How to Troubleshoot & Replace Ge AP3796479 / WR17X11843 Evaporator Drip Pan

1. Removed shelves and drawers and turn off fridge. 2. Defrost the area around the coils really good so that the coil cover and foam prices will come off easily. I used a hair dryer 3. Remove the covers for the coiled water tube on the side below coils. 4. Remove small covers on the left side of the coil cover. 5. Remove small foam piece on bottom left side of the coil cover. 6. Remove three screws holding coil cover. 7. Pull the coil cover and foam out a little and disconnect the two wire connections then remove cover and foam. (be gentle the foam can damage easily) 7. Remove two screws holding the coils and drip pan. 8. Remove old drip pan - you have to bend the coils just a little to get the pan out. 9. Put the new one in and follow the steps in reverse to reassemble. 

Replace rusted out evaporator drip pan 

Purchased a relativly new ge stainless profile fridge from crisis list. Was having problems with it cooling. Found out someone had replaced the fan with a pc fan that didn't fit and the coils were freezing over. To make matters worse rust from the fan clogged the evap drain. Purchased replacement part from here and was able to easily replace everything with just a screwdriver. Very easy to fix and the fridge is now problem free. 

Took out all the drawers so I could get to the back of refrigerator (inside) I could see the panel that covers the defrost coils and drain. I removed the panel and then could see that the evaporator drip pan was rusted with holes in the bottom. I looked online and ordered the replacement drip pan that was shipped overnight. Then it was just a matter of taking the old part off and replacing it. 

Based on where the water was coming from I suspected the condensation from the evaporator was not draining properly. I pulled off and cleaned the drain tube in back and noticed lots of sediment from corrosion. Cleaning the tube did not fix the water accumulation problem, so I did some research and determined the evaporator drip pan was probably the cause. Replacing it was straight-forward, except for the fact that a block of ice had formed on the refrigerant lines, freezing parts including the evaporator cover in place. I was being very careful not to damage anything so it took some time to get the covers off. Regardless, I ended up lightly damaging the plastic evaporator cover and the styrofoam in the evaporator fan assembly, but managed to fix them well enough with some silicone sealant. The removed evaporator drip pan was highly corroded with dozens of pinholes. Fridge is now working great, and so far no dripping water or ice build-up. I did make a mistake causing minor damage to parts, but if I had to do this again I think it would be quick and easy. Hoping this 18-year-old fridge makes it to 25! My part was shipped quickly and the price was good compared to the competition. 

Replaced the drip pan 

Evaporator drip pan was rusted out so condensationd did not flow out to the back of the refrigerator. Thanks to APPros for having the replacement part and iinstructional video on how to do the swap out of the bad for the new. Most of the time was spent cleaning out all the rust from bottom of the evaporator coil and drain tube. The swap out was easy and didn't take long. I replaced the drain tube as well. The rubber connector was dried out and thus there was not a good seal. 

Replaced evaporator drip pan. 

Replaced sensor and drip tray. 

Replaced it. Your video was perfect since it showed how to move the evaporator out of the way. I would not have tried to replace the pan without seeing the video. In all it took less than an hour.