Ice Maker

[Dottie]

My refrigerator was bought in Jan. 1997 and still cools and freezes fine. The ice maker is on the blink....I can hear the water run briefly and later I find a few cubes in the box but no more until the next day. I have been using ice cube trays I had bought to supplement the supply if we had bad weather. How hard is it to find a replacement ice maker for a 10 year old refrigerator? There is a store that sells used appliances and still good used parts. I think I am going to start there. If they don't have one, and if I can buy a new one to work in the old refrigerator, would it be wise to do that ? Or would it be smarter to make my own ice cubes and wait till I see new refrigerators on sale?

[Roemax]

[wratchethead]

Parts for Your ice maker should be easy to find but if not lowes and home depot offer inexpensive universal replacements.

[gfretwell]

I have no financial inyerest but Midwest appliance parts has been good for me. Wtach their specials and you can probably find the whole ice maker for $40 or so. I paid $25 for the motor/timer plate on my Whilrpool and that fixed it.

This guy has about the best repair site I have found but he sends you to a pretty pricy guy when you want the parts. Like everything on the net, shopping prices is your friend

.

There is a lot of information on this site but you have to poke around a bit to find it

[hallerb]

the most likely cause is a bad solenoid valve or clogged water filter if you have a filter.

the best fx is buy a kit to replace everything about a 100 bucks or less, its way cheaper than buying parts seperately. keep unused new parts for next failure.

solenoid valves fail a lot

[gfretwell]

On the Whirlpool the "fix it now" guy has a good way to test the icemaker by jumpering 2 points to start a "harvest cycle". Then you get to see the whole operation and figure out if it is stalling, not getting water or whatever. I didn't look at other makes but I assume there is a similar way to cut the problem down to size. I agree, if it cycles and there is no water in the tray, there is a water problem but first you have to see if it cycles all the way. It may just be stalled and never gets to the point where it adds water. I can say from my experience with 2 bad whirlpools, if there is a cycling problem, don't screw with it. Replace the motor/timer plate or the whole icemaker. There is only about $10 difference if the icemaker is on "special" that week.

[Edwin Pawlowski]

Forget used. Icemakers are the most frequently repaired item on refrigerators so it is not worth trying a used one that may also be bad now or very soon.

Replacements are readily available from many sources. I've used

for some parts as well as my local dealer.

[hallerb]

first check for pinched or crushed water supply line

[Dottie]

usedwww.repairclinic.comfor some parts as well as my local dealer.

Thank you to everyone....the refrigerator is a Frigidaire. Anyway, when my husband gets back from morning errands we will check and see if the water line is blocked. The instructions are in the book that came with it. I would like to try and figure out how to run it through the entire cycle before I do anything. Hate to buy a new ice maker and find out that wasn't the problem ... but the water line doesn't look "crimped" - at least, no more than usual.

[Bob F]

Another thing to check is the freezer temp. If it is not cold enough, it will not make as much ice. If the house temp is down, the freezer will get warmer to maintain the set refridge temp, and ice production will go down. Is ice cream "hard" in the freezer when the problem exists?

[Dottie]

I did lower the temp in the refridge after reading about it on one of the links posted here. It did help - at this point the ice maker is making ice again and we are just watching it to see what happens.