Seems like next may be the fill valve. Why does my ice maker fill tube keeps freezing up? A refrigerator ice maker that freezes up can be caused by a frozen ice maker fill tube, faulty water inlet valve, too low freezer temperature setting, or a water filter that needs replacing. First, locate the water supply to your ice maker and turn off the water supply via the shut off valve.Dec 18, 2014
You could do what I did when mine was acting up. I just left it and bought a new house with new refrigerator. Problem solved!
Or the control board. I've done everything on that list except checking the operation of the fill valve, although, as far as I can tell this is *not* happening:
"Sometimes this part (fill valve) can go bad and overfill the ice cube tray when it is not needed."
I know that because the first sign of a problem, after it makes a couple of trays of full size cubes, it makes canoes and little chips. That tells me that the ice maker isn't getting enough water, not too much. After one tray of those, I know the tube is frozen. You can see some canoes here:
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And then there's the issue of the temperature swings within the freezer.
-7° to 12° with the dial set at 3, with 9 being the coldest and 0 being Off. That just doesn't seem right. That's why I mention the control board.
The unit as has been off/open all day, to be turned on first thing in the morning.
After letting the innards thaw and blowing out every nook and cranny that my 90 PSI air nozzle could find, I loaded up the fridge section but left the freezer empty.
Over the past 24+ hours, the freezer temperature has ranged from 3°F t o
12°F. That's a narrower range and no negative temperatures. However, t he control is set at 2 out of 9, with 9 being the coldest. I'll see what happens after I load up the freezer.
As far as ice making and a frozen fill tube, things are still not 100%. Some cubes are full sized and solid, some are still fragile, thin canoes. There is some ice in the section of the fill tube that extends into the freezer section, but it does not appear to have grown in the past day or so. It is certainly not blocking the water from entering the ice maker like before. For all I know, that might be normal since I never checked the tube before the full blockage issue started.
I may change the water valve anyway. It's under $20 so worth a shot.
...and as soon I posted this update, the temp dropped to -5°F. First t ime it's been negative 24+ hours. Maybe that's a norm or maybe something is still broken.
OK, I'm calling it fixed. It's been making ice for 72+ hours which is a new record since this started.
It took a combination of blowing the dust out with a 90 PSI air hose, a 24 hour thaw and some careful monitoring/adjustment of the temperature control. Something in that list or all of that list seems to have solved the issue.
If I reach into the back of the freezer compartment, I can access the fill tube where it comes into the ice maker. There is a tiny slug of ice on the bottom, but not enough to block the water from coming in. I removed the slug a couple of days ago and it came back quickly, but like I said, it has not caused any issues.
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