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When I had to buy a new refrigerator two years ago, I looked in vain for one without an ice maker. Not because I don’t love cool, refreshing beverages on demand, but because they were inevitably the first thing to fail on every refrigerator I’d ever owned.
This wasn’t just in my head (or my kitchen). A recent Consumer Reports member survey estimated that nearly a third of refrigerators with ice makers will experience a malfunction before they are six years old. The consumer advocacy group called them “one of the least reliable products we track.”
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The thing is, even a working ice maker can cause issues if you aren’t careful. I’m impatient when I’m thirsty, and it always seems like the ice maker rumbles forever before spitting out way too many cubes, some of which fall to the floor. Having better things to do, I’d just punt these frozen nuggets aside, knowing they’d evaporate later. Better yet, kick them under the fridge where they won’t become a slipping hazard when they melt, I thought. Sound familiar?
Well, that tactic is actually a terrible mistake. “It may seem harmless to leave a stray ice cube on your kitchen floor to melt, but that water does not just evaporate,” said Andy Layton, founder of Hello Plumbing. “We’ve attended jobs where the homeowner reported a soft spot or bubbling vinyl and traced it back to a refrigerator ice maker that had been dropping ice onto the same floor patch for months without anyone noticing.”
Such issues, Layton said, can cause damage to the substrate that may cost $500 to $2,000 to repair, depending on how deep it has penetrated.
“Within your timber, laminate or vinyl floor, the moisture can run underneath the sub-floor or between the seams of the planks,” Layton explained. “Continually exposing an area to moisture can ultimately lead to the material there becoming warped and having mold growth long before it will appear on the surface.”
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I was horrified to learn this, thinking back not only on all the stray ice cubes I’d let melt, but also the constant splashes around my dog’s water bowl, and the refrigerator water dispenser, which my ADHD brain accidentally lets overflow at least once a month.
“It is best to immediately pick up any stray ice and dry the area with a cloth,” Layton said.
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My mistake was carelessness, but if yours is a refrigerator constantly dropping ice, it pays to check the ice dispenser flap, according to Bob Cardwell, owner of Cardwell HVAC in New Jersey.
“The whole issue might be just that the dispenser flap doesn’t close properly due to an overfilled ice bin or ice cubes stuck in the chute,” he said. If that’s not the case, an appliance repair technician can likely find the problem and correct it in less than 30 minutes.
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Ice maker working perfectly? Great, but you’re not off the hook. “Ice-making refrigerators tend to have a constant water supply line that runs behind or below the appliance,” explained RJ Romero, operations manager at Metro Flow Plumbing.
This area, he said, is “predisposed to plumbing disasters.” And it’s one that most homeowners don’t check often, if ever. “The refrigerator water line is a thin-walled tube that is constantly under hydrostatic pressure,” Romero noted. “When it fails at this junction, it can cause the same type of structural damage as having an open plumbing leak. The only difference being that there isn’t a lot you can do to see where it’s leaking as most of them are really out of sight.”
He suggested getting in the habit of moving your refrigerator every so often (at least once a year) to visually check the supply line connection. Look for physical signs of excessive moisture, including:
- Solidified mineral deposits (white, blue, or green powdery buildup) around the brass fittings
- Damp or spongy areas in the flooring near the connections
- Water stains on adjoining drywall
And don’t forget to do this with every refrigerator you have. One 2026 survey found that 37% of American households have two or more refrigerators, with a second usually in the garage. Lucky for me, mine is now only a chest freezer in the basement — ice maker not included.
