It’s so humid and you want to enjoy an iced fruity smoothie at home. However, when you tried to get some ice, there’s none. There are a lot of symptoms that your ice maker is not functioning properly. One of the visible symptoms is if it’s not making ice the way it was supposed to anymore. Some symptoms could be that it’s only serving crushed ice instead of ice cubes. Ice makers are very simple machines that you will notice something wrong right away.

Troubleshooting and repairing an ice maker could be tough but there are actually some simple remedies that you can do at home to manually fix it before calling a professional. You need to learn how an ice maker works first. You need to be aware of this so that at least, you will have an idea how it operates.

After you identify how an ice maker works, next, you should be able to identify where the problem lies. Here is one symptom and its possible solution that might work for you.

Ice Maker Does Not Make Ice – This could mean that the water passage is blocked or the solenoid doesn’t work. Here are the steps that you can follow to get your ice maker working:

- Check the water supply line. If the ice maker doesn’t make ice but you can see the arm swing into motion and you hear a buzz for about 10 seconds, the water valve is asking for water that isn’t arriving. This means the valve and the solenoid are probably okay, but the water supply is not. Be sure the water supply line isn’t kinked behind or beneath the refrigerator (1/4-inch copper tubing is much better than plastic fill line to prevent kinks).

- See if the fill tube is frozen. Check to see if something has caused ice to back up around the mechanism—this can cause the fill tube to freeze. When ice cubes are small and seem to be getting smaller, it generally indicates a frozen fill tube.

- Look inside the ice mold. If it’s filled with full-sized ice, the problem may be the water supply fill valve or the electrical connection that operates the system. To verify that the motor works, you can make a “jumper” and test it—if you’re comfortable and safe working with electricity. To do this, strip the ends from a small length of electrical wire. Insert the bare-wire ends into the “T” and “H” holes in the motor unit. This will manually start a cycle.

- Check the water line that enters the back of the freezer for a blockage. Find the water shut-off valve behind the refrigerator or under the sink, turn it off, unscrew the copper line from the back of the refrigerator, put the copper line in a bucket, turn on the valve, and see if water pours out.

These are just simple steps that you can follow at home however, if you still don’t get your ice maker working, then, it’s time for an ice maker repair. Call the doctor! We have a same-day service team at Appliance Doctor Inc. who is ready to take your call for help when you need it. We will also be happy to provide helpful suggestions on how to avoid this from happening in the future. For immediate service in Lee and Collier Counties in Southwest Florida, local residents can use our convenient contact numbers located on the contact us page.