My refrigerator is leaking water from the bottom of the door

The appliance ghost wreaking havoc in my house lately. However I have been lucky and been able to fix everything myself. I thought I would pass this along to you.
Last month my son noticed a small puddle under the freezer door of my side by side Maytag refrigerator. It is 5 years old and pretty much been problem free. I immediately thought of the ice cube maker. We checked to see if it was making cubes, dispensing them, and making new ones. The answer was yes to all of the above. We even pulled out the tray to see if there was water under it. It was dry. I was actually disappointed, because the is a common problem that can be remedied when you have the money . Your whole refrigerator isn't going to stop working because of the ice maker.
So, now we will have to empty the frezzer in order to find the leak. We put everything in coolers and looked around with a flashlight. The water was coming out of a small grate at the bottom of a removable back panel in the freezer. I unplugged the fridge and took off the panel. All I could see was a puddle of water. I was at a dead end.
Time to call your authorized service contractor. I got out the phone book and started dialing. After a few calls, I figured this was gonna cost a bundle, at least the $175 just to get someone in the door. It could be a multitude of problems, all expensive. I kept calling trying to at least get a better price on the call. Suddenly, I got real lucky. I called a dealer and got an actual repairman on the line. I think he was eating his lunch. Anyway, he asked me what was wrong and I told him. He immediately said that my defroster pipe was frozen. Simple common problem he said, just unplug the fridge and get the ice out of the pipe.
Now to get to this pipe you must unscrew the bottom half of the backing on your fridge. Not difficult to do. It is only a thick cardboard screwed in. Once this is done you can see the pipe. It is a clear flexible PVC plastic peice that goes from the bottom part of the freezer down and then across to the refrigerator condenser and empties out onto a pan that gets heat from the condenser which then causes the water to evaporate. Apparently, when the freezer defrosts itself this is where the water goes. So, with the help of my son, we slowly poured warm water down the pipe after we had let it sit unplugged for 2 hours. Ice came right out. Problem solved and it hasn't come back.
Thanks to the nice repairman having lunch, I was able to fix my refrigerator in a few hours at no cost. I hope this article helps someone else.

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