fixing

I would really be hard-pressed to get a pic of the Zanussi 19/4 that’s worth 1k words in this situation. The backside of the plate is inaccessible. Every time I pull the plate forward to get an eyeball back there I worry that a tube carrying coolant will break. Not sure how many times I can bend it but I’ve bent it dozens of times already.

I found the manual online somewhere but it’s almost useless. Perhaps this excerpt is useful though:

Defrosting

Frost is automatically eliminated from the evaporator of the refrigerator compartment every time the motor compressor stops, during normal use. The defrost water drains out through a trough into a special container at the back of the appliance, over the motor compressor, where it evaporates.

It is important to periodically clean the defrost water drain hole in the middle of the refrigerator compartment channel to prevent the water overflowing and dripping onto the food inside. Use the special cleaner provided, which you will find already inserted into the drain hole.

The freezer compartment, however, will become progressively covered with frost. This should be removed with the special plastic scraper provided, whenever the thickness of the frost exceeds 4 mm.

This is a pic of the front side of the metal plate:

There are two white wires and a ground wire going from the blob on the right to behind the plate. The wires run in a loop inside some coil of tube.

Below the plate is a V shaped trim on the inside back wall below the metal plate. I guess water drips off the plate into the V and through a hole that leads to a drip tray on the back of the fridge. I guess I would expect water to condense and drip.. but maybe it needs help. Maybe the mystery component that I can’t get a pic of is a heating element. But I don’t get why the plate does not get warm when hotwired.

Maybe 2 things are broken.. maybe the t-stat broke and perhaps the heating element was already broken. I’m tempted to ignore (what I think is) the heating element.