Why is water puddling in the bottom of my fridge?

[megandraper]

We've been seeing this almost daily lately.

In the morning, there's a lot of water sloshing around at the bottom of the fridge (underneath the vegetable drawers). I mop it up, and a day or two later there it is again.

The fridge feels pretty cold, and according to the temperature 'light' is on the usual setting (4).

Any ideas? Not sure what's wrong!

Drainage hole blocked.

Take a look on the back wall pretty far down near the salad boxes there's a hole in the wall. Something's got blocked in there. Take a cotton bud or roll a bit of kitchen roll up and poke down there and you'll see black gungy stuff come out.

Once that's removed your fridge will be fine - I had that happen once and found advice here ! Passing it on.

There should be a drainage pipe that goes from the hole somewhere at the back of the fridge to the outside. It is probably blocked. You may need to pull the fridge out to access it unblock it if you can't do so from inside the fridge.

Thank you! I knew MN would have the answer. Off to investigate....

Yup, drain hole (I find a strawer poked in helps) or something is resting against the back of the fridge.

No visible hole inside the fridge. It's hard to look round the back of the outside, as it's built in. Should there be an obvious hole somewhere inside the fridge?

Don't know but I have this with my freezer. Frost free so shouldn't be any ice build up, but we get a solid layer of ice at the bottom. I've defrosted the whole thing twice as apparently it can also get blocked by ice build up within the system, but still no better.

I admit, I haven't pulled the whole thing out to investigate the back, but I have no visible hole from inside the freezer although I did try and unscrew the back panel, until there was a screw I couldn't access.

I did speak to an engineer, but they wanted £100 just for a call out, so we decide it was a problem we could live with rather than spend £300+ on parts, labout etc. They also said it could be a problem with the evaparator...? I deal with it by using one of theose super absorbent cloths which absorbs the water, gets iced solid and then I take it out and defrost it every week. PITA but although the fridge freezer is freestanding, the replacement model which fits within the same space between outr kitchen units is £1500 so I suspect we will live with our system for a while !

There's usually a groove in the back of the fridge, somewhere near the bottom, with a tiny hole at the bottom of it.

Lots of examples here

My mum's had some problems. They always had issues if the freezer had been left open. Despite being a self defrosting freezer this caused the pipes at the back to freeze which clogged everything up.

I frigging love mumsnet. This has been happening to me for about a month, I thought it was just old! Have just wiggled a cotton bud around in the hole and it's fixed!

There is always a groove going down from each edge at an angle in every fridge. If the hole isn't visible then it's either blocked (which you will be able to feel a puddle of water at the point the groove meets.. or there will be a plunger type thing sitting in the hole you can use to get stuff out.

Cotton bud is the best thing to use though.

Someone on mn recommended a cable tie to unblock said hole, i have used one with much success.

Mumsnet has the answer to all of life's problems. Fridge is now bone-dry.

I found the drainage hole eventually (had to remove the lowest shelf, and it was right behind that. A lot of twiddling with cotton buds, lots of lovely black gunk out, and problem sorted.

5yo DS enjoyed the whole operation immensely. I am very pleased not to have damp salad any more.

I had been looking at buying a new fridge but read this and cleaned out the drainage hole. Bone dry this morning .

Satisfying, isn't it Electric! Thank you for the flowers :)

Oh Mumsnetters your are wonderful - I've had same situation in both my fridges - happy happy day. Thankyou

Glad to be of service [bow]

That frost free freezer that's freezing up - it relies on fans and brief partial thaws to keep it clear, so if the door's left open, then the temperature balance and air flow is disrupted.