Whirlpool refrigerator inlet valve leaking

I have an old (c. 1979) Whirlpool fridge that works fine. But, the ice maker hasn't been used in about 15 years, and the inlet valve has dried out and is leaking. Here's a pic:

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It's leaking where the plastic body meets the metal frame. I'm having trouble finding a replacement online, and wondered if it might be possible to repair the old one. Putting new gasket material in there might stop the leaking, but I don't know exactly what the solenoid does to open the valve, so I'm not sure a repair would work.

Any ideas or suggestions would be appreciated.

(The fridge is model EET-172PK. There's no part number on the valve.)

Reply to
Peabody
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any old valve should do. although your probably better off to get a ice maker kit.

it will include the solenoid valve any the actual ice maker itself.

you might consider buying a brand new fridge, since it will liky save you big bucks on electric

Reply to
bob haller

Why replace it? If you don't use the icemaker, just shut the water off and leave it. There must be a shutoff in the line someplace.

You may also want to check how much electric that old machine is using. New one use far less and in my case I got rid of a small old one, got a large new one and the electric bill dropped about $10 a month essentially paying for the $400 fridge in a few years.

Reply to
Ed Pawlowski

Try this wedsite:

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They have live chat and email available. I am sure they don't have the part, but might give some good info. They figured out what our icemaker needed and had the part (water inlet valve on back of fridge), even though the problem was intermittent and quirky and we had already had a service person mess with it. Let us know ;o)

Reply to
Norminn

Thanks for the reference. I went into chat there, and they couldn't come up with anything, but said they would send the info to "research" and get back to me if they found anything.

So I guess there's nothing to be lost by taking the old valve apart to see if it can be repaired. But another possibility is just using any valve that's more or less the same configuration. I mean, at the most basic level, you have an inlet, an outlet, and two electric lines, all of which can be adapted if needed. So maybe I could just order a cheap one for another brand, and make it work. Like this one:

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4318047/dp/B0002Z1EXA

But I need to see what's fed to the solenoid by my fridge. As old as it is, my guess is that it's 110VAC. Newer valves might not like that.

Reply to
Peabody

I wanted to report that I found the part number of the valve (627462) on a drawing at one of the appliance parts sites, and then found new and used ones on Ebay for $20-35. But I ended up fixing the leaks by inserting a large metal washer between the plastic valve body and the steel mounting plate. There are no gaskets, and the design depends on good contact between the various parts so water won't leak. The washer just let me tighten down enough to stop the leaks.

And the ice maker itself still works, amazingly enough.

Reply to
Peabody

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