How to Repair Your Icemaker

The ice maker in the fridge had stopped doing it's designated duty. Namely, supplying me with tons of ice for my many daily sodas. These are deceptively simple devices these ice makers. Almost sneaky how they work. Downright brilliant really. It is nothing more than a motor, some switches and some eccentric wheels...cams as they are more often called.

When power is applied the little electric motor begins its slow stately rotation. In only one rotation the ice tray will fill with water, the water will then freeze and finally the ice cubes will be ejected into the collection bin. Not much to go wrong there is there? Except for one thing...there IS a little theremostat imbedded into the works that everything else hinges on. It's job is to determine if the freezer compartment is cold enough to freeze water in the alloted time span allowed.

It all works like this. Power is applied and the refrigerator begins to cool down. As in most refrigerators the cooling actually comes from the freezer compartment. Fans blow the cooled air into the much larger refrigerator compartment. Never the less, the freezer section does begin to get cold and the thermostat in the ice maker will cool down with everything else. When the magic degree of temperature is reached, the thermostat, reacting to this temperature, closes an internal switch. This switch completes a circuit and turns on the electric motor which will eventually crank the ice cubes into the collection bin. But before that can happen, we must first have some water introduced into the ice tray.

The thermostat has given the signal as it were and the main motor has now turned on and has begun it's slow revolution. One of the eccentric wheels attached to this motor closes another switch and activates a small electric valve mounted on the backside of the refrigerator, which opens and admits a measured supply of water to the ice tray. A moment later and this switch opens again and the water flow is halted. The motor turns serenly on and time passes. The freezing of the water is now completed and the motor cam closes yet another switch and heating rods mounted on the bottom of the ice tray come into action. Their job is to heat the tray just enough to melt the outer surface of the ice cubes that are in contact with the tray itself.

The motor meanwhile is exerting pressure on the cubes by means of a sweep rod so they will slide up and out of the tray and fall into the collection bin. You will have heard this sound from your fridge all the time. The motor completes it long slow revolution and returns to the start point. In doing so it reactivates the connections through a closing switch bringing the thermostat back into circuit. If the internal temperature of the freezer section is suitable the thermostat will rapidly cool after the heating rods have turned off and it will begin the whole process over again, Letting in water, freezing it into ice and then ejecting the ice.

Pretty straight forward. Using voltmeter and jumper wires I had determined that the motor and the associated switches were functional. They just would not operate until supplied with some voltage. And that voltage arriving was dependant on that little thermostat...which had apparently, given out. A replacement was ordered and installed and the ice maker went happily back to work. The thermostat had cost a whopping 28 dollars and about 2 hours of time to disassemble and reassemble the ice maker. But this was far better than the 108 dollars for a new ice maker. And this amount can vary depending on who made the refrigerator. It isn't a widely know fact but the majority of appliances, regardless of brand name, are made by only four manufacturers.

Some trouble shooting tips you can use if the icemaker in your refrigerator stops working. Check to confirm that water is actually getting to the refrigerator. Usually the water dispensor will continue working even if no ice is being made. This is due to the electric water inlet valve being activated when you press your glass into the water dispensor receptacle. It is this same valve that supplies water to the icemaker. If no water is present then you will want to investigate the supply line and determine why there is no water. If water is present at the fridge but you cant get the dispensor to deliver water, then have a look at the electric valve. If water is present and the dispensor is working and no ice is being made, then now is when you want to look at the icemaker itself. You have eliminated the water supply and the inlet valve...the icemaker is the only factor remaining.