---
title: "Water or ice under the drawers"
description: "Ice building under the drawers, or water appearing on the floor of the cabinetry, and on an integrated appliance the second usually arrives before anybody has seen the first. It"
url: "https://askomiami.support/symptoms/refrigerator-water-under-drawers/"
date_modified: "2026-09-13"
Appliance type: "Freezers, Refrigerators"
---


# Asko water or ice under the drawers

### What to do in the next ten minutes

Take the drawers out and find the drain channel at the back of the compartment floor. Clear it gently and pour warm water down it until it runs freely. Dry the base. Then watch for a fortnight and note whether the ice returns and how quickly — that interval is the diagnosis and only you can measure it.

### Where the water goes on an integrated cabinet

A freestanding refrigerator leaks onto a floor somebody can see. An integrated one lives inside a carcass, and the escaping water travels along the bottom of that carcass before surfacing anywhere. By the time there is a patch on the kitchen floor, the chipboard under the machine has generally been damp for a while — which is why we look at the joinery as well as the appliance.

### Why we tell you to try it first

Because it works, and because a visit for something a kettle of warm water would have fixed is a poor use of anybody’s afternoon. The part of this that is genuinely ours is the drain heater and the path behind the panel, and those are identified by how quickly the problem returns rather than by looking at the ice.

The drain channel is blocked

Scraps and food particles gather there and freeze solid. Costs nothing to clear, and it closes more of these calls than every other cause here put together.

The drain heater has failed

Where the ice returns within days, the small heater that keeps the channel open at temperature is the part. It works warm and fails cold, which is why a cleared drain blocks again in a fortnight.

The door has been left ajar

Warm damp air condensing inside is a habit rather than a component, and we say so rather than fitting something.

How fast does the ice come back?

Days points at the circuit. Weeks points at a door or at humidity, which is not a something to fit.

Is the joinery below wet?

Swollen chipboard or a dark line at the back is a separate problem from the appliance, and it is much better found now.

Does the door close on its seal all round?

A note of paper closed at intervals. In this climate a marginal seal produces exactly this complaint.

A slab of ice in the base, or water on the joinery floor

What it usually means

Worth trying yourself — warm water down the drain channel at the back

Back within a fortnight means the heater, not debris

On an integrated cabinet the water reaches the joinery before you see it

What to do in the next ten minutes

Take the drawers out and find the drain channel at the back of the compartment floor. Clear it gently and pour warm water down it until it runs freely. Dry the base. Then watch for a fortnight and note whether the ice returns and how quickly — that interval is the diagnosis and only you can measure it.

Where the water goes on an integrated cabinet

A freestanding refrigerator leaks onto a floor somebody can see. An integrated one lives inside a carcass, and the escaping water travels along the bottom of that carcass before surfacing anywhere. By the time there is a patch on the kitchen floor, the chipboard under the machine has generally been damp for a while — which is why we look at the joinery as well as the appliance.

Why we tell you to try it first

Because it works, and because a visit for something a kettle of warm water would have fixed is a poor use of anybody’s afternoon. The part of this that is genuinely ours is the drain heater and the path behind the panel, and those are identified by how quickly the problem returns rather than by looking at the ice.

### Can I use a hairdryer on the ice?

Gently and briefly, at a distance. Plastic liners deform and heating elements behind them do not enjoy it, so warm water and patience are the safer route.

### It only happens in summer.

Then humidity and door openings are doing most of it. That is worth knowing before anything is replaced, because the machine may be entirely healthy.

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**[Read full article: Water or ice under the drawers](https://askomiami.support/symptoms/refrigerator-water-under-drawers/)**