Oh, the mundanity!
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!
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!