The short answer
Water around an AFS cabinet almost always started as condensate the machine made on purpose and then failed to route away, not as a burst pipe. On a apartment-size refrigerator the route is short and the places it can fail are few, which makes this one of the better faults to diagnose at home.
What you observe on these models
- Water pooling under the crisper drawers before it reaches the floor — On a full-height cabinet that is the defrost drain and almost nothing else.
- Water under the drawers before any reaches the floor — That is the drain, and almost nothing else.
- A trickle that always follows the same line on the floor — Repeatable paths name the source.
- NEAR MISS — water only after the door has been left open a long time — That is the cabinet catching up with the room, not a leak.
Causes, most likely first on the AFS family
- Defrost drain blocked at the bottom of the evaporator — First on this platform: on a full-height automatic-defrost cabinet this is the leak: water pools under the crisper drawers and then runs out onto the floor at the front.
- Water inlet valve, fill tube or the line to the ice maker — Second: a drip at the valve runs down the back panel and appears behind the cabinet, not inside it, which is how you separate it from the first cause.
- Humidity in the room the cabinet stands in — Third: the wetter the air, the more water the machine makes, so a marginal drain that coped all winter starts overflowing in summer.
- A shelf or drawer diverting water off its intended path — Fourth: water inside a cabinet follows mouldings and channels.
- Something spilled and frozen inside — Last: a spill that freezes into the channel blocks it as effectively as debris, and it melts on the same schedule as everything else.
Check in this order, and why that order
- Check inside under the crisper drawers first — Water pooling there is the defrost drain and nothing else, and it is the commonest leak on a full-height cabinet.
- Flush the drain with warm water from inside the freezer compartment — Reach the outlet at the bottom of the evaporator area; clear it warm, never with a wire.
- Look under the crisper and at the floor of the fresh-food compartment — Water or a sheet of ice there is the defrost drain, and it is the first thing to check on a frost-free cabinet.
- Where the cabinet is plumbed, dry the inlet valve and check it again later — A valve that weeps leaves its water at the back, which separates it from every cause above.
Before you open anything
Safety
Unplug the appliance or switch off its breaker before removing any panel. A capacitor can hold a charge after the power is off. Isolating at the breaker is better than pulling the plug where the socket is behind the appliance, because it removes the temptation to work one-handed.
Models in the AFS family — The numbers this page covers.
Reference| Model number | Family key |
|---|---|
| AFS157LSS | avanti:refrigerator:afs |
When to call a technician
Clearing a drain, levelling a cabinet and replacing a gasket are all owner jobs on a apartment-size refrigerator. On these models the line falls at the machine compartment and the refrigerant circuit inside it. Call without working through anything at all for oil around the tubing in the machine compartment, a compressor that hums and stops without starting, or a cabinet that trips its breaker.
Nearest pages of this class
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