An ice maker is a nice feature to have on any refrigerator, one that tends to get a lot of use. Unfortunately, they can also be the first part to wear out on the appliance. It is frustrating needing to find College Station TX ice maker repair service because it usually happens when you need ice the most. Understanding how this gadget actually works on a refrigerator can be helpful in understanding what needs to be repaired.
Ice Maker – How Ice Is Made
Ice makers on today’s refrigerators are automatic; they do not require being filled with water, only to be connected to a water source through a valve on the appliance. Through that valve, the unit feeds itself when necessary to make more ice, a process that takes about 2 hours. A sensor determines when the collection bin is not full, opens the valve to fill the cube tray, and then closes the valve afterward.
Once the ice is frozen, the tray is slightly warmed to loosen the cubes; they are harvested by a harvesting arm that tilts the tray upward to dump cubes into a chute. Ice fresh from the cube trays is smooth, so it slides right out of the maker and into the container below. The process is simple, reasonably short, and in two hours can produce a batch of perfect ice cubes and continue to make more until the container inside the freezer is full.
Ice Maker – Problems
A main problem that consumers experience with ice makers is cubes being stuck together which blocks the discharge chute or finding icicles hanging from the outside of the unit. If an ice maker fails to make ice, it could be a result of the chute being blocked, which the machine interprets as the container being full. In either case, stuck together cubes or icicles on the unit often means the flow of water into the trays is too high and must be reduced. It can be done very simply by carefully adjusting the valve control on the ice maker. Beyond this, it is usually more worthwhile to call an ice maker repair service in College Station TX for help.
Sometimes cubes can get stuck if the Teflon coating on the cube tray and other interior parts of the machine has become damaged or dirty. Minerals and contaminants in the water can cause this if the icemaker does not have a built-in water filter. When this happens, the cubes are not smooth coming out of the tray, which can prevent them from sliding easily from the tray, through the unit, and out the chute.
Besides these common problems, parts within the unit just wear out after a while. The thermostat controls multiple functions; if that goes bad, the entire unit will stop working. The mechanical harvesting and bail arms will cease to function if the small motor in the icemaker breaks and the cube tray heat will stop releasing cubes.
Ice Maker – Repair vs. Replacement
Unless the problem is related to water pressure, in some cases the best option is to replace the entire icemaker, rather than repair it. Even though the parts are few – only about 8 total – and the mechanism is simple, accessing it all is the biggest challenge. It may sometimes be more cost-effective to replace the entire icemaker; however, a company that does ice maker repair can advise whether repair or replacement is the better option.
The automatic icemaker of today is much more convenient than it has ever been; however, due to constant use, it is likely to fail after a while. Consumers should not become frustrated when this happens. An affordable remedy may be only as far away as a phone call to a local ice maker repair service in College Station TX – make that call so your icemaker can get back to making ice!