Why is My Refrigerator Ice Maker Not Working?

EZ Boise Appliance Repair is experienced in refrigerator repair in Boise, including services to repair broken ice makers. Learn about common ice maker problems below:

Refrigerator ice makers are perhaps one of the most convenient inventions ever. An ice maker is a little luxury many people might not appreciate. Ice makers are simple machines that don’t have a lot of parts that will go wrong with them.

As with any appliance repair, there are some basic things that should be looked at before assuming the worst. And, remember, if needed, you can replace your ice maker without replacing an entire fridge, dependent on the brand and model. First, let’s discuss a couple of the reasons for an ice maker failure.

When your ice maker is making ice but it is not dispensing the ice cubes it is usually a mechanical issue opposed to an electrical failure. This happens when moving food around in the freezer unit, you jam the control arm up or down. A lot of the time the ice maker will get jammed with something else, even another piece of ice. So, look to see if there is something blocking this part from working correctly.

Before starting the steps of clearing out the freezer, be sure the ice maker is on. This can be done by flipping the metal control arm in the down position. From time to time, moving food around in the freezer might put it in the off position. If the control arm is free, then there might be something jammed inside of the ice maker or it’s not receiving a good connection.

Check the Control Arm

If the control is down and there is ice but it is not dispensing it, there might be an electrical or mechanical failure. This is going to need some more troubleshooting. Ready to begin? First, we need to inspect the electrical connection. This could become unplugged from the back of the freezer when shifting or moving the freezer contents.

To check this, first unplug the fridge and slide it out away from the wall. Turn off the freezer’s water supply valve. Locate the valve on the back of the inside of the freezer unit. Essentially this is what connects the ice maker into the freezer unit. Be sure that it’s plugged in correctly.

After that, remove any ice that is in the ice maker itself. This can be completed by pouring in a bit of water to help get ice that is inside of there out.

Once this is done, restore power to the fridge and turn on the ice maker. It might take the solenoid component a couple of seconds to react and fill the mold. After the mold is completely full, wait around 4-5 hours to see if you have solved the problem.

Check for Frozen Lines

More ice maker problems that might cause your ice maker to not make any ice are frozen water lines. The water lines could be blocked with frost. This is an easy fix.

Unplug the fridge and locate the water shut off valve. Turn the water off and then grab a hair dryer to heat up the line or just let the refrigerator sit turned off for a couple of hours until the line is thawed.

Some brands and models that have a water filter that can freeze or ice over. For these cases, finding the water filter is the first step. Then repeat what was done for the iced line.

When your ice maker isn’t making big enough cubes of ice, there’s an issue with the settings. To adjust the settings, take the top part of the cover of the ice maker off and find a basic control that has plus and a minus symbols. For this process, you could need a flat head screwdriver.

ADDITIONAL REFRIGERATOR RESOURCES

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