How standard are ice makers?

[Nil]

I have a Kenmore fridge - pull-drawer freezer on bottom, no door water or ice dispenser - that came with an icemaker installed in the freezer. The icemaker needs to be replaced. Must I buy the exact model or brand that's in there now or are the mountings and hookups standard enough that I can consider other models/brands?

[Ed Pawlowski]

Many are standard, but not all. Try looking it up on

[gfretwell]

Kenmore is Whirlpool (Amana, Kitchen aid Roper etc) and that one of the two basic types, GE being the other. The basic icemaker unit is pretty universal. What is different is the plastic doodads that fit on it. You may have to split the unit to replace the output guide (5 screws) The "head" usually fixes most of them. That is the brown plastic part with the gear on it, 3 screws. That is the timer motor, the contacts and a few plastic parts that don't break. It is usually the contacts that go bad. You really can't fix them. This is the after market

The problem is you can buy the whole unit from an after market cheaper than a genuine whirlpool head A little better $3 more This is the one I keep as a hot spare.

[Nil]

On 02 Jan 2019, [e-mail] wrote in alt.home.repair:

I think the head is OK. The problem with the maker is that the cubes come out with flakes of material stuck to them. The fact that it's only on the outer surface makes me confident that the stuff is the surface of the ice cube forms (teflon?) flaking off. Otherwise the unit cycles and produces cubes as expected

I didn't realize the parts were so inexpensive - I had done a quick search several months ago and it seemed to me at the time that I was looking at a couple hundred bucks at least. I need to look close at the existing unit to see what's compatible. Maybe I'll take it out now. I can survive without automatic ice for a little while.

Thanks for pointing me in a good direction.