What can cause a refrigerator to leak water?

Question

What can cause a refrigerator to leak water?

Answer 1

HVAC Tech.:   Your question is totally unclear. You leaking onto floor, got constant drip(like rain) inside the fridge? You have ice maker,Through the door ice and water?       Sometimes the evaporator pan will break and can't hold water till it can be evaporated. Torn, crimped door gaskets, can let air leak into the fridge/freezer where heavy condensation takes place making more water than can be evaporated away= mess on floor.                                           Drain lines can be frozen  or blocked by slime/molds.           Have you had other recent problems??                                  Ice maker lines could be leaking.

Answer 2

Most all refrigerators have a small drain hole in the bottom, below the crisper drawers. This is ment to allow condensation which forms inside the box normally to escape. Most likely this hole is restricted. Water is collected in a drain pan below, and there it evaporates.

Answer 3

I would check the door seals. If they are faulty too much warm humid air gets into the refrigerator itself. When this air is cooled by the refrigerator water condenses out of this air and leaks out of the refrigerator. In this case you need new seals. This will also cause your refrigerator to run longer than usual and waste power.

If the leak is not from inside the refrigerator but from underneath it could be another problem. Frost free refrigerators usually have a water tray underneath to collect water from the automatic defrosting of the refrigerator every day (if they did not automatically defrost you would have a frosted up freezer section like used to happen with older type refrigerators). These trays have a small heater bar in them to  evaporate the water to save you emptying it. If this heater breaks down the water does not evaporate and just overflows on to the floor.

I would say you have one of these two problems.

Answer 4

Most likely the coils are freezing up and defrosting due to lack of air circulation to carry off the water vapor...all refrigeration units have condensation of water.. refrigerators much less than air conditioning unit...they are designed so air circulation evaporates the water.   If you are having a lot or rain or continued high humidity the evaporation process is not as efficient..but probably the air circulation is partially blocked by dust, dirt etc.  First and cheapest repair is to clean behind and under the unit (depends upon the design)

if you can use a brush to clean the coils.  Also check to see that there is some clearance between the unit and the walls.

If that does not work call a repair person.  In some designs the cleaning involves removing some panels..best not to do this yourself.  Another thing is age...refrigerators wear out and if yours is more then 10 or 12 years old it might need to be replaced.  If it still cools it is worth a shot to have it repaired.  One major service call would go a long way toward the cost of a new refrigerator and they are much more energy efficient...note new frigerators tend to be noisier than old ones.  It is part of the high efficiency design there will be an expanation in the papers that come with the refrigerator

good luck.

Answer 5

In automatically defrosted models, water from the melting frost flows out a drain in the floor of the refrigerator and into a pan, where it evaporates.

If the water line to the drain is clogged, water will freeze in your freezer and will start leaking out of refrigerator or in your refrigerator part.

Less often the reason could be that food particles can be carried along, clogging the drain.

In this case just push any accumulations through to the drain pan below.

Most often the drain will freeze.

To unfreeze it you need to unfreeze the freezer part, put hot water in drain /not to much to make mess/.

Then in few minutes take the water back.

Do it again until water goes freely true the drain.

Dry everything out and plug it in.

Answer 6

my refrigerator was leaking it was the ice maker  or the water line