I finally figured out why my ice maker kept freezing up

So I was working on a customer's fridge last Tuesday in Austin, and I noticed the ice maker was making this weird clicking sound before it jammed. I thought it was the water inlet valve again, but after pulling it apart I saw the mold heater was barely warm to the touch. Turns out the thermistor was reading 10 degrees off, so the heater wasn't kicking on long enough to release the cubes. I replaced the thermistor for like $12 and it's been running smooth for a week now. Has anyone else had a similar issue where a tiny sensor causes the whole ice maker to fail? I'm wondering if there's a better way to test those thermistors without just swapping them out.

3 comments

3 Comments

casey_campbell27d ago

Man I can barely get my thermometer right on a turkey let alone a fridge sensor.

joseph_lewis9227d ago

The "barely get my thermometer right" thing is real though. It's funny how we've got all this tech for our fridges and ovens but half the time I'm just guessing if the turkey is done by poking it. Makes me think about how we overcomplicate stuff in general. You see it with people buying expensive smart thermostats for their house but then they just crank the heat up and down manually anyway. I swear half the gadgets in my kitchen are just there to make me feel bad about not using them right.

blair_dixon26d ago

Haha @casey_campbell the turkey thing is so true. Last thanksgiving I pulled the bird out at 145 degrees according to my probe but then my old school pop up timer hadn't even popped yet. I ended up just stabbing it with a knife to check and it was fine. My "smart" fridge tells me when the milk is gonna expire but I still sniff test everything anyway. I got a fancy meat thermometer with Bluetooth and I've literally never used the app for it.