Frost, ice and water
Ice Slab Under the Freezer Drawer
A flat sheet of ice on the freezer floor, chipped out and back a month later.
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| What you see | Likely cause | Safe check | When to call |
|---|---|---|---|
| A flat sheet under the bottom drawer, growing month by month | The drain that carries melt water away has iced up at its low point | Note how long it takes to return after you have chipped it clear | As soon as it starts building again |
| Ice under the drawer and frost on the rear wall together | Melt water refreezing on the way out instead of reaching the pan below | Look at the rear wall as well before you clear anything | This week. The two belong to one system |
| The drawer catches, or no longer shuts square | Ice under the runners, or a drawer seal riding on the slab it created | Clear the slab and see whether the drawer travels freely again | This week, if it still catches on a clear floor |
The table above follows the water rather than the ice, because a slab on the freezer floor is always melt water that did not leave. Row one accounts for most of them. Call Viking Repair Service Los Angeles at (213) 799-7879 rather than chipping it out a third time.
Water with nowhere to leave
Row one is the ordinary finding. Every clearing cycle turns frost back into water, and that water is meant to run out of the cabinet and evaporate away underneath it. The route is a narrow one, and narrow routes ice at whichever point is coldest. Once that happens each cycle adds a little more to the floor, which is why the slab arrives slowly and then keeps coming.
Why the drawer suffers first
Rows two and three are what the owner actually notices. The drawer sits lowest, so the ice forms under it, lifts it out of line and starts to bind on the runners. Forcing it is what turns a small job into a larger one. In the older Windsor Square houses, where the built-in is fitted into original cabinetry, a drawer riding on ice also pushes the panel out of alignment with the joinery beside it, and that is usually the first thing anyone mentions.
Normal, not normal, and the line between them
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Normal
A thin skin of frost where the drawer seals against the frame.
Not normal
A flat slab under the drawer thick enough to lift out in one piece.
Time to call
Once it has built up a second time.
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Normal
Damp on the floor of the freezer for an hour after a long door opening.
Not normal
Standing water that freezes into the same shape every week.
Time to call
This week.
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Normal
A drawer that runs out and back with a light pull.
Not normal
A drawer that has to be forced past the point where the ice is.
Time to call
This week, before the runners are damaged.
Melt water is meant to leave the cabinet; ice on the floor means it is going nowhere. Call Viking Repair Service Los Angeles at (213) 799-7879 and describe the row you are on — that sentence is worth more than a guess at the part.
Safe checks before the visit
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Lift the slab out whole if it will come, and keep a note of the date. What matters to the visit is the speed it returns, not the size it reached.
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Look at the freezer rear wall in the same trip. Ice below and a frost sheet above are the same fault, and saying so on the phone saves a step.
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Use nothing sharp. A plastic scraper and patience, or a bowl of warm water left in the freezer with the door closed for an hour.
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Stop there. Nothing further is an owner job on a built-in: the sealed circuit, the wiring behind the grille and anything that needs a panel off belong to the visit. Call Viking Repair Service Los Angeles at (213) 799-7879 and say which of the checks above changed anything.
Asked about this one
- Why does the ice come straight back after I chip it out?
- Because the slab is the result, not the fault. The cabinet clears its coil at intervals and that melt water has one route out; if the route is iced, the water stays inside and refreezes on the coldest flat surface, which is the floor under the drawer. Clearing the route is the repair, and Viking Repair Service Los Angeles quotes it from the defrost band.
- Written by
- Ambrose Fitzwilliam
- Role
- Service technician — refrigeration and sealed systems
- In the trade
- 25 years in the trade