[drowe30]

I have an under the counter Kenmore icemaker that came with a house we purchased, the icemaker is about 4 years old. After we moved in I cleaned the icemaker, fixed the cutting grid and it worked OK for a while.

We had a bad thunderstorm a few months ago with a couple of power surges and the unit stopped working completely. I replaced the main water pump and the control board last week. When I first turned the unit back on the water reservoir filled up, the main recirculating pump kicked on for about a minute and then shut off. The water reservoir keeps filling overflows into the hopper and the drain pump kicks on.

I turned the unit off, than tried the cleaning cycle. The main recirculating pump did turn on, the water circulated and heated up. The unit ran over an hour, past the 45 minute cleaning cycle, so I turned it off.

I drained the water, turned it on, the reservoir fills up but the main pump will not run for a normal ice making cycle.

I called the Sears repair guy, he showed up and I knew more about how the icemaker worked than he did. I sent him on his way.

What I know works:

1. Inlet valve
2. Drain pump
3. Main pump in cleaning cycle
4. Heating Cycle

What would prevent the unit from going into the ice making cycle???

One person suggested that it might be the reversing valve on the refrigeration system?

If I replaced the valve would I need to re-service the unit with refrigerant? Any other suggestions?

[no1hog]

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[no1hog]

I think I have the same problem. Did you determine if the reversing valve was an issue and whether or not you had to break into the refrigerant line to replace it? Thanks

[drowe30]

I found a guy near me that works on ice machines and broke down and took it to him. It was not the reversing valve, in-between the drain tank and the drain pump there is a screen filter in the drain line that was clogged. If the drain tank fills up and does not drain, there is a float switch that prevents the unit from going into the ice making cycle. There is no warning or suggested cleaning or checking in the owners manual !!!

To check the screen and line, go behind the unit, on the bottom is a black plastic tank that is held in by a bracket with two screws. Unscrew the bracket and remove the black tank and you will see the drain line screen filter, it is about the size of a garden hose line. It is a bit of a pain getting the clamp back on when you are done, I would suggest that you replace the spring hose clamp with a better screw type hose clamp.