Why is My Refrigerator Ice Maker Not Working?

Albany Appliance Repair offers refrigerator repair in Albany, including services to repair broken ice makers. Learn about common ice maker problems below:

Refrigerator ice makers are possibly one of the best inventions ever. An ice maker is a little luxury a lot of people not appreciate. Refrigerator ice makers are relatively simple machines that don’t feature a lot of parts that might go wrong with them.

As with any repair, there are some basic things that need to be looked at before assuming the worst. And, remember, if necessary, you are able to replace an ice maker without replacing the entire refrigerator, dependent on the brand and model. First, let’s review some of the reasons for an ice maker not working.

When your ice maker is making ice but it is not ejecting the ice it is usually a mechanical issue vs. an electrical problem. This can occur when reorganizing food around in the freezer unit, you might shift the control arm up or down. A lot of the time the ice maker will get blocked with something else, even another chunk of ice. First, check to see if there’s something blocking this from operating the right way.

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

Check the Control Arm

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

To check this, unplug the refrigerator and pull from the wall. Turn off the water supply. Locate the connection on the rear of the inside of the freezer unit. Basically this is what connects the ice maker into the freezer unit. Ensure that it is actually plugged in the right way.

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

Once done, restore power to the fridge and turn on the ice maker. It could take the solenoid component a couple of seconds to react and fill the mold. When the mold is completely full, wait 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 produce any ice are frozen water lines. The water lines might be blocked with frost. This is a pretty simple issue to fix.

Unplug the refrigerator and find the water shut off valve. Shut the water off and then get a hair dryer to warm the water line or just let the refrigerator sit shut off for a couple of hours and wait until the water line is thawed.

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

If an ice maker isn’t making big enough cubes of ice, there’s an issue with the ice maker settings. To adjust the the ice maker settings, take the upper part of the cover of the ice maker off and locate a basic dial that has plus and a minus signs. To do this, you might need a flat head screwdriver.

ADDITIONAL REFRIGERATOR RESOURCES

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