--- title: "Refrigerator leaking water" description: "LG refrigerator leaking water — water arrives from two places on this appliance and they are completely different repairs." url: "https://lgmiami.support/symptoms/refrigerator-leaking-water/" date_modified: "2026-09-05" Appliance type: "Refrigerators" --- # LG refrigerator leaking water ### Where the water is tells you what it is Water under the crisper drawers, or a sheet of ice on the floor of the freezer that comes back after you clear it, is the defrost drain: the trough under the evaporator ices over, the melt water from the next defrost has nowhere to go, and it finds its way forward into the cabinet. Water at the back or running out under the toe kick is the supply side or the drain pan. Water that only appears in the hours after the ice maker has run is the fill valve or the fill tube. Three different repairs, and the puddle picks one. ### What it usually means, by the kind of LG appliance LG sells one appliance in several forms — five shapes of washer, three kinds of dryer, four fuels of range — and the same behavior points at different things on each of them. A built-in side-by-side and an integrated column are not the same service situation, and a dual-fuel range and an induction range fail in different halves. - **French door** — The defrost drain runs from behind the freezer drawer to a pan under the machine. A blocked one backs up and appears under the crispers above. - **Side-by-side** — Look at the bottom of the freezer side. A sheet of ice on the freezer floor that reappears after you chip it is a blocked drain, every time. - **Bottom freezer** — The commonest layout for this, because the drain tube runs the length of the cabinet and the trough at the bottom of the evaporator ices first. ### Two kinds of water A refrigerator handles a surprising amount of water it never advertises. Every defrost cycle melts frost off the evaporator, and that melt has to run down a trough, along a tube, and into a shallow pan under the machine where the compressor’s heat evaporates it. Separately, a plumbed cabinet carries mains water to a filter, a tank, the dispenser and the ice maker. Nothing about those two systems is shared, which is why ‘it is leaking’ is not yet a diagnosis. ### Why the drain blocks here The trough under the evaporator is the coldest wet place in the machine, and in a humid kitchen it collects enough debris and enough ice to close itself off. Once it does, every defrost adds water to a cabinet that cannot drain, and it appears wherever gravity takes it — usually under the crispers, sometimes as a sheet of ice on the freezer floor. Clearing it properly means reaching the trough, not pouring hot water down from the top and hoping. A blocked defrost drain The commonest cause by a distance, and often clearable without parts. The water supply line or its valve A compression fitting behind the machine, a saddle valve on the cold pipe, or the inlet valve itself. A filter housing that was not seated Very common after a cartridge change, and it drips slowly enough to be blamed on everything else first. A cracked or overflowing drain pan The pan under the machine takes the melt water and evaporates it. A cracked one leaves a trail rather than a puddle. Find where it is wet first Dry everything, put paper towel down in three places — under the crispers, under the toe kick, behind the machine — and look in an hour. Look at the freezer floor Ice that reforms in the same place after you remove it is a blocked drain and nothing else. Check the filter Push it home firmly. A cartridge a few millimeters proud weeps steadily. Note whether ice production is normal A leak with poor ice points at the fill side; a leak with good ice points at the drain. Water on the floor, or under the crisper What it usually means Under the crisper means the defrost drain, which is often a five-minute clear At the back or the toe kick means the supply line or the drain pan A leak that only appears after ice is made is the fill valve, not the drain Where the water is tells you what it is Water under the crisper drawers, or a sheet of ice on the floor of the freezer that comes back after you clear it, is the defrost drain: the trough under the evaporator ices over, the melt water from the next defrost has nowhere to go, and it finds its way forward into the cabinet. Water at the back or running out under the toe kick is the supply side or the drain pan. Water that only appears in the hours after the ice maker has run is the fill valve or the fill tube. Three different repairs, and the puddle picks one. What it usually means, by the kind of LG appliance LG sells one appliance in several forms — five shapes of washer, three kinds of dryer, four fuels of range — and the same behavior points at different things on each of them. A built-in side-by-side and an integrated column are not the same service situation, and a dual-fuel range and an induction range fail in different halves. French door — The defrost drain runs from behind the freezer drawer to a pan under the machine. A blocked one backs up and appears under the crispers above. Side-by-side — Look at the bottom of the freezer side. A sheet of ice on the freezer floor that reappears after you chip it is a blocked drain, every time. Bottom freezer — The commonest layout for this, because the drain tube runs the length of the cabinet and the trough at the bottom of the evaporator ices first. Two kinds of water A refrigerator handles a surprising amount of water it never advertises. Every defrost cycle melts frost off the evaporator, and that melt has to run down a trough, along a tube, and into a shallow pan under the machine where the compressor’s heat evaporates it. Separately, a plumbed cabinet carries mains water to a filter, a tank, the dispenser and the ice maker. Nothing about those two systems is shared, which is why ‘it is leaking’ is not yet a diagnosis. Why the drain blocks here The trough under the evaporator is the coldest wet place in the machine, and in a humid kitchen it collects enough debris and enough ice to close itself off. Once it does, every defrost adds water to a cabinet that cannot drain, and it appears wherever gravity takes it — usually under the crispers, sometimes as a sheet of ice on the freezer floor. Clearing it properly means reaching the trough, not pouring hot water down from the top and hoping. ### Can I just keep mopping it up? For a day or two, yes. Longer than that and you are letting water sit against a floor and inside a cabinet that was not designed to hold it — and on a wood or laminate floor that is a much more expensive repair than the refrigerator. A blocked drain does not clear itself. ### It started right after I changed the water filter. Then start there. A cartridge that is not turned fully home, or an O-ring that rolled on the way in, weeps slowly — often only when the dispenser is used, which is why the timing gets missed. Take it out and refit it firmly before assuming anything else. --- **[Read full article: Refrigerator leaking water](https://lgmiami.support/symptoms/refrigerator-leaking-water/)**