Posted: 5/24/2013 6:20:51 AM EDT
|
Ice Maker has been broken for awhile, decided to finally replace it. When I pulled the old one out and looked inside it, the gear that turns the fingers had broken off entirely. Ok, makes sense why it wasn't working....
So I order the legit replacement part here and not the aftermarket brand for $50 less... Get the new ice maker in, swap the ice tray over from the old one to the new one, plug it in, slide the thing in, and flip my whirlpool back to "on" for the ice maker. It made 1 ice cube after about an hour...then about an hour later, another ice cube....now nothing. Here is a video of someone replacing the exact same ice maker I have, in the exact same fridge I have.... Is the new unit DOA? Does my fridge have the "eye" that I need to jump? Where do I go from here? |
|
Is there water or ice inside the tray? If yes, a couple of thinks to check..
1-Make sure someone didn't bump the on / off switch. 2- Verify that the "ice level sensor" rod isn't suck in the storage bin. If there is no water or ice in the tray purge the water line to see if you have good flow. Is it possible that the electrical connection isn't making good contact? |
|
Quoted:
Is there water or ice inside the tray? If yes, a couple of thinks to check.. 1-Make sure someone didn't bump the on / off switch. 2- Verify that the "ice level sensor" rod isn't suck in the storage bin. If there is no water or ice in the tray purge the water line to see if you have good flow. Is it possible that the electrical connection isn't making good contact? 1. Well it filled one cubes worth of water into the tray. Now I don't feel any water in the ice maker flowing in. 2. Ice level sensor rod? Which one is that? I'll try google-fu'ing it for now 3. There is no water or ice in the tray. Now that you mention purging the lines, I am now remembering it might be my RO filter failing here. I need to re-pressurizer the RO tank because it hasn't been filling with water at all recently and I just replaced the filters (although not the membrane). But, I can't remember if the fridge is hooked directly to the cold water, or the RO. Will investigate.... |
|
Quoted:
Quoted:
Is there water or ice inside the tray? If yes, a couple of thinks to check.. 1-Make sure someone didn't bump the on / off switch. 2- Verify that the "ice level sensor" rod isn't suck in the storage bin. If there is no water or ice in the tray purge the water line to see if you have good flow. Is it possible that the electrical connection isn't making good contact? 1. Well it filled one cubes worth of water into the tray. Now I don't feel any water in the ice maker flowing in. 2. Ice level sensor rod? Which one is that? I'll try google-fu'ing it for now Disregard, my mistake. It looks like your unit uses the IR sensor- http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q31kkKZBMdc 3. There is no water or ice in the tray. Now that you mention purging the lines, I am now remembering it might be my RO filter failing here. I need to re-pressurizer the RO tank because it hasn't been filling with water at all recently and I just replaced the filters (although not the membrane). But, I can't remember if the fridge is hooked directly to the cold water, or the RO. Will investigate.... Ok Sometimes the fill tube from the back of the fridge to the ice maker freezes preventing it from dropping water. While your checking the unit make sure that the fingers that push the ice out have returned to the level of the corresponding fixed fingers. If they're not, a new batch of water won't drop. |
|
I just taught myself the complete working history of these particular units a month or so ago... You can check to see if you have good water flow by manually jumping the wires for the solenoid. I've forgotten which colors they are, but pull the plug to the icemaker apart and test with a meter to find the 'hot' wire. Then simply jump it to each corresponding wire (NOT NUETRAL pretty sure that's the black wire) and when you hit the water one, you should hear a click and see water coming in from the back. If not, you may have pulled the connector loose from behind the back panel in your freezer or the water solenoid might be bad or the line clogged. If water DOES come in, then the timer circuit in the icemaker isn't functioning, and it's cheaper/easier to replace it than it is to fix it. Especially since it's brand new. FYI, I know you were looking for the genuine OEM part but this icemaker design is used by almost EVERY brand out there and the only difference is the modular adapter plug from the front of the icemaker to the freezer cord. |
|
turns out.... the original ice maker was indeed broken, obviously...and the replacement worked just fine. the problem stemmed from the RO system as i predicted, but it wasn't the tank pressure. I just had hideously dirty filters. So I changed all the filters, screens, poppets, and membrane. now i had RO water back, but the ice tray was only filling up with 4 ice cubes worth of water. welllll, turns out there is a 7 second cutoff for filling the ice tray, and the water pressure from the RO tank to the fridge is just too low. this is because the fridges built in water filter requires 20 psi of pressure, while i am only providing 7 down a long line. So, you pop the filter out and the pressure is fine....BUT, the fridge senses the lack of a filter and will not fill the ice tray with water until one is present. so i had to install a filter bypass plug....and now everything works. time for a beer  |