OT - Is My Refrigerator Broke?

DerbyDad03 · 2020-05-03T00:18:08+00:00

I'm sure there's a fridge tech hanging around here someplace. I have a 17 year old GE, bottom freezer. My ice maker is internal to the freezer, no through-the-door ice or water. The ice maker dumps ice into flat drawer. A couple of weeks ago it stopped making ice and what I found was that the fill tube was frozen. I thawed it out, got a couple of cycles of ice (a doz en cubes) and it froze up again. I have an indoor/outdoor thermometer that shows the Min/Max temp of the pas t 24 hours, so I put the outdoor sensor in the ice tray. The freezer read aro und 2°-3° most of the time, but the Min showed -7°. OK, that wou ld probably freeze the fill tube. (Fridge temps are pretty steady at 37° - 38°, so t hat's fine.) The freezer control was set at about 7, with 9 being the coldest and 0 bein g off. I have been increasing the temperature and while each adjustment does indeed increase the "most of the time" temperature, it still drops into the -5° to - 7° range at least once a day. And yes, the fill tube kee ps freezing up. Right now, the control is set at 3, the "most of the time" temperature has been hovering around 6° but the Min/Max is -7° & 12°. Th at seems like way too much of a range and way too cold of a minimum. I just happen to have spare control board that I believe to be good, but before I install it, I figured I'd check here first to see if anybody had any thoughts. Thanks.

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DerbyDad03 6 years ago

that would

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.

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Clare Snyder 6 years ago

Door only has to be op[en a couple inches. Handg a towel over the foor so it can't close all the way and let it be.

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Clare Snyder 6 years ago

Looks like some sort of lichen??? a growth of some sort. I'd bleach it while it's open.

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DerbyDad03 6 years ago

ice (a dozen

er read around

K, that would probably freeze

°, so that's fine.)

ll tube keeps freezing

2°. That seems like way

Already thawed. Tomorrow we try to make ice.

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DerbyDad03 6 years ago

, that would

ay when it is not needed."

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.

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Leon 6 years ago

Perhaps not all of the thaw routine is working correctly.

If the fill valve is just seeping, it may take a few cycles before the fill tube collects enough to freeze solid again.

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DerbyDad03 6 years ago

OK, that would

tray when it is not needed."

...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.

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DerbyDad03 6 years ago

. OK, that would

e tray when it is not needed."

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.

Thanks for all the suggestions.

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