Hello,

My KitchenAid (photo of info label attached) ice-maker works intermittently (maybe two cycles/day).

• After ice-eject, tray fills with water, water freezes, but doesn't eject for several hours. I get about three cycles per 24hrs.
  
• When flapper is closed, light blinks twice between one-second pauses.
  
• I removed & thawed ice-maker module overnight; no change.
  
• When in doubt, wiggle stuff! Oddly,giggling the ice-making module seems to induce an eject-cycle.

I'm a retired electrical engineer so I'm capable of make any diagnostic voltage measurements.

Thanks in advance. You guys helped me fix my electric stove for about $75 when two local yokels quoted me $700.

..
Joe

I'm sorry, but I misread the sense of the question about the light. In fact, it pulses twice followed by a one second pause when the flap is OPEN.

When the flap is closed, it is steady on.

Sorry about the false start here.

..
Joe

Well, I replaced both boards--but no joy. The visible red LED still blinks even when the flapper door is closed.

I see no way I could have gotten either Molex connector reversed because of the plastic interlocks.

Since the detector LED is not in the visible spectrum (or if it I can't see it), I have no way of knowing whether the transmitter or the receiver board is defective.

On the remote possibility I got one or more bad board, I've asked for replacements. I'd be very surprised if the current replacements are defective, though.

Any thoughts?

I'm among the several million people who lost electrical power about 10 days ago. For seven days I stayed at a motel, ate out, and was generally miserable in 100-plus daytime temps. When it became clear that the power wasn't coming on soon, I emptied my fridge, gave it a DEEP cleaning--then flipped its breaker to OFF. (During this week the new optical boards arrived.)

Yesterday was my first day with power restored. Before turning on the breaker to the fridge, I replaced the two optical boards. (I'm a retired EE, so I have confidence that I installed them correctly.)

After replacing them I made sure:
(1) the optics lenses are clear (in fact, they're new)
(2) the slide switch was On, the flapper door was closed, and nothing was blocking the optic beam."

Under these conditions, the red LED would blink regardless of the position of the flapper door; the diagnostics I've read here (and those that came with the boards) indicated that the LED should remain steadily ON. Nevertheless, the ice maker has, in fact, make some ice--about a half a bucket full in the approx twenty hours since I replaced the optical boards.

I just now noticed your final test condition: "and the door switch is untouched." I had never closed the door switch as part of any of my earlier tests, so I just now went down and retested with the door switch taped in the OFF position. The internal light bulb goes dark, as, of course, does the LED. After an hour, no new ice has been made.

With respect to the instructions for "Manually Starting an IDI Ice Maker," I assume that since my unit has been making ice--albeit slowly--this test may be unnecessary. If you still wish me to perform the test, I'll need a diagram showing where test-points T and H are located.

Thanks,
Joe