Freezer ice maker question

[Craig D Peltier]

My Freezer in my fridge has an icemaker. Almost every day sometimes several times I have to take the tray out above ice box and loosen the ice row that doesnt slide off into the ice bin. When it sits on there stuck no more ice is being made. Usually comes at bad times when there no ice at drink time!
Anyways I have tried to rub some vegetable oil on the prongs ( there plastic) very lightly, it worked for a few days.
Only other thing I can think of is making it colder maybe ice wont stick, but its like 5 degrees I believe in there.
Any ideas? Sears service call is $119 just for coming here before anything else.

[Pat Germain]

Not sure if temperature is the problem, but your freezer should be right at zero farenheit. It would be a good idea to make sure the coils are clean and dust free.Then adjust the setting until it stays at zero.

[Mitchell Andrus]

Sounds like the timer is thawing a little too long softening up the surface of the cubes too much, so they re-freeze on another cold surface. You can change this yourself if you can find the part. I did it, 5 minute job. the timer was just inside the lower service grill IIRC.
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[Joe Pelonio]

We used to have a Sears that did that, and eventually the plastic gears would strip out when it tried to move and was jammed. After replacing the unit twice we gave up on it and left it off. That was an older, late 80's unit. Now we have a Frigidaire ice in door, and that happens maybe once a year. When it does, I can see that the ice has not been used enough, so the bin is full and cannot fall in all the way so a few cubes stay where they get hit by the freezing tray. In winter when we use less ice I try to keep an eye on it and either turn it off or empty the bin.

One other possibility is that the self-defrost is being impeded a lack of air circulation above the icemaker, if you have shelves above it and they are packed with food items.

[Craig D Peltier]

So you are saying, after the cubes freeze, theres a moment of self defrost so they can be flipped up onto the picks that let them slide down into the bin? That would explain them refreezing on there I guess but not sure what to do about that exactly to know if thats it.. Mine is a frigidaire 5 years old. It has an tray above it, I have some frozen egg white containers on it but thats it.


We used to have a Sears that did that, and eventually the plastic gears would strip out when it tried to move and was jammed. After replacing the unit twice we gave up on it and left it off. That was an older, late 80's unit. Now we have a Frigidaire ice in door, and that happens maybe once a year. When it does, I can see that the ice has not been used enough, so the bin is full and cannot fall in all the way so a few cubes stay where they get hit by the freezing tray. In winter when we use less ice I try to keep an eye on it and either turn it off or empty the bin.

One other possibility is that the self-defrost is being impeded a lack of air circulation above the icemaker, if you have shelves above it and they are packed with food items.


Not sure if temperature is the problem, but your freezer should be right at zero farenheit. It would be a good idea to make sure the coils are clean and dust free.Then adjust the setting until it stays at zero.

I lowered it to zero to see if that helps, it was at 6 degrees.

[Craig D Peltier]

Sounds like the timer is thawing a little too long softening up the surface of the cubes too much, so they re-freeze on another cold surface. You can change this yourself if you can find the part. I did it, 5 minute job. the timer was just inside the lower service grill IIRC.
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I will look at my parts book to see if I can locate it. Thanks for idea.

[Joe Pelonio]

The defrost cycle circulates warm air to remove the frost from the coils, and during that time will allow anything stuck to fall. If you place a tray of ice in a freezer and leave it a few weeks, all the ice will disappear, because the defrost cycle evaporates it. There's actually a heater that comes on for about 1/2 hour every 6 hours and fans.

Remember the old ones that you had to defrost manually every year or so?

[Mitchell Andrus]

Remember the old ones that you had to defrost manually every year or so?

I remember my mom grabbing almost every towel in the house.... and using a hair dryer to defrost the freezer.
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[Ronald Blue]

The "fingers" that eject the cubes should rest at about the 3 o'clock position when the cycle completes unless yours works differently then any ice makers I have had experience with. Has it always done this or just recently started? Have you pulled the cover off the end and inspected the plastic gears? Also an icemaker is pretty easy to replace and I am sure you could get one online for less the $100. Good luck.

[Craig D Peltier]

The "fingers" that eject the cubes should rest at about the 3 o'clock position when the cycle completes unless yours works differently then any ice makers I have had experience with. Has it always done this or just recently started? Have you pulled the cover off the end and inspected the plastic gears? Also an icemaker is pretty easy to replace and I am sure you could get one online for less the $100. Good luck.
It started about 9 months ago. I have pulled it completely out before but not looked at the gears. When the fingers turn , it flops the ice onto another set of fingers in front of the tray, thats where it gets stuck. Guess a pic might help.

[Curt Harms]

We have a Kenmore Elite fridge which had a fan fail. I couldn't even find the flippin' thing. We called a local guy, he was here in a couple hours, replaced the fan and all up cost a couple years ago was $110.

[jackie gates]

Anyways I have tried to rub some vegetable oil on the prongs ( there plastic) very lightly, it worked for a few days.
.[/QUOTE]

I have an older Kenmore freezer ice maker, that stopped dropping it cubes. The tray rotates and is slightly twisted and the cubes are loosened and they fall out into the ice bin. This is the same principal that is used with a manual ice tray. I coated the tray with veg oil because it has a sandy feel to its surface and the cubes would'nt come out, as you said it worked for a few days, only. The sandy surface was due to hard water scale. I replaced the tray about 4 years ago , and no more trouble.

[Ed Hazel]

My whirlpool basically did the same thing the cubes would jam it up I ended up getting a complete new ice maker unit off Ebay for under 50 bucks I think. Took care of it.

[Dan Hintz]

If you place a tray of ice in a freezer and leave it a few weeks, all the ice will disappear, because the defrost cycle evaporates it.
I always thought that was due to a light sublimation process over a period of months. It won't happen in a few weeks, but if I leave a full tray in for 6 months, give or take, I'll come back to a light frosting of hard water scale at the bottom of every well and nothing else.

[Ruhi Arslan]

There is a heater on the ice maker to release the ice from the mold. Yes, you read it right. There is heater to break the bound. You need to replace it. They are about $40-50. It is easy to do. Find the correct part number form a site such as partselect.com and search it on ebay to get it for the half the price.

[Craig D Peltier]

Thanks, I need to get back on this again. Lately whenever I open fridge I just pull em off the fins that flip em over, so its the fins there stuck on which are plastic.