Refrigerator Water Dispenser Slow

[dennis]

Kenmore Side-by-side Model# 2535808789A

The short story: I removed the water inlet valve/solenoid and the copper tube has good pressure, so saddle valve is OK. Flow through water inlet valve (when reconeccted) is good. More turbulent than flow directly from copper tube, but I assume this is because it is going through a valve. Also, there is a dual valve/solenoid on the lower left as you face the back of the fridge and I replaced it with a new one already.

The long story: Water flow on this fridge was fine until I replaced the filter, then it slowed down. About this time I got into a bad habit of leaving a glass wedged into dispenser to fill on it's own (since it took so long to fill). Had a couple instances of forgetting about the glass and having the dispenser overflow and run all over the floor. After the first couple times I noticed that 1, The flow got slower and 2, the ice cubes from the icemaker were hollow. After another prolonged episode (could have been an hour or so!)of the dispenser running it must have burned out one of the solenoids because I stopped getting water all together. I checked the water inlet solenoid for resistance, it was fine. There is a dual solenoid/valve as discussed above with a yellow and green valve. The yellow one was shot. I just replaced this and now I have water flow again, but it is still very slow.

Currently the fridge takes 45 seconds to dispense 8 oz. of water.

My current understanding is that this type of problem is usually either the saddle valve or the solenoid valves. Neither which seem to be the problem here. I do not know if this fridge has an additional pump that pumps water or not.

Any thoughts or suggestions would be great.

[Edwin Pawlowski]

If you changed the filter and that slowed it down, why would you check everything else and not the filter? Seems obvious that the filter is at least part of the equation. The filter may be clogged, may be defective, of something like hte carbon got out of the filter and clogged a valve.

Start at the filter and work forward.

[dennis]

The initial problem was slow flow. However, when flow stopped (as described above), I needed to fix that problem. After I fixed that problem by replacing the solenoid that burned out, I am back to where I started which is slow flow.

When I replaced the filter (with a brand new one out of the box) I thought there might be a temporary period when flow was slower than normal.

[Shelly F]

There are a multitude of filter types. The more expensive they are (of the same size), generally the smaller the particles they entrap. The more particles they entrap, the slower the flow. My guess is that y'all purchased a filter which is' too good' for the body size for a good flow. Each filter type within the same size generally has a different colored ring on top, the color of the ring denotes the particle size it entraps. Either replace the filter with the same color ring as the original, or purchase another filter of lesser particle entrapment capability (probably cheaper, also). hth

[dennis]

I purchased an exact replacement from Sears. (They sent out a card saying the fridge was due for a new filter and it had the model number for it already.) You think I should find a cheaper brand then? Any suggestions for brands?

Thanks!

[Shelly F]

Yes, I think that y'all should go shopping for the same type (fit), but a less efficient (not trapping the smaller particles). To get an idea of what I mean, go to HD, pick a typical filter, notice that they might sell at least 6 of the same physical size, but each is good for a different minimum trapped particle(s). Good Luck...............hth