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Topics Discussed:

• Side by Side Refrigerator Accumulating Ice in the Bottom of the Freezer Section
• 1978 Whirlpool Side by Side Refrigerator Throws the Circuit Breaker and Compressor Will Not Start
• 2004 Kenmore Window Air Conditioner Curtain Will Not Stay in Place
• 1992 Frigidaire Upright Freezer Won't Stop Running After Manual Defrost
• 1989 Insinkerator Classic 700 Built-In Dishwasher has Water in the Bottom after Dry Cycle
• The Difference Between a Window and a Casement Air Conditioner
• 1997 Kenmore Dryer Unable to Get Old Light Bulb Out of the Socket
• 2006 Maytag Refrigerator Ice Maker Removal
• 2001 Amana Top Mount Refrigerator Ice Maker Filling Intermittently

 

 

Side by Side Refrigerator Accumulating Ice in the Bottom of the Freezer Section

 

JOHN MCCULLOCH

We start out today with Gloria, from West Bloomfield, with a side by side refrigerator problem on the Appliance Repair Show. Good morning, Gloria. Go ahead please.

 

GLORIA

Yes, I have water that forms in the bottom of my freezer every so often, and I have to go in there with a pan of hot water and then I kind of get it soft and I pull it up but it keeps happening!

 

JOHN SOWDEN

This is on the freezer floor?

 

GLORIA

Right.

 

JOHN SOWDEN

Is it dripping out the freezer door then at some point?

 

GLORIA

No, it hasn't yet. I catch it before it gets that far.

 

JOHN SOWDEN

All right. Well, from what you're describing it sounds like the defrost drain tube at the bottom of the freezer section is restricted or plugged up.

 

GLORIA

That's what you can see on the back of the refrigerator, right?

 

JOHN SOWDEN

Actually, what you'll probably have to do in order to access this is remove all of the shelves from the freezer section, and then remove the back wall, or at least the lower portion of the back wall of the freezer. There are normally a series of screws that retain that, and then in the center of the freezer section, in the back behind that you're going to see a little trough with a hole in the middle of it; that's where the water is supposed to drain, and more than likely it's just plugged up. You can use a turkey baster (part # 19950151) with some hot tap water and flush that out, and it should go into the pan underneath the machine. So you might want to empty the machine if you can, if you have an alternate refrigerator/freezer, empty the one you have and put the food in there.

 

GLORIA

Well, I did that a couple times thinking that taking everything out and letting everything thaw might do something. I thought maybe it formed a lot of frost or whatever in there, but it seems like it goes back to its broken state.

 

JOHN SOWDEN

Letting it thaw out makes it easier to clear the machine if there's ice in there, and there probably is if there's a restriction.  A lot of times you'll get food particles and things of that nature if you've had any spills inside the freezer. On occasion, they use some Perma-gum sealant, it looks like Play-Doh in certain spots throughout the cabinet, and at times that can fall off and migrate its way in. So you kind of have a physical restriction in that drain, so if you flush it out really well, you should be back in business. But in order to get at it you're going to have to remove the back wall of the freezer, and the coil back there, the cooling coil. The evaporator is very sharp so make sure you don't rub your hand against that because it will cut you right open.

 

GLORIA

Will it be exposed when I take the back off?

 

JOHN SOWDEN

That is correct.

 

GLORIA

What about taking the back of the refrigerator itself off?  Would cleaning it do something?

 

JOHN SOWDEN

Well, that would be good to do just as a general maintenance.

 

GLORIA

Well, I kind of did that already, without taking the back off. There was some fluff down there and I don't see any more dirt, but I just wondered if some might have accumulated where I don't see it.

 

JOHN SOWDEN

Well, the tubing eventually comes out in that area, so if you want to pull the refrigerator out and clean the condenser, that's always a good idea. Then also, you'll see that once you clear that drain out, the water will come through the drain tube in the back and then it will trickle into a pan and when the fan motor and the machine is running, it will evaporate the moisture into the room air.

 

GLORIA

Yeah, I've wanted to do that.

 

JOHN SOWDEN

Now's the time!

 

GLORIA

I'm determined to do this myself without calling a repairman.

 

JOHN SOWDEN

Yeah, it's something that most repair people, if there's a problem with the machine they'll clean the condenser just as part of the service but it's something that if you don't feel comfortable tackling, you can always have somebody come out. If they have to clear the drain and do all that, you could have seventy to one hundred dollars put into the repair. You're paying for somebody's time to do it. 

 

GLORIA

I'm glad I was able to catch you. It's been a great experience for me.

 

JOHN MCCULLOCH

And if you have any further questions, Gloria, just go to the website, RepairClinic.com and get your questions answered there.

 

JOHN SOWDEN

That is correct!

 

JOHN MCCULLOCH

Just put your model number in and you'll get a complete picture of everything that's inside the unit.

 

JOHN SOWDEN

Yeah, we have pictorial breakdowns that show you where all of the components are and what they're called, as well as if you have a specific question, you can log in with your email address, ask a specific question, and we'll give you an answer.

 

1978 Whirlpool Side by Side Refrigerator Throws the Circuit Breaker and Compressor Will Not Start

 

JOHN MCCULLOCH

Let's go to Delmar, in Harrison Township, with a question on a Whirlpool refrigerator on the Appliance Repair Show. Hi Delmar, go ahead.

 

DELMAR

Good morning. I'm pleased that you answered my call. What I have is this thirty year old double door Whirlpool and it was fine up until a couple of years ago when it conked out,

blew a breaker and I finally disconnected it. I tried it last fall and it ran, the fan would blow and after about a minute or so, it would go "click-click-click", the fan would slow down, and then it would stop again, and then the fan would go through the cycles. I tried this for three days and it did the some thing.  Back before Christmas you had two people that called you with a similar problem and you spoke of a switch?

 

JOHN SOWDEN

Yes. First of all, the fan you're describing, that's the fan on the underside of the unit that cools the compressor, correct?

 

DELMAR

Right.

 

JOHN SOWDEN

And that stalls when the compressor tries to start.

 

DELMAR

Right.

 

JOHN SOWDEN

That's not abnormal because you have a high current draw when the compressor's trying to start. Now you said it was throwing the breakers-that can be caused by the unit not starting, the compressor could have failed or be locked up, and eventually the high current draw will take out a breaker.

 

DELMAR

What happened was, we were in Florida and my brother-in-law was taking care of the house, and he came to the house and the lights were out in the basement so I told him that might be the problem.

 

JOHN SOWDEN

If you hear the compressor clicking on and off, more than likely the thermostat and all the other things in the system are working properly, meaning they're sending a signal to the compressor saying, "We need you to start".  It sounds like the compressor is not starting. That can be caused by a bad relay or a weak overload:  the clicking you hear is the overload, it's like its own circuit breaker clicking on and off.  Or, the compressor could have an electrical problem, its shorted and unable to start. The mechanical part could also be failing and you could have a stuck valve or something. So it sounds to me like the problem is in the compressor or the compressor starting package. Now one thing you can do is we do have a hard start kit (part # RCO810) that we sell. You wire it in, you take off the existing overload and relay and install this kit, and what it does is it replaces the existing relay and overload but also incorporates a start capacitor, so it gives it a good hard kick of electricity on startup. So if the compressor is just hard starting and getting tired, it will, if that's the situation, get it going again. For how long, it's hard to say, but it's something that I would definitely, if you get it running and it seems okay, I'd let it run for a while before you go to the grocery store and fill it up, because normally if a compressor is worn or something of that nature and is locking up periodically, it will continue to do so. But if its thirty years old and you can't get it started with a hard start kit, you might want to look at replacing it.

 

DELMAR

Right. Another question related to this, how do you get underneath there to repair it?

 

JOHN SOWDEN

You have to slide the machine out and remove the back cover.

 

DELMAR

Oh, the back cover!  Okay.

 

JOHN SOWDEN

There should be a cardboard cover with a series of quarter-inch screws, and it will be right there.

 

JOHN SOWDEN

I've done that before. Okay, thank you very much.

 

2004 Kenmore Window Air Conditioner Curtain Will Not Stay in Place

 

JOHN MCCULLOCH

Here's Mary, in Laingsburg, with a question on a window air conditioner, on the Appliance Repair Show. Hi Mary, go ahead please.

 

MARY

Hi. I have a Kenmore window air conditioner and last year, when I went to put it in the window, it has the things that you pull out to make it fit into the window, accordion like things.

 

JOHN SOWDEN

Those are accordions, yes. That's what they call them.

 

MARY

Yes, and one came apart away from the air conditioner last year. Last year I just kind of duct taped it. It looked tacky but it worked. This year the duct tape doesn't seem to work. So can I get a replacement, or do you know of anything I can do?

 

JOHN SOWDEN

Yeah, most of those attach to the side of the air conditioner with three screws, three short screws that hold it in against the air conditioner cabinet. At times, the rubber or the part of the accordion will break or crack away.  Some of them have a little channel that holds them in place, too.

 

MARY

This has a channel.

 

JOHN SOWDEN

Okay. It depends on the unit. If you get the model number off of the unit and go to our website, put the model number in and you'll see how the curtains are available:  if they come all in one piece or if you can just get that inner portion of the curtain itself, or the accordion.  The other thing you can try to do is, if it's just kind of pulled out of the existing one, you might be able to get some oversized washers and put them on the existing screws and get a little more surface area to hold them up against the air conditioner.

 

MARY

I looked at that but the accordion wouldn't even stay in the channel. It's probably three or four years old and I think I'll probably just have to replace the whole thing.

 

JOHN SOWDEN

Some of them, the outer U-shaped frame, you can reuse that. Others come as an assembly. It really just depends on the air conditioner, and being a Kenmore it could have been build by just about anybody.

 

MARY

Yeah, they do that, don't they? Okay, repaircenter.com?

 

JOHN SOWDEN

RepairClinic.com.

 

MARY

I've got it. Thank you so much!

 

1992 Frigidaire Upright Freezer Won't Stop Running After Manual Defrost

 

JOHN MCCULLOCH

Next we'll have a question from Arlene, in New Baltimore, about a chest freezer, here on the Appliance Repair Show.  Go ahead please, Arlene.

 

ARLENE

Yes, hi. I have an upright 21 cubic foot Frigidaire freezer. I defrosted it over the weekend and now it doesn't seem to shut off and the other thing is, if I slam the door it makes a gushing sound, like the Freons running all around crazy.

 

JOHN SOWDEN

Okay. This is a manual defrost unit?

 

ARLENE

Correct. I had let it go on too long. That was one problem.

 

JOHN SOWDEN

And so this has got three or four shelves in it, and each shelf is supposed to have a frost pattern?

 

ARLENE

Correct.

 

JOHN SOWDEN

Now inside, are all those shelves frosted over?

 

ARLENE

Well, I have it fairly full but everything feels frozen hard.

 

JOHN SOWDEN

I just mean, as far as the coils themselves on the shelves.

 

ARLENE

You mean you want me to look underneath and see? Yeah, I could do that.

 

JOHN SOWDEN

You should have a frost buildup or frost pattern on every shelf. So you say you defrosted it and put it back in operation and it has not shut off?

 

ARLENE

Well, I've been feeling the walls and each side gets warm. This morning they're not quite as warm, I don't know if that's good but each time I go down, it's still running.

 

JOHN SOWDEN

How long has it been since you defrosted it and then loaded it back up?

 

ARLENE

I'd say it's been a year. It was pretty built up with ice but I had it off, I'd say five or six hours when I let it totally defrost. 

 

JOHN SOWDEN

And when did you defrost it?

 

ARLENE

I defrosted it on Friday.

 

JOHN SOWDEN

Okay. So you defrosted it, and then you really only had it back in operation for twenty- four hours?

 

ARLENE

Right.

 

JOHN SOWDEN

Well, if you completely defrosted it and then you loaded it back up, it would run for quite a long time trying to recover.

 

ARLENE

Right, everything was frozen when I put it back in.

 

JOHN SOWDEN

Right, but you're still trying to complete a frost pattern on that whole coil and the unit will run for quite some time.  Now, the fact that it was warm on the outside, which is normal, and it's getting not as warm tells me that you're getting there.  Tomorrow if you notice that it's still running all the time and you are not...first thing I would do is put a thermometer (part # 19950055) in there and see what temperature you have, because things could be frozen but you have fifteen degrees in there. Most often when you defrost a unit like that, if there is a leak in the system, especially in the cooling coil, the low side of the system and you let it sit for a period of time, the refrigerant will leak out at a much greater pace because instead of having about three or four pounds of pressure on that coil, you then have the pressures equalized, so you now have sixty or seventy pounds of pressure pushing on the refrigerant.  So I would start by putting a thermometer (part # 19950055) in there and see what temperatures you have, and I would look at the frost pattern you have on every shelf. If you only have two thirds of the shelving or the evaporator coil is frosted over, that's also an indication of a low charge.

 

ARLENE

Where's the evaporator coil?

 

JOHN SOWDEN

That is every shelf on most of these.

 

ARLENE

Oh, I see.

 

JOHN SOWDEN

So you should have three or four shelves in there, and the actual shelf is what gets cold. There should be tubing running underneath each shelf.

 

ARLENE

Right, there is.

 

JOHN SOWDEN

So if all of those are not frosted over, then that's probably your problem; you might have had a leak. Now, you didn't use anything sharp to defrost it, did you?

 

ARLENE

No, I've done this many times with my old one, so I know not to do that.

 

JOHN SOWDEN

Okay, because this is the one thing that often happens.

 

ARLENE

No, I didn't do anything like that.

 

JOHN SOWDEN

But I would let it run and see, obviously keep the door closed. Put a thermometer (part # 19950055) in there and check it later on tonight or tomorrow for the temperature.

 

ARLENE

What do you want the thermometer to read?

 

JOHN SOWDEN

If it's working properly, it should read between zero and eight degrees.

 

ARLENE

I don't know. I had it on about a six. Does that sound right?

 

JOHN SOWDEN

I normally recommend setting the controls in the middle. If it's one through ten, set it on five or six. Keep the door closed, let it run because it normally takes twenty-four hours to straighten out. 

 

ARLENE

So if my coils are uneven then I have a leak? This was bought in 1992.

 

JOHN SOWDEN

Right. If the coils are uneven, you either have a slight leak in the system, and/or an inefficient compressor, meaning that the valves are worn and unable to push the refrigerant through the system efficiently enough to cycle off the thermostat and that's why it's running all the time.

 

ARLENE

And that would mean a new freezer, correct?

 

JOHN SOWDEN

Yes, either one of those, especially if the unit's sixteen years old, means new freezer time.

 

ARLENE

Okay sir. Thank you very much.

 

1989 Insinkerator Classic 700 Built-In Dishwasher has Water in the Bottom after Dry Cycle

 

JOHN MCCULLOCH

Here's George, in Pittsburgh, with a question on a dishwasher, here on the Appliance Repair Show. Go ahead please, George.

 

GEORGE

Hi, John. I'm driving between Buffalo and Erie. I had a question about a built-in Insinkerator Classic 700 dishwasher.

 

JOHN SOWDEN

Okay.

 

GEORGE

The problem is, after it finishes its cycle, I have a pool of water inside the unit under the dish tray. In other words, it's not draining.

 

JOHN SOWDEN

Right. How old is this dishwasher?

 

GEORGE

Late 1980's. Maybe 1989.

 

JOHN SOWDEN

Okay. That unit is actually made by Kitchen Aid.

 

GEORGE

Oh, okay!

 

JOHN SOWDEN

So, if you're looking for replacement parts, you can just go to our website and type in "Kitchen Aid Dishwasher Parts" and match them up that way if the model number for some reason doesn't work. There's probably one of three things that can cause this. First of all, is the water clean or dirty at the end of the cycle?

 

GEORGE

It's mostly clean. It might be a little...

 

JOHN SOWDEN

Okay. What can happen is the water valve can leak by and let water into the machine after the cycle is complete, so you'd have clean water in there. Normally if that's the case, you're going to find water in there almost all the time, whether you run it or not, and sometimes it will overflow. On this one I do believe it has a drain valve, which is a solenoid operated flapper valve that when it comes time to drain, it is energized and lets water run through there. It could be that has failed, or you have the notorious popcorn kernel or piece of glass or something blocking that port for it to drain.

 

GEORGE

Where is that usually located?

 

JOHN SOWDEN

If you remove the lower front panel, it's right out front there and you'll see the drain hose going in and out of it. The other thing this could be is that, when that unit runs, there are two impellers: one pushes water up through the wash arm assembly to circulate the water, and the other one is used to push the water out the drain.  If you've got any dishes that have been broken, or anything in there, you could break a fin or a vane off of that impeller so that it's turning but it's not pushing the water out with any force.  If that's the case you need to rebuild the motor seal and lower drain impeller for that unit. It comes as a kit.

 

GEORGE

Is that the unit that's in the center?

 

JOHN SOWDEN

Yes. You need to take off the wash arm and the strainer and disassemble the upper wash housing, remove the wash impeller, and start working your way down until you get to the motor seal and the drain impeller. The first thing I would do is make sure it's not clean water coming in, which would indicate the water valve is leaking. The other thing I would do is remove the hoses to the drain valve and see if there are any obstructions in there. If you've broken any glass or you find anything like that in the drain valve, I would still recommend replacing the motor seal and lower impeller kit because, normally what happens is the glass will poke a hole in that motor seal and water will leak into the motor bearings and then the repair gets a whole lot more expensive.

 

GEORGE

All right. Thank you very much; I appreciate it!

 

The Difference between a Window and a Casement Air Conditioner

 

JOHN SOWDEN

We're going to talk to Bob in Toledo.

 

JOHN MCCULLOCH

Okay, Bob in Toledo on NewsTalk 760 WJR. Go ahead.

 

BOB

Good morning, guys.  Hey, I'm a former Michigander traveling back from Missouri and out there we have a lot of window air conditioners. They're actually, in my circumstance, through the wall air conditioners. More permanent.

 

JOHN SOWDEN

Right.

 

BOB

So my question is, is there a difference between a window air conditioner and a wall air conditioner? I'm considering replacing some of them.

 

JOHN SOWDEN

They call those casement units, for which you build a square metal frame into your wall, and then the air conditioner slides into that.

 

BOB

Okay.

 

JOHN SOWDEN

Now the thing that I've seen people do that's not a good idea is, they will take a window air conditioner, which has the cabinet as part of its makeup, and try to slide them into that sleeve, and then you normally block a lot of airflow around the unit and they overheat. So you have to go apples to apples when you're replacing them. So if you're going to slide in another unit, it's got to be another casement unit that's made to have that type of surrounding framework around the case. 

 

BOB

And no doubt the sizes have changed since these ones?

 

JOHN SOWDEN

Yeah, that is the problem. What happens is, you'll build it in, ten or fifteen years later you want to replace it and there's some carpentry work or worse, masonry work at times to put a new sleeve in. You might want to surf the appliance stores because a lot of times you might be able to find one that's comparable, either a different brand or something of that nature that you can slide one in. So before you break out the hammer and saws and put in a new sleeve, I would exhaust the possibilities of finding a new one that would just slide in.

 

BOB

And related to all of this, is it practical or common to recharge these? That's really the only issue I'm seeing, is lack of real cooling power.

 

JOHN SOWDEN

Well, most often the problem on those is if it hasn't been cleaned in the last two or three years, I would just see if the condenser's not just packed on the back side of it.  That's probably what causes it to run and not blow cool air, is that you're high side pressure is way up there from dirt and debris, and if these are in the window all the time, they're picking up a lot of the dirt and stuff from the road or wherever it's located. So I would slide it out and look on the back side of the condenser, not the one you see from the outside of the house, but on the inside, and you'll probably find it packed. If that's the case then you can use a fire brush and you do need to do some disassembly and clean that up. From there, if it still doesn't cool well but it's running all the time, then yes, you probably have a leak. The responsible thing to do with that is to replace whatever coil has the leak in it and then recharge it; that way you're not just dumping refrigerant into the air.

 

BOB

Well, this is great stuff, guys! Thanks very much.

 

1997 Kenmore Dryer Unable to Get Old Light Bulb Out of the Socket

 

JOHN MCCULLOCH

Here's Julie, in Lansing, with a question on a dryer, our first dryer question of the day, here on the Appliance Repair Show. Go ahead please, Julie.

 

JULIE

Yes. I have a Kenmore dryer and I've ordered a light for it after the light finally burned out after eleven years. I got the model number, called it in, they sent me the part, and now I cannot get the darn light to come out.  I try to turn it to loosen it but it just will not loosen, and I'm afraid I'm going to break the glass. Is there some trick here that I don't know about?

 

JOHN SOWDEN

That's the little ten watt light bulb in the door area?

 

JULIE

Yes. I removed it from the housing and it swings out, but I cannot unscrew it!

 

JOHN SOWDEN

Yeah, those are not fun. You don't have any room to get your fingers around it between the housing and the light bulb. That is made to screw into the existing base, but obviously with ten or eleven years of heat, sometimes they get baked in there pretty well. You may end up breaking the existing bulb and having to take a small pair of pliers (part # D203-5) and dig out the base of the old bulb.

 

JULIE

Yeah.

 

JOHN SOWDEN

Or if it's something where you mess it up trying to do that, you may have to order a new socket for it and start over. But those are very hard to get out, and it's really just a matter of trying to get in there and really reef on it, but you can't get your hands on it because there's a hood that goes over it.

 

JULIE

Exactly. It's going to be a mess if it breaks!

 

JOHN SOWDEN

You might want to try a pair of mechanic's gloves or something like that. You obviously don't want to cut your hands, but I have no trick for that other than sometimes you end up breaking the bulb and then end up digging the light bulb socket out of the dryer. Or, you can order a new socket and start over but you're halfway there.

 

JULIE

All right. I thought I was doing something wrong there. I appreciate your help.

 

2006 Maytag Refrigerator Ice Maker Removal

 

JOHN MCCULLOCH

And here's a question on a Maytag refrigerator from Bob, in Oakland Township, on the Appliance Repair Show. Good morning, Bob! Go ahead please.

 

BOB

I don't have a broken refrigerator, but what I want to do is take it apart. When I bought this refrigerator two years ago, it came with a pre-installed ice maker.

 

JOHN SOWDEN

Okay.

 

BOB

And what I'd like to do, because I need freezer space to put other stuff in there and I don't use the ice maker; it's not connected. Can I, and how do I remove the ice maker?

 

JOHN SOWDEN

Well, the ice maker is retained by two clips which are held down by a screw at the top, and then normally one on the underside of the ice maker. If you remove those three screws, you can take the ice maker out; there's normally a quick disconnect plug for the wiring harness that you just unsnap the catch on that and slide the whole ice maker out with the wiring harness and then you should be able to slide the bucket out or whatever and you'll have more storage space that way.

 

BOB

I'm assuming, because there's water coming in, there's got to be a hole or something in the back to bring in the water line.

 

JOHN SOWDEN

Yeah, the fill tube is going to be in the back of the unit. Some of them will have a sleeve that you can remove as far as it goes from the fill tube to the ice maker. That will just pull off if you've got a plastic spout sticking out there. Other than that, once you disconnect the ice maker, you won't have to worry about any water getting in there, because the ice maker is what triggers the filling mechanism.

 

BOB

Will the hole allow the cold air to escape?

 

JOHN SOWDEN

No. The water line is just a tube that has a quarter-inch line on the outside and about a half-inch opening that goes into your freezer section. That tube is sealed, it goes right back to your water valve, which probably has water in it. So yeah, that's a sealed tube so you don't have to worry about any air leaks in that area.

 

BOB

Okay. Thanks for the information.

 

2001 Amana Top Mount Refrigerator Ice Maker Filling Intermittently

 

JOHN MCCULLOCH

And we'll go now for a question on an Amana top-mount freezer, with Paul in Allen Park, on the Appliance Repair Show. Good morning, Paul.

 

PAUL

Good morning. I have an Amana freezer on top refrigerator that's probably six or eight years old. The ice maker works sporadically. It will go along fine for a few days and then it will stop making ice. Now when I fill the ice maker manually, it starts producing ice again. I'm thinking maybe the water valve, but I just wanted to double check with you.

 

JOHN SOWDEN

The first thing you want to do is make sure that your freezer temperatures are correct, because intermittency can come from that. The ice maker mold has to sense about a fifteen degree temperature or less on the mold itself before it will cycle. So it's possible that you could have another problem in the refrigerator, even though everything seems pretty frozen. You wouldn't notice it, and yet it's not cold enough to cycle the ice maker. If the freezer temperature is okay and it's intermittent where sometimes it fills and sometimes it doesn't, it could be in the water inlet valve, as you described, or it could be in the ice maker head assembly. There's a series of switches inside there so as it goes around it triggers the fill cycle for seven seconds; it could be that's intermittent. Now you say, when it stops, is it that it stops filling or it just stops cycling?

 

PAUL

It stops filling. I can put my finger in and there's no water in it at all.

 

JOHN SOWDEN

Okay, so it digs it out and then there's no water coming in?

 

PAUL

Right.

 

JOHN SOWDEN

Well, you can manually cycle that ice maker. If you go to our website, RepairClinic.com and go to the Repair Guru section, you can log in and we have a nice lengthy document on how to, and you can print it off and set it next to your refrigerator and it tells you how to test cycle the ice maker. You need to jump out a few terminals on the ice maker face and manually harvest it, and then from there you can see whether or not it's filling. You can also check at the water valve then and see if you're getting the right voltage to it. So in your test-cycle, if you're getting power to the water valve when you're supposed to but it's not filling, then I would replace the water inlet valve. If you're not, then I would replace the ice maker head assembly; frankly the ice maker heads are about sixty or seventy bucks and you can get a new ice maker for a hundred bucks, so I'd just replace the whole thing if it's got any mileage on it whatsoever.

 

PAUL

Right.

 

JOHN SOWDEN

And it's just easier to install, to put a new one in.

 

PAUL

Okay. So you said the temperature in the freezer should be at least fifteen degrees or colder?

 

JOHN SOWDEN

Zero to eight degrees is what you're looking for but it does have to be fifteen degrees or colder in the ice maker mold itself in order for that to cycle. So if you have a lot of door openings, or other problems in the system that's not cooling to its full capacity, you'll have intermittent problems with the ice maker too.

 

PAUL

Okay, great. Thank you so much for your help.