The short answer
Water around the ART refrigerators comes from one of three places: the defrost drain, the supply side, or condensation that never was a leak. On these models a blocked defrost drain is the first thing this page would have you rule out. The checks below are all owner-side; what they buy you is a named cause before anyone is paid.
What you observe on these models
- A sheet of ice under the bottom drawer — The same fault caught before it reaches the floor.
- Beads of water inside the liner along the door edge — That is condensation getting in, not water getting out.
- Ice outside the mould, on the shelf or down the back wall — A fill is overshooting or is aimed wrongly.
- NEAR MISS — the water keeps arriving with the appliance unplugged — That is plumbing rather than the appliance.
Causes, most likely first on this family
- Defrost drain frozen or blocked — Meltwater that cannot reach the drain spreads under the freezer floor, freezes into a sheet and eventually runs out at the door. It leads because it is the likeliest of the set on these cabinets. One design carries every cabinet size in this family, so it holds across the line.
- Ice maker overfilling or the fill tube misaligned — Ice outside the mould — on the shelf or down the back wall — is this fault and very little else. Second: common enough on these models to come before anything below it.
- Condensation from a leaking door seal — Humid weather makes the complaint seasonal, which is a useful clue that nothing has actually broken. Third on the list, where the likelihoods start to fall away.
- Cabinet tipped forward — Condensate is meant to run to a trough at the back; a cabinet leaning forward sends it to the front of the compartment instead. Last of the set listed here, and the least likely of them on this family.
- Body: The departure here is airflow, up: one design stretched across several cabinet sizes asks most of the air path in the biggest of them, so airflow faults lead on this family.
Check in this order, and why
- Take the bottom drawer out and look for a sheet of ice across the freezer floor. — It comes first because it matches the cause ranked first above.
- Look at the mould and the shelf under it for ice that is outside the cavity. — Next in order, following the ranking rather than convenience.
- Look for beads of water on the inside of the liner along the door edge rather than under the drawers. — Last of the set, and only worth doing once the others are clean.
Power down first, then work
Safety
Unplug the appliance or switch off its breaker before removing any panel, because a capacitor can hold a charge after the power is off. Nothing on the sealed system is owner work; those lines are under pressure. Dry the floor before pulling the appliance out, and keep water away from the electrical parts at the base of the cabinet.
Models in the ART family
Reference| Model number | Family key |
|---|---|
| ART104TFD*0* | amana:refrigerator:art |
| ART106TFD*0* | amana:refrigerator:art |
| ART308FFD* | amana:refrigerator:art |
| ART316TFD*0* | amana:refrigerator:art |
| ART318FFD* | amana:refrigerator:art |
| ART348FFF*** | amana:refrigerator:art |
When to call a technician
Call when the leak returns within weeks of the drain being cleared: that pattern puts the blockage upstream in the trough, behind a panel. Call sooner if the water is arriving from the supply side.
The other faults covered for this family
Lead Appliance Repair Technician · 12 years experience
Experienced technician with 12 years specializing in washing machine and dryer repairs across all major brands.
