Undercounter ice machines
Why is my undercounter ice machine not draining?
Water leaving the bin has to fall somewhere, and when it stops falling it backs up into the cabinet. Sub-Zero's own instruction is to make sure the drain line is not kinked or looped, and that is where Denver Sub-Zero Repair Experts starts before anything inside the machine is opened up.
Pattern
What we usually find
- A drain hose kinked or looped behind the unit. It happens when the machine is pushed back into its opening, and it is the first thing Sub-Zero tells an owner to rule out.
- A gravity run without enough fall. Sub-Zero's installation guide asks for a quarter inch of drop per foot on horizontal drain lines, and a flat run will hold water instead of moving it.
- Scale and slime narrowing the outlet. Nothing fails; the bore just closes slowly, and the bin starts holding a puddle that was not there last year.
- A drain pump that is not moving water. Pump models lift waste to a drain above them, and when the pump stalls the bin fills from below.
Most often first. Order comes from what the visits keep turning up, not from a count.
Why a slow drain is urgent in a run of cabinets
Water that cannot leave the bin sits under the ice, softens it, and eventually finds the floor of the cabinet instead. In a fitted run that floor is chipboard with a veneer on it, and it swells long before anybody notices a damp toe kick.
A machine that has been draining slowly for a while is usually asking for two separate things: the blockage cleared, and the run it drains into checked by whoever plumbed it.
Before you call
Two minutes, before anyone comes out
- Lift the bin out and look at the outlet in the floor of the cabinet.
- Pull the unit forward far enough to see the drain hose, and look for a kink or a loop.
- Pour a gallon of cold water into the empty bin; Sub-Zero expects it gone inside a minute.
Stop there. If that has not settled it by the next morning, call Denver Sub-Zero Repair Experts on (720) 903-2603 and the rest of the water path gets traced with a meter.
When it needs somebody out: Ice Maker Repair in Denver.