The short answer
A Driven compact refrigerator has no plumbed water line, so water on the floor is condensate that has gone the wrong way. On this class the drain hole at the back of the compartment and the evaporation tray above the compressor account for the great majority of these calls. Both are owner checks, and both are cheap. What you have is a cube-style mini fridge.
What you are seeing
- A puddle on the floor at the front or under the cabinet
- Water pooling inside at the bottom of the compartment or under a drawer
- Water running down the inside of the rear wall
- If the cabinet is also warm, treat the not-cooling page as the primary — a failing cabinet sheds meltwater as a symptom — This points at a different fault; the page named above covers it.
Most likely causes on a compact refrigerator, in order
- Blocked defrost drain hole — first, because it is where nearly all of these end: a small hole at the back of the compartment carries meltwater to a tray, and a crumb, a label or ice plugs it, after which the water runs forward onto the floor
- A bottle or can in the door rack fouling the frame — the door on a cube cabinet is shallow, and a tall bottle in the rack meets the shelf edge before the door meets the gasket
- Evaporation tray full, cracked or dislodged — the tray above the compressor is supposed to evaporate what the drain delivers
- Manual defrost done without managing the water — this class defrosts by hand, and a full defrost releases far more water than the drain and tray are sized to handle at once — a genuine cause rather than a fault
What to check, and why in this order
- Empty the door racks entirely and close the door again — On a shallow cube door that single check explains a large share of these
- Find out where the water actually starts, not where it collects — Put dry paper towel down in several places and read it after a day. Everything below is guesswork without this
- Check the drain hole at the back of the compartment next — It is the single most common cause and it can be cleared in minutes
Step by step
- Lay dry paper towel under the front edge, under the back, and inside at the bottom of the compartment. Leave it a day and read where it wets first. — Time: a day of waiting, minutes of work.
Tools: paper towel
- Empty every door rack, close the door and watch whether it now pulls itself shut. — Time: a few minutes.
- Empty the cabinet and find the small drain hole at the back of the compartment, usually below the rear plate. — Time: a few minutes.
Tools: torch
- Clear the hole gently with a soft flexible item such as a pipe cleaner or a cotton bud, then flush it with a little warm water and watch for it to arrive in the tray. — Time: several minutes.
Tools: pipe cleaner, a cup of warm water
Before you start: safety
Safety
Unplug the appliance or switch off its breaker before removing any panel. A capacitor can hold a charge after the power is off. Unplug the cabinet before pulling it out or reaching into the machine bay, and dry the floor before you stand on it. Never force a rigid metal wire into a drain hole — the tube behind it is soft and the tubing near it is not something to puncture.
When to stop and call a technician
Call for service when the drain is clear and the tray is sound and water still appears, when the drain tube has come off inside the machine bay, or when the cabinet is icing up again immediately after a full defrost. Water plus a warm cabinet should be treated as a cooling fault first.
Sources
General guidance- Manufacturer service manuals, universally; OSHA 1910.147 for the principle — safety-constant-allowlist, fetched
Nearest pages of the same kind
What this page does not cover
This is generalized information: it covers Driven refrigerators as a class, not one family or model. It does not carry your model's error-code table, wiring, part numbers, capacities or ambient range — those are on the rating plate and in the documentation, which are the authority wherever they disagree with this page. It leads with one form, the cube-style mini fridge, and flags where the others diverge. Any family- or model-specific page is reached from the brand hub below, and takes precedence over this one. Pages this one hands down to: Common DRIVEN Refrigerator Problems (driven-refrigerator-problems).
Related pages
- Common DRIVEN Refrigerator Problems
- DRIVEN Refrigerator: Abnormal Noise or Vibration
- DRIVEN Refrigerator: Controls, Display or Error Code
- DRIVEN Refrigerator: Not Cooling or Not Freezing
- DRIVEN Refrigerator: Door, Latch or Seal Fault
- DRIVEN Refrigerator: Ice Maker Fault
- DRIVEN Refrigerator: Will Not Start or No Power
Lead Appliance Repair Technician · 12 years experience
Experienced technician with 12 years specializing in washing machine and dryer repairs across all major brands.
