Ice Maker Trouble

[Polishrifleman]

Our in freezer automatic ice maker flooded the floor the other night.  A cube got stuck and didn't allow the water to shut off after the appropriate time to fill the freeze tray.  Now I can't get the water to flow at all and can't find anything in the manual or online to help.  Water comes out the in door water dispenser, the ice maker cycles around once and then stops waiting for the water to continue the cycle which never happens.

Any Ideas???  Thanks

[Thor]

It could be that the water inlet valve for the ice maker has gone bad. That's a common problem on a lot of refrigerators. (It's a different valve than the chilled water valve).

[Brad Johnson]

The fill cycle should be on a timer.  Having a cube stuck in the maker shouldn't affect it.  Another vote for checking the filler valve.  It may have gone to the big freezer in the sky.  Luckily, they aren't very expensive and most are easy to replace.

Brad

[K Frame]

I wonder if it might be iced over? Can you see the inlet?

[Thor]

I did have one icemaker freeze over. It would do it quite often. The remedy was to turn off the fridge, empty the contents of the freezer, and take a blow dryer to the fill valve. After that, I would restart the fridge and it would work again.

[K Frame]

My thoughts exactly, Thor.

I had to do that with the ex-wife's parent's fridge years ago.

[Polishrifleman]

Thanks for the responses.  As far as the water inlet it looks like an open topped turkey baster that spills into the tray.  It is open all the way to the back of the Freezer and no ice build up.  I didn't know if there was a flood prevention float or something in a defrost tray.  Although it is a frost free freezer.  I will take a look at the schematic when I get home to figure out where the valve is.

[Monkeyleg]

Before you go tearing the freezer apart...

I have the problem of the ice maker not producing ice a couple of times a year.

Your ice maker has some sort of device to stop ice production when the bin is full. On mine it's a wire frame that moves up and down with the level of ice in the bin. When the wire is at the top, production stops. When it's below that point, production continues.

The water in the ice maker goes into a small tray that has a thermocoupler in it. When the water in the tray reaches freezing temperature, the cubes are released into the bin.

When the wire frame is in a lowered position, and the thermocoupler doesn't detect ice, a signal is sent to the water valve to open.

Move the wire frame or whatever device you have that controls the amount of ice in the bin to the lowest position, so that ice production is "on." Fill the small tray with about 1/4th cup of water, and wait fifteen to thirty minutes. If you have new ice cubes, then your problem is with the water supply valve.

The water supply valve can stop functioning if a small bit of rust from the water pipes gets in it. I found that repeating the above steps eventually gets the water valve to open, the speck goes somewhere else, and everything is fine.

[Polishrifleman]

Thanks ML, Mine also has the wire on/off switch based on ice level in the bin. I pushed it all the way up last night when I went to bed in the hopes that it might reset or something because I was getting no movement out of the auger that flips the cubes out of the freeze tray into the bin.  When I pushed the arm down to the lowest position this morning the auger did cycle all the way around but then stopped moving again at the top (when the water is supposed to flow).  After waiting about 10 minutes to see if water would flow I then put the wire back into the up position to reset again while I am at work.  I will run this again when I get home and then add water if water doesn't flow.

Thanks for the input.

[Thor]

The valve is probably located on the back of the fridge, directly behind the icemaker. Pull out the fridge from the wall and follow the plastic water pipe right to the valve. It might also be under the fridge, depending on the model. I would try the blow dryer trick first, then look at replacing the valve. You probably won't see the ice build up in the valve, if there is any.

[Mabs2]

Hmm...
Rub its nose in it and hit it with a rolled up newspaper.

*Advice from a pro.*