Water where it should not be

Water it made

Every refrigerator produces condensate during defrost and routes it to a tray to evaporate. When that route blocks, the water goes somewhere else. A drain line that has frozen at the point it passes through the cabinet wall is the classic: water backs up, appears under the crisper drawers first, and eventually finds the floor. Ice forming in the base of a freezer is the same fault seen earlier.

The other made-water source is condensation from a seal that is not sealing. A door leaking cold air produces moisture in a very specific place — along one edge, or at a single corner — rather than a pool in the middle.

Water it was supplied with

Anything plumbed can leak: the inlet valve, the compression fitting behind the cabinet, an old saddle tap on a copper line, or the ice maker's own fill tube. Supply leaks tend to be steady and to appear behind the cabinet rather than inside it, and they get worse rather than intermittent.

• Under the crisper drawers: blocked defrost drain
• Ice sheet in the base of the freezer: same drain, caught earlier
• Along one door edge only: gasket and hinge geometry
• Behind the cabinet, steady: a supply fitting or the inlet valve
• Down the side into the toe kick from an ice machine: the drain, not the supply
• Around the base after a clean: the drip tray unseated

What to do now

If the water is arriving faster than you can dry it, shut the isolating valve to the appliance — that removes the supply half of the list immediately, and if the water stops you have your answer. Dry the floor and lay a towel line so you can see whether it is still coming. Keep power off if water is anywhere near the electrics.

A blocked defrost drain is repairable in a single visit and often includes fitting the small heater clip that stops the line re-icing. It is not a reason to replace anything.