Samsung DA61-14306A Drain Tube Clip OEM Part

First of all, thanks for the great post on how to make this repair. Doing it myself saved me a ton of money. Everything went exactly according to the steps outlined in your post, but I did run into a couple of small issues which I'd like to pass along, just in case anyone else has to deal with the same problems. - On my refrigerator, the back panel looks exactly like the one in the pictures. Everything went fine until I started trying to remove the panel. I had removed the 3 screws and released the clips on both sides, working from the bottom up. However, the panel refused to come off. I'm not sure if it was frozen in place or what, but I couldn't budge it. When the styrofoam insulation began stressing I gave up and let the refrigerator sit overnight. The next morning I tried again and it popped right out. Not sure why, but if you run into this problem I'd recommend giving it some time and going at it again. - I was amazed at how long the ice took to break up. I must have run hot water over it for close to an hour. I used a turkey baster as recommended, put some hot water on the ice, let it sit for about a minute, removed it with the baster and replaced it with more hot water. I also was running a blowdryer over the area during this time. Just when I was beginning to wonder if I had another issue it finally broke free. Just be aware of how long the process can take. - Finally, when I went to remove the old clip i was surprised to see it was secured with a pop rivet. It's in a kind of delicate area and I didn't want to put too much pressure on the defrost heater line, so I grabbed the old clip with a pair of Channellock pliers to stabilize it and gently drilled out the rivet. Other than that everything went exactly as described in the post. Nothing I described was a major problem, I'm just posting them so others might know to expect some small issues. I probably worked on it for a total of 1 1/2-2 hours, most of which was spent melting the ice. Overall, my refrigerator was out of commission for about 24 hours.

Samsung should be sued for selling refrigerators that they know has a design problem with the defrost drain clip. The one that came on it does not get close to the drain tube so over time the tube will freeze up and the water from the defrost cycle has no where to go but inside the refrigerator itself. Mine collects in the left crisper drawer. Anyway this part I ordered went on very easy. You can find some video's on youtube to give you some idea what it will take to complete the task. The easy way is to have a backup refrigerator in the garage like we do. Unplug the Samsung and take all shelves and drawers, put a couple of towels at the bottom where the drawers were, leave the door's open over night. It will take this long for the ice to melt enough to get the coil cover inside the refrigerator off without any issue. Take a turkey baster (syringe) and squirt warm water in drain hole until it unplugs. Take some wire snips (I used a stake-on tool) and clip existing aluminum drain clip off. Slide new one on and wrap ends around the defrost element. This clip is long enough to reach inside the drain tube approximately 1 inch. I put this on over a week ago and no sign of water yet. I ordered another clip for a friend who has a Samsung with same problem. It is an easy task if you just take your time and research the youtube video's.

After emptying the fridge, I took out all drawers and shelves. Then I removed the 4 screws holding the "twin chill" panel on. There are three screws at the bottom and one at the top that's hidden behind a plastic cap. After removing the screws, I gently pried the "twin chill" cover off, starting at the bottom left and working my way around. Be careful not to pull to hard as there are wires connected from the fridge body to the top left of the panel. I then used wire snips to remove the old metal piece that was attached to the heating element (it was riveted on, but a good pair if diagonal cutters will take it off just fine). I then used a half cup of hot water to clear any ice out of the drain and installed this piece with the tongue sticking down into the drain. Make sure that the new piece is making good contact with the heating element bar. Then I reassembled the fridge. It has worked great. Two weeks so far and our crisper drawer is bone dry.

I replaced the old drain clip after thawing out the frozen drain with a hair dryer and installing the new drain clip. The new clip is larger and should prevent freeze ups when the heater kicks in to remove moisture. This is a very common problem with a large number of Samsung units as I found out. Samsung was not very helpfull in light of the fact that this should have been a recall fix. Thawing took most of the repair time

Surfed the net on the problem and found the repair solution on Appliancepartpros website. This apparently is a common problem on this model. The drain would freeze up and would not allow the water / moisture to be removed from the cooling coils during the defrost cycles. The site showed a simple fix of a clip that connects / clips to the defrost heater line at the bottom of thee coil and fits into the drain. The intent is that the clip is a heat conductor and will assist in preventing the drain hole from icing up at the drain hole. I just installed the clip which took all of 1 minute once I removed the coil cover and block of ice from the coils. Removing the cover so as not to damage the styrofoam insulation vent pad was 95% of the labor. The order was accurate and they delivered the part within 2 days even though I used regular shipping. Very good service!