Express Vista Appliance Repair provides refrigerator repair in Vista, including services to repair broken ice makers. Learn about common ice maker issues below:
Refrigerator ice makers are one of the greatest inventions ever. An ice maker is a little luxury many people not appreciate. Ice makers are simple machines that don’t feature a lot of complicated components that could have issues.
Like with any appliance repair, there are some basic things that should be looked at before thinking the worst. And, it’s nice to know, if necessary, you are able to replace your ice maker without replacing an entire refrigerator, depending on the brand and model. First, let’s review a few of the causes for an ice maker breaking.
When the ice maker is making ice but it is not dispensing the ice cubes it is usually a mechanical failure opposed to an electrical issue. This occurs when reorganizing things around in the freezer unit, you could jam the control switch up or down. Often the ice maker might get blocked with something, even another piece of ice. So, look to see if there’s something blocking this from working correctly.
Before starting the steps of clearing out the freezer, ensure your ice maker is on. This can be done by pulling the control arm in the down position. Sometimes, moving food around in the freezer can put it into the off position. If the the switch is clear, then there may be food stuck inside the ice maker or it is not receiving a good connection.
Check the Control Arm
When the control is down and there’s ice but it’s not ejecting it, there could be an electrical or mechanical problem. This is going to require some more troubleshooting. Ready to proceed? First, we must inspect the electrical connection. This could be unplugged from the back of the freezer when shifting or moving the freezer contents.
To check this, unplug the freezer and move it out from the wall. Turn off the water supply valve. Locate the connection on the back of the inside of the freezer. Essentially this is what plugs the ice maker into the freezer. Ensure that it’s plugged in the right way.
After that, remove any ice that’s inside of the ice maker. This can be accomplished by adding a little water to help get the ice that’s inside of there out.
Once this is done, restore power to the fridge and turn on the ice maker. It might take the solenoid component a few seconds to react and fill the mold. Once the mold is 100% full, wait around 4-5 hours or so to see if you have cleared the issue.
Check for Frozen Lines
More ice maker issues that could cause your ice maker to not make any ice are frozen water lines. The water lines might be clogged with frost. This is an easy fix.
First, unplug the refrigerator and find the shut off valve. Shut the water off and get a hair dryer to warm the line or let the freezer sit turned off for a few hours until the water line is thawed.
Some brands and models that have a water filter that can clog or ice over. For these situations, finding the water filter is the first step. Then repeat what was done for the iced line.
If your ice maker isn’t making large enough cubes of ice, there’s an issue with the settings. To adjust the the ice maker settings, take the top part of the cover of the ice maker off and locate a basic knob that displays plus and a minus signs. To do this, you may need a flat head screwdriver.
ADDITIONAL REFRIGERATOR RESOURCES
- Refrigerator Noisy
- Refrigerator Water Dispenser Not Working
- Refrigerator Not Cooling
- How Does a Refrigerator Work?