Common fault
Why is there water under my refrigerator?
Short answer
The water itself tells you which of the two faults you have, and it takes about a minute to read.
What is actually going on
Clear water pooling at the front while the appliance has been sitting quiet points at the plumbing: the supply line, the saddle valve, or a compression fitting on the feed to the ice maker or dispenser. Water that looks cloudy, arriving alongside a sheet of ice across the freezer floor, is the opposite fault. There the drain below the evaporator has frozen shut, so every defrost cycle sends its melt somewhere it was not meant to go and it finds its way out under the door. Both repairs are small. The damage underneath them is not, and on travertine, stone or hardwood laid over slab it overtakes the cost of the repair within days.
What we check, and in what order
The drain side is the more common of the two here, and San Diego water is part of the reason. The supply is largely imported and it is not soft. Mineral scale collects at the inlet valve screen, in the fill tube and along the drain path, and a drain that is already partly restricted freezes closed the first time a defrost cycle runs slightly long. Clearing it is straightforward. Leaving it is not: the trough overflows every cycle, and the water that reaches the subfloor is the part nobody sees until the flooring lifts at a seam.
Second homes are the expensive version of this fault. A house in Del Mar, Rancho Santa Fe or Coronado that sits empty for a season still has a refrigerator running the whole time with nobody in the room. A weeping compression fitting or a blocked drain then runs unattended for weeks. If you own a property that is unoccupied for long stretches, two things are worth doing: have the drain path and the water fittings checked between stays, and know where the shutoff for the refrigerator line actually is before you need it.
If that matches what yours is doing, say so when you call — it decides which parts come on the van.
Bill was on time and very professional. He quickly analyzed and fixed it at minimal costs. He also looked into another potential problem on an appliance for free. I will use his services for all of my appliances.
Twenty years in this house and the built-in never gave us trouble until that hot stretch, and by Thursday the fresh food side was warm. He had the grille off and showed me the fins, chalky white from the salt air off the water. Cleaned it, new fan, fine since.
One burner on the Wolf clicked and clicked and wouldn't light while the other four were perfect. I was sure the whole ignition setup was done for. He cleaned the electrode and fixed a corroded ground behind it, said it happens this close to the water. Lights first try now.
Appliance down in San Diego?
Tell us the brand and what it is doing — we can usually name the likely repair before we arrive.
Questions
Answers before you call
The house in Del Mar sits empty part of the year. Can the appliances be checked between stays?
Yes — bundled maintenance and repair packages for estates and rental properties cover that. Between stays: the drain path and the ice-maker fittings, since a weep with nobody home reaches the subfloor; the condenser, corroding in the marine air off Del Mar and Coronado; bottle-level temperature in the wine cabinet; and the ice bin, emptied before you leave or it fuses into one slab.