Why is My Refrigerator Ice Maker Not Working?

ASAP Appliance Repair offers refrigerator repair in Greenwood, including professional services to repair ice makers that are not working. Learn about common ice maker issues below:

Refrigerator ice makers are one of the best inventions of all time. An ice maker is a small luxury a lot of people certainly take for granted. Ice makers are relatively simple machines that do not feature a lot of parts that might go wrong with them.

Like with any repair, there are a few basic things that should be looked at before assuming the worst. And, it’s good to know, if needed, you can replace the ice maker without replacing an entire fridge, dependent on the brand and model. First, let’s review some of the causes for an ice maker breaking.

When your ice maker is making ice but it is not ejecting the ice cubes it is usually means there is a mechanical issue versus an electrical failure. This happens when reorganizing food around in the freezer, you could push or pull the control lever up or down. Often the ice maker might get blocked with something, even another chunk of ice. So, look to see if there is ice or food blocking this from working correctly.

Before beginning the steps of clearing out the freezer, check that your ice maker is on. This is done by flipping the control arm in the down position. Sometimes, moving food around in the freezer unit can put it in the off position. If the control arm is free, then there could be something stuck inside of the ice maker or it is not getting a good connection.

Check the Control Arm

When the control arm is down and there is ice but it’s not ejecting it, this could be an electrical or mechanical problem. This is going to require some more troubleshooting. Ready to begin? First, we need to check the electrical connection. This can become unplugged from behind the freezer when shifting or moving the freezer contents.

To check this, unplug the freezer and slide from the kitchen wall. Then, turn off the freezer’s water supply valve. Locate the valve on the rear of the inside of the freezer. Basically this is what connects the ice maker into the freezer. Be sure that it’s plugged in the right way.

Then, remove all of the ice that is inside of the ice maker itself. This can be completed by pouring in a small amount of water to help get ice that’s inside of there out.

Once complete, restore power to the refrigerator and then turn on the ice maker. It might take the solenoid a few seconds to react and fill the mold. When the mold is completely full, wait 4-5 hours or so to see if you’ve solved the issue.

Check for Frozen Lines

Other ice maker failures that could cause your ice maker to not make any ice are frozen water lines. The water lines might be clogged with frost. This is an easy issue to fix.

Unplug the fridge and locate the shut off valve. Turn the water off and grab a hair dryer to warm the line or let the fridge sit turned off for a few hours until the line is thawed.

There are some models that have a water filter that can freeze or ice up. In these situations, locating the water filter is the first step. Then repeat what was done for the frozen line.

If an ice maker is not making large enough pieces of ice, there is a problem with the ice maker settings. To adjust the the ice maker settings, take the top part of the cover of the ice maker off and find a simple knob that displays plus and a minus signs. To do this, you may need a flat head screwdriver.

ADDITIONAL REFRIGERATOR RESOURCES

• Refrigerator Noisy
• Refrigerator Water Dispenser Not Working
• Refrigerator Not Cooling
• How Does a Refrigerator Work?