Can this be done by me?

[PARyan]

Greetings, I came upon this forum looking for an answer to a problem. I didn't find my answer but was amazed at the wealth of knowledge here so I figured I'd just ask.

Here's the deal. I have a water dispenser in my fridge that keeps freezing. I ordered a heating element for the door because of the defect but I read online that will even fail.

Then I thought about making a quick easy fix-it tool. The freeze point is about 3.5-4" from the tip of the dispenser tube. The quick and dirty idea is to fashion a copper wire to stick up there and quickly thaw the tiny blockage. In my head taking a 9v battery or something to heat an element to anywhere from 70-90F. High enough to melt the ice in a few minutes but low enough to NOT melt the tubing.

I don't mean to insult anyone's knowledge or education in electronics. Im not expecting to master electronics or understand the math behind it. I'm just trying to see if a woodworker like myself who can solder can McGeiver together something to accomplish my goal. Something I can pull out when needed to quickly thaw out the line from the inside of the tube.

 

[JimB]

I have a water dispenser in my fridge that keeps freezing.

Obviously I know nothing about your fridge, but the first thing that comes to mind is, are you running the fridge too cool?
What is the air temperature in the fridge?
Can you turn up the thermostat a couple of degrees?

I ordered a heating element for the door because of the defect but I read online that will even fail.

It is not clear to me what you are saying here.
Is there an existing heating element which is faulty, hence the freezing water dispenser?
Or, this is an idea of yours to add a heating element to fix the icing problem?
Why does the online world think that it will fail? Did they say?

The quick and dirty idea is to fashion a copper wire to stick up there and quickly thaw the tiny blockage.

I like quick and dirty!

taking a 9v battery or something to heat an element to anywhere from 70-90F

Woh, hold on there. That is a recipe for failure.
If you mean the little 9v radio battery, that is not a good choice.
They cannot provide much current and not much energy (ie what current they can provide will not last long.
If you are going down this route you need a bigger battery. If I were doing this, I would think about using a couple of "C" size cells.

Now, what to use for a heating element? I am at a bit of a loss to know what to suggest, but no doubt that someone here will have an idea or two.

As I have been sitting here typing, the thought occurred that (and I am not suggesting this as a practical solution) a "Wahl IsoTip" cordless soldering iron would be a starting point. Looks_Like_This
Practical difficulties:
The tip would not reach 3 to 4 inches up the tube.
The tip would melt a plastic tube in no time.

So with those insomniac ramblings, I will go away and look at something else.

JimB

 

[PARyan]

Apparently GE has this little heating element you can install that supposedly helps fix the problem. But what I've read is that there's moisture trapped in the insulation and over time that will build up and the heating element won't be able to keep up.

As for power source....I was just spit-balling. I will do everything up to a computer power supply (350W)

I'm resigned to the thought of having to deal with this which is now why my head is on finding a quick solution to fix the symptoms as opposed to a fix for the problem.

I'm going to take another look at line flow as well but it just seems like something flexible that heats up can come in real handy here, oh and I have the freezer set as warm as possible while still maintain a safe temp

 

[KeepItSimpleStupid]

This **broken link removed** might work for you. We used a variable transformer (Variac) to set the temp. DC/AC doesn't matter. That is a 10 W heater. You can allways get a higher wattage and operate at a lower voltage.

If it's just 1 point, you could take a bunch of resistors and operate them in parallel/series along the tube. i.e. Use the resistors as heating elements.