Oh, the mundanity!

[mondhasen]

My two year old refrigerator's ice maker has given up the ghost: it appears that an ice cube jammed the mechanism and caused the unit to stop half-way into a cycle. I don't know how long it was stuck like this, a couple of days perhaps, but all my attempts to revive the device have failed. In fact, it went from cycling-but-not-producing-ice to stopping cold (yuck) in cycle with all its fingers raised in a salute to me.

I love the Internet, particularly YouTube, for repair hints and advice. From this I learned the intimate details of:
- How an ice maker works, and how many things can cause it to do otherwise.
- How to uninstall your ice maker and water valve (and how to remove your bottom mount freezer door). This was necessary for thawing out the machine, and blowing out water lines (ice block check). This was also good for looking for corrosion in the tray.
- How to perform continuity/resistance tests of components using your antique dust-covered multi-meter without having to uninstall all the above mentioned components, only to not trust your readings and pull everything anyway. Here I also learned that my meter contained batteries, quite corroded, that were decades old *embarrassed grin*.

The first video I watched actually contained the most sage wisdom: replace the unit(s) versus the components to save time & frustration! I spent at least four hours fussing with this problem: I unloaded the freezer twice and disconnected the water line three times: at least I'm 98% convinced this will solve the problem (I noticed that my water pressure at the valve was weak, but it may have always been like this). Tomorrow I shall round up a new maker and valve!

Comments

[sabotlours.livejournal.com]

I feel your pain! I had my ice machine stop working a few years ago. I replaced the valve and that did the trick. Unfortunately the rest of the refrigerator gave up the ghost a couple of moths ago, so like life itself, it was all for nothing.

[mondhasen.livejournal.com]

My basement fridge, from 1975, only just died last summer due to our piercing the freon line during manual defrost. I'm on my fourth damn kitchen unit since moving in here in 1985!

[c-eagle.livejournal.com]

Only 2 years? eeeesh! ;/ .. at least the fix was a success? :}

[mondhasen.livejournal.com]

The only success is that I at least understand how it works, and what I can do to resolve it without getting a technician here. ;o)

[moxie_man]

We don't have an ice maker. We had to special order our fridge in order to avoid having one. I don't like them. Neither of us use much ice, so if we want ice we use old fashion ice cube trays. By eliminating the useless ice maker, we have more room for other things in the freezer and several less components that can fail in the fridge.

[mondhasen.livejournal.com]

I never wanted an ice maker- my mom's made yucky tasting cubes to the point I'd drink warm beverages before asking for ice. Our last fridge had our first ice maker: with seven of us us here I enjoyed the convenience of not finding empty trays. This unit had the best damn ice machine ever, pumping out delicious cubes constantly.

That said, we have two refrigerators (only one with an ice maker) and an old upright freezer (1982). There's plenty of room for frozen items but still no one wants to keep the ice trays full :o)

[porsupah.livejournal.com]

Yep, it's rarely worth component level repair these days, whether on a fridge, or computers. That said, I would still like to have a bash at replacing the SMC on my previous MBP, as it was otherwise a solid workhorse, and I rather miss its 17" display. (MBPs now top out at 15", albeit with higher resolution, 1.5x the former's 1920x1200)

No ice maker here. I just use ice trays, whilst the roomie tends to stash bags of bought ice cubes.

Two years, though? Is it still under warranty, either from the manufacturer, or possibly as a result of using a credit card? That does seem a distinctly brief lifespan.

[mondhasen.livejournal.com]

moxie_man, above, has the best term for these devices: "dumpster ready." At least the device is easily removed, and the supplied test ports did give me some information. As far as the MacBook (*snicker* I looked that acronym up as I'm just an old PC-clone guy from way back) it's fun to attack these machines sometimes to do a bit of maintenance and upgrading. They're like cars, only infinitely more tweakable and within the skillset of many many users.

A measly one year only: I didn't op for the extended warranty, thinking it a waste of money. I'll still be ahead if I replace the components (~$90 & maybe shipping) and nothing else goes amiss. Some of these warranties also only cover parts, and they must be installed by certified repair folk, so I'm still ok.

Starting with those 'repair your appliance for under $50' books back in the 90's and moving along to the Internet in the aughts, I've had some luck at keeping things running without tradespeople mucking around the place. Too bad I don't retain my knowledge between instances.

[moxie_man]

Actually, the term comes from my brother who is in the electronics repair/installation business (high end these days as everything else is "dumpster ready"). One of his accounts is the local private Ivy League wannabe college ($50K/yr tuition) installing audio-visual touch panels in all the lecture halls/rooms and maintaining said equipment that goes with it.

I didn't catch the two years at first. In Maine, you'd be able to argue with the company. We have a law on the books that automatically extends warranties out to either 3 or 4 years on most purchases. I can't remember at the moment. The state's attorney general's office has a downloadable form letter from the AG that you can forward to the retailer you bought the item from to remind them of this law if they give you trouble with "warrantied" repair.