How To Repair A Leaking Refrigerator
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Door Gaskets or Seals
Your refrigerator door has a seal or gasket around the outside, made of vinyl and with an interior magnet so that the closed door is airtight. When the seal is not airtight, the fridge may be too damp on the inside. And that can lead to problems with defrosting and leaking of water. You can determine if a damaged door gasket is the source of your water leak by checking for moisture along the edge of the door and ensuring that the gasket’s still uniform in shape, flexible, and uncracked. Your door seal will last longer if you clean the gasket of spills or dirt every time it gets dirty. If your gasket needs to be replaced, you can make the job easier by running the new gasket on low heat in the clothing dryer so that it will be more flexible and easier to fit onto the fridge door.
Water Inlet Valve
If your refrigerator has a dispenser for water or ice, it also has a solenoid controlled inlet valve that brings water from your supply line into your fridge to make that ice or to deliver that water. It’s possible that a leaky fridge has a leak or crack there. On most models, you’ll find the water inlet valve on the back of the fridge behind a panel near the bottom. Unplug the fridge and turn off the water supply. Check the connections on the water supply pipes to see if they are cracked or leaky: you may need to tighten or replace those connectors. Check the valve itself in the same way, as well as the outlet tubing. Replace anything cracked, abraded, brittle or broken.
Ice Maker Assembly
One sign that your fridge leak comes from the ice maker is malfunction in the ice maker itself, such as no ice, smaller ice cubes or ice that’s coming out as a big block instead of in cubes. So check the ice cube tray there to see if it’s making normal ice. When the ice is absent or too small, the next stop is the fill system for the water: the fill cup and the tube at the back of the icemaker. If that is iced over, check for a blockage in the tube that could be keeping water from flowing into the fill cup the way it is supposed to. Barring that malfunction, the problem could be solved by unplugging the fridge, removing the outlet tube that runs between the fill valve and the ice maker and clearing or replacing that tube.
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