Ice maker problem

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retro-man

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I have a whirlpool sxs with ice maker built in door. It stopped for a day or so and the ice ran out. Checked no blocks of ice built up all was clear. Took the hair dryer to it to make sure nothing melted out. This was about 5 pm. About 4 am the next morning it dumped a load. It now runs very slowly, sometimes 3 to 4 hours before it will dump again. Sometimes it is will run in a 35 minute period which it always did. 2 days now and it about half filled. Any ideas why it is slow to run at times and other times it will act normal? Maybe the heater to loosen the cubes or is there a timer that regulates how often it runs? I can make cubes faster with a manual ice tray at this point.

Jon
 
 
Assuming there hasn't been a design/engineering change, harvest is triggered by temperature, not time.  A thermostat on the mold initiates harvest at a specific temp (the mold stays warmer until the water freezes, then cools further).  Harvest won't trigger and/or take longer to trigger if the freezer isn't cooling sufficiently, even if the cubes are frozen.
 
may not hurt to unplug the fridge for a short time....

and if you have this option, select 'AccelerIce'.....

mine went screwy one day, started tossing out ice and water onto the floor....the amount of water from the icemaker that filled inside the door and froze in place was a nightmare to defrost.....

unplugging fixed the odd issue, but the little motor that turns to stir the ice has stopped working....

I am not wild about this in-door design.....capacity alone is my first complaint

all I can say is try it and see what happens....can't hurt....

keep us posted
 
The freezer is running fine, temp is holding steady at -5 degrees. 2 trays of ice cubes stacked freeze solid in about 90 minutes. I can hear on regular intervals a noise that comes from the somewhere in the back that it always has made, that happens when it starts to go into dispense mode. Then it stops and then I believe the heater goes on to start to release the ice. I don't think the heater is working properly anymore maybe. Will try unplugging the fridge today to see if that helps. Thanks.

Jon
 
Its probably just time to replace the ice maker. The noise from behind is just the water valve opening and closing to refill the ice maker. Your freezer temps are fine. Just make sure the cubes are still normal size to rule out water valve restrictions of some kind. Unplug the ice maker, remove it and get the model number off of it, and go searching for a replacement.
 
No that noise is not the water valve. The water valve only comes on after the ice has been dispensed. It has always made this noise when it is starting to going into dispense mode. It makes the noise and then within 3 or 4 minutes the ice would be dumped into the bin, then the water inlet opens to refill. Fridge is 8-10 years old so don't hold out much hope that it will run for more than a year or two. It is not a simple ice maker sitting open in the freeze. This is built into the door and it is necessary to remove part of the interior door to get to the unit. When is does make a batch they are full size as normal. It just doesn't want to give them up. lol

Jon
 
I don't have anything to add to the advice above, but I do have a 2009 KA SxS with the ice bin in the door.  The actual ice maker is mounted at the top of the freezer.  While I haven't had any trouble except for the occasional hung-up crescent, which generates a sort of springy, clicking sound to tip me off, the door bin design is flawed.  Open the door for just a short length of time while digging through freezer contents and crescents in the bin will begin to melt just enough to stick together, which can prevent dispensing.  I'd trade bin capacity for a thicker, insulated bin to prevent this from happening.  It wouldn't require a rocket scientist to design one. 

 

Placing the entire system in the door strikes me as just asking for trouble.  I hope you manage to identify the problem and resolve the issue.  I would hate to live without an ice maker.
 
Well it continues to try and dispense ice to no avail. So time to get the tools out and take that sucker out of the door and see what is going on. I am leaning towards the ice tray heater is not working so not able to release the ice. Either I fix it replace it depending on price or maybe continue to make ice manually. Don't know if the heater itself is replacement piece or part of the unit. Will look on parts direct if this is possible. Should there be a meter reading on the heater to tell if is still functioning? No ice dispensed since Thursday now.

Jon
 
well if the unplug method doesn't work....

for the most part, you have to replace the whole ice maker....the parts diagram shows you can replace piece by piece, provided you can diagnose which part is needed, and find it.....or it comes as one complete unit, and pricey at that...

I just had to rip my completely apart down inside as the little motor that drives the auger got water inside and froze....

a unique design/setup, as long as it works.....next time, I am going back to the standard icemaker mounted inside the freezer, with the large bin and auger....never had an issue with my GE based Kenmore....

my part number shows it as a whole assembly W10122576...

keeping my fingers crossed for you.....

https://www.ebay.com/itm/Whirlpool-...778707?hash=item2645618ed3:g:gk8AAOSwQLJfVhxX
yogitunes-2020112111044703646_1.jpg
 
As an eBay Associate we earn from qualifying purchases.
I tried shutting the unit down for an hour and nothing changed. Looked at a lot of info on the net yesterday and it does not appear to have a replacement heater. Must be built into it. I am going to take it out of the fridge tomorrow and have a look over. Thanks yogi for the link for the refurbished ice maker. I found on a parts direct site a new one for $197.00. Will probably order that one and just install it. We shall see what I do after removal. Thanks

Jon
 
 
If W10122576 that Yogi referenced is the item of target, the go-to source I use PartsDr.com has it $138.

PartSimple.com lists $94 with free shipping (remanufactured/refurbished/repaired item).

McCombsSupply.com says $99 (substitution item, not FSP)
 
just make sure you check your model number so that you order the correct one....

keep us posted on how you make out.....

my brother has a Frigidaire SxS.....not quite 5 years old yet, but I have replaced his ice maker 3 times already....it just stops producing ice...the only fix is to put a new one in....hard to believe I am hitting a bad batch of IM that all malfunction...

I may have to pull my panel off, some ice makers have slots to put in a jumper wire, where you can force it to add water, rotate/dispense, trigger the heater, or run a complete cycle....not all IM have this option...

this guy is giving you an example of triggering the unit to work.....using a jumper wire on V + H will trigger a whole cycle....V + N will trigger the water valve....good to know for troubleshooting....start at 1:50
 
<blockquote>
$99 (substitution item, not FSP)

</blockquote>
Can hardly do much worse than FSPs that fail like clockwork.   They're all made in China anyway, aren't they?  And by evidence, designed to fail.  They weren't always like this.  I've never had a bad one.  I've also never had one made later than 1985.
 
When we installed our KA French Door counter-depth unit in the upstairs kitchen, I refused to run the water line to it even though we had one for the built-in Sub that this unit replaced when we did a mini-remod. Icemakers in general suck and AFAIC it's easier to buy 5# bags for $1 at Dollar Tree as needed when there are get-togethers.

 

Jon- do you know if there's a diagnostic mode for your refrig/icemaker? With Miele we had one that would give us a series of flashing lights to indicate the issue, though about 80% of them indicated to replace the icemaker as parts were not replaceable. There was also advanced diagnostic testing that gave us values for the various pins in the molex receiver the icemaker plugged in to.

 

Good luck,

Chuck
 
Chuck

you and I think alike on this subject.  We’ve only had an automatic ice maker once.  We bought a 17 cu ft Hotpoint top freezer refrigerator in 1985 that had the provision for installing an ice maker at a later date.  The rental we lived in at the time didn’t have a water line available for an ice maker.  When we moved in 1987 to our first condo there was a water connection in the space dedicated for the fridge, so I went to Best Buy and bought the ice maker kit and installed it myself.  It was a nice convenience and we enjoyed having it for a few years.  When we sold the condo in 1994 the Hotpoint fridge went with the sale.  

 

Our present home came with the sellers 18 cu ft Kenmore top freezer fridge, sans ice maker.  And there was not a water line for one either.  At first I thought I couldn’t live without an ice maker, but I quickly adapted and haven’t missed having one either.  One less thing to break down.  We don’t use a lot of ice anyway, so making ice the old fashioned way with ice trays isn’t a problem at all.

 

This is our ice maker.

 

Eddie

ea56-2020112217454706527_1.jpg
 
I dont miss the days of having to manually fill ice trays, carry to freezer, hopeing not to spill any....then when you go for a few cubes for your drink, only to find that someone else has emptied them and placed them back in the freezer empty....

when I got my first fridge, the first thing I searched for was an Ice Maker....had to have it, can't live another day without it...

what I loved about the Kenmore, CAPACITY, I never ran out of ice.....with this Whirlpool on the door, I was forever running out, but then I added a bin on one of the shelves, and store up on cubes as the bin gets full...

got to love this Acceler-Ice feature....worthless...claims if you run low on ice, to hit this pad, and it will speed up the production of ice...bin will be full in 24 hours.....guests are here now, I dont have 24 hours to wait for it to refill...
 
I never had an ice maker until I met Dave in 1985.  I was hooked right away.  I use ice on a daily basis and filling trays or sacrificing precious freezer space for a huge bag of it get a "hard NO" as they say in Letterkenny.
 
Well that did not go well. Got the cover off, started to unplug some of the wire harnesses and check the wires and accidently dragged the top of my hand over a very sharp piece of metal and ripped the top of my hand open. Blood everywhere. Took quite a while to get it stopped. Doctors had me on blood thinners and steroids for quite a while and it has thinned out my skin on the top of my hands. After about half an hour with multiple bandages it stopped. Plugged everything back in put the cover on and called for appliance service, they will be here on Dec 2 to fix or replace it. Cleaned up all the mess I made inside so they don't think an animal got caught in the gearing and died. lol

Jon
 
dude I am sorry.....yeah, you got to watch those sharp edges BIG TIME....when you least expect it, BAM, sliced into yourself.....

I am forever jabbing myself, no sooner get one cut healed, and I do it again...plus I wear gloves, and it still happens....

but still, keep us posted on your recovery as well as the repair....
 
So Anthony showed up yesterday morning, one of the owners of the appliance repair. Nice enough guy seemed very honest and helpful. Not a good outcome. It appears either one or both boards are bad with the infra red light and receiver. So ice maker thinks that it is full all the time. Left board $305.26 the right board is $125.20. So that brings it up to $430.46 with out labor. He even stated this is starting to be expensive ice. Oh wait it gets better. He tried to "jump start" the ice maker with a wire between two ports on the side of the motor section. No response at all. Dead in the water. New ice make $203.81 totaling up to $634.27 without labor. He was getting readings of 120volt at the ice maker. So it had power. No way in hell am I dumping that amount of money into a fridge that is 10 years old. I have never gotten more than 10 years out of a SxS, and I am expecting this one will follow the paths of previous units. So I am going to continue to make ice manually with my 2 trays. May pick up a few more to make smaller cubes and just dump those into the bin. The dispenser/crusher still works fine. It will stop us from opening the door so often just to get ice. Service call was $99.99. He also moved it out and cleaned under front and back, removed back panel and adjusted the shroud for the fan, it would start hitting sometimes depending how the fridge was sitting. He had those neat sliding pads that hook up to the exhaust port on a vacuum and lift the fridge and moves it around on air. Pretty neat how those work and how east that fridge moved around. I was willing to go up $300 but that was my limit not close to $800.00 for ice. lol

Jon
 
neat sliding pads

When I was with Miele the installers had those air skids- they came in a kit with their own little "air pig" blower and extra-long extension cord. I was able to help move a 650# range. When I say "help," I mean those of us who had never used them before got to push it around a little, getting it through the hall and in to place. Holy moley- it was like sliding a, maybe, 20# desk around!

 

Sorry to hear about your hand, Jon. We're still working on the downstairs kitchen and I have my bumps, bruises and cuts to show for it, but nothing that bad! Be well!

 

Chuck
 
Thanks Chuck.

I am sure these sliders save people a lot of sore backs and marked up floors. Glad to hear your remodeling is going along well. Can't wait for pictures of both new kitchens. Hope you and Rich are doing well. Think about you guys often. Happy Holidays to you both. Say hi to Rich for me.

Jon
 

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