The ice maker in my Kenmore Elite 106.505.92003 side-by-side is very HOT. Hot enough to burn when touched. I checked a little while ago and felt hot water in the cube trays. A short while later the water seemed to be freezing. There is no new ice in the bin and the entire ice maker is burning hot. I replaced the entire ice maker unit a couple of years ago.
Do I need to replace again?
Does the front end of your ice maker look like this?
If it does the only way it could get that hot are if somebody left a jumper wire in between T and H on the front or if the thermostat was stuck “on” inside the gear head.
I’m pretty sure they also have a thermal fuse on the ice mold that should stop any overheating.
I can’t see anything that looks like the picture you posted. However, having replaced the ice maker once before, I know that replacement part is Supco RIM597.
Also, no repair work was done before this problem started so there’s no way it could be the jumper. The ice maker has been working fine since I replaced it a couple of years ago. Only issue is that cubes sometimes get stuck in the fingers preventing anything from happening until cleared.
I would have used a Whirlpool ice maker, but the Supco is supposed to be a replacement for the original.
The Supcos are dirt cheap on Epay, so I’d just replace it before it destroys something. At the price they are, they are not really worth messing with.
Thanks very much for the help. If the fridge weren’t already 17+ years old I’d probably go with the Whirlpool OEM since the first Supco only lasted a couple of years. But since it likely will last only another couple of years, another dirt-cheap Supco it is.
I got the replacement ice maker installed. No big deal, I’ve done it before. Unfortunately, after more than 12 hours, no ice. The plastic fingers have moved but the tray hasn’t been filled with water. I unplugged the fridge for 30 sec after replacing to make sure everything reset.
What might I have done wrong? Or, might something else have gotten fried when the ice maker got painfully hot?
Have you checked the inline thermal fuse that clips onto the ice maker?
fuse.jpg (39.4 KB)
I have not checked the thermal fuse. Since it’s part of the new ice maker unit I just installed, would that indicate the unit itself is defective? I assume I would check for continuity but I don’t see any test points. How do I test?
Following some info I found elsewhere, I tested across points L-N on the ice maker and found no voltage. I then removed the optics received board and tested across pins 3 (blk) and 8 (wht) on the connector and found 120V. This supposedly indicates that the optice boards are bad. I then installed a jumper across pins 3 and 4 (blk/wht) which supposedly bypasses the control boards. As soon as I installed the jumper wire the ejector fingers made one complete revolution. However, the unit still has not made any ice.
What do I check next? I don’t want to spend the money for new boards unless I know they’re going to solve the problem.