the wall and realize that the bottom vent for the refer is right on top of that area.  Open it up and look.  Slight water in the drain cup, not much though.  Then look down in the bottom of the refer area.  What, a solid sheet of ice!

I dug out the ice and dryed the plastic bottom of the refer bay area.  Looking closer I see a drip of water coming from the inlet tube to the ice maker solenoid.  How long has this been leaking? And how is it getting into the bay light?  Closer inspection of the 6" air space between the bay roof and bottom of the slide floor with a flashlight answers my question. 

There is a rubber white hose pressed up against the outter wall of the slide. It looks like it is coming through the floor, but I can't see where it originates from. The hose looked as if it was susposed to be a drain of some sort, but there are various groups of wires in that area, and one bunch was nearly completely hiding the white rubber hose. The hose is about 8" long, and about 3" from the end, it has kinked in half preventing much of anything from getting through.  I got a mirror and looked against the front outside wall of the refer bay. There tucked in the corner of the very front edge was a drain hole which looked to be filled with wet, slimey dirt. 

OK, let see if I got this straight.  My inlet hose to the ice maker is leaking.  When I took it apart, it was just a male hose fitting that screwed onto the water solenoid for the icemaker. The back of the male hose fitting is cut out and a fitting for a 1/4" compression fitting screws on the back of that. The white plastic line runs from the "T" fitting under my kitchen sink.  The rubber hose gasket had hardend, shrunk and was starting to crack.  I'm sure every time that the solenoid opened to fill the ice tray, a portion of the water squirted out in the bottom of the refer tray.  The drain hose was crimped and barley drained and would'nt have until the water overwhelmed the seal around the drain hose.  The water ran onto the top of the bay, and eventually found it's way into the bay via the self tapping screw holes used to put in the bay lights and wires. The wire holes were all sealed by Winnie with a rubber compound that looked pretty good still.  But each screw hole was not.  When I started pulling the stuff out of the bay to get to the light, I found that a lot of water had gotten in the bay and many things were wet.  Luckily though, right under the bay light was a few old towels that I used for rags for general clean ups. They had caught most of the water and kept anything from being ruined. It's also why I never noticed the water leak before this, as I am in and out of that door constantly. 

I cut off the kinked part of the drain hose and found a suitable elbow and length of hose at Lowes to repair the line and drain it to where I will see any other drips.  A new washer in the ice maker line repaired the drip (I think), and a tube of silicone and disassembly of the bay light and a filling of all the screw holes before putting the screws back in should fix the entry of water into the bay area.   

What a day, it always seems like one thing leads to another............

Sarge

Marty - was the white hose a drain for the fridge area?  I wasn't quite sure of that.  Leaks used to drive me crazy on the boat since they were usually difficult to run down.  A leak could start near the bow, and wind up dripping in the salon.

Yep, that's exactly what it was John.  The drain hole in the refer bay was tucked so close to the front wall of the RV, it was nearly impossible to see without a mirror.  And the freezing temps we have had every night I believe have caused the brass fitting to expand and contract, allowing the fitting to drip.  I am going to look for a sheet of insulation to put over the bottom refer vent to maintain a little more heat when it freezes outside.

As a follow up the original post, I found an inexpensive sheet of fiberglass insulation at Lowes for about $3.  I believe it was 16" wide by 3'.  I unrolled it and stood it up in front of the lower refer vent.  That night the temps got down in the 20's again.  I went out the next morning and checked the vent.  There were drops of condensation on the outside of the vent, indicating that the inside was warmer. 

When I reviewed the refer manual from Norcold, they recommended that the ice maker line should be removed and drained in freezing temps to prevent the water line and solenoid from freezing and causing damage.  I believe that my leak was a result of just that. The parts freezing and expanding allowed  the water line, which is under pressure, to leak and caused the chain reaction of other problems.

If you have a similar ice maker line exposed to the elements via an air vent, I would recommend buying the $3 fix from a hardware store.  It could save a lot of headache in the future.

Well.. funny you should mention this!  My ice maker water solenoid froze and cracked with the last cold snap  : for the first time.  Need to either insulate it, or disconnect the water line at the solenoid.

I think mine was very close to doing the same thing John.  I tell ya, that $3 roll of insulation did the trick.  I even heard my exhaust fans kick on at one point during the night, and the snap disk that controls them is a 90 degree disk!