Why is my ice maker... icing up?

[Hippy Hollow]

We have a Frigidaire side-by-side fridge/freezer combo for about 6 years, and it's been working wonderfully. I went a considerable time without dispensing the ice, and decided to push the dispenser... no result. When I opened the freezer, there was frost and ice all around the dispenser mechanism. So I pulled out the dispenser, removed the ice, and put it all back - everything worked fine for a day or so, but then the ice returned.

It will dispense, but it's crushed ice instead of the usual cubes. And it makes that godawful noise (presumably, the motor coming to life and knocking the ice loose. I can't imagine that there's water leaking. The freezer is pretty full, mostly with microwaveable veggies.

Any ideas what might be causing this? While there's ice in the receptacle, I've turned off the ice maker so it won't accumulate. The tray is not quite flush - it's crooked by a few centimeters - but that's how it's always been.

Thanks for any suggestions!

[Dewey Finn]

Perhaps the refrigerator has a setting to deliver crushed ice instead of cubed ice, and perhaps you changed the setting. Do you have the manual?

[Princhester]

Sounds like two issues. As Dewey says, the fact it is now delivering crushed ice is probably due to you having inadvertantly changed to the crushed ice setting that you didn't know you had. The crusher makes an ogawful noise.

I think the usual reason for very fast icing up is that the door isn't closing properly allowing humid air into the freezer.

[Max Torque]

My mother-in-law had a freezer once that was stuck on the "crushed ice" setting. My theory was that some ice or water got into the mechanism that activates the extra ice-crushing bit of the auger, sticking it in the "on" position; when you flipped the switch back, the auger tried to release the crusher, but it stayed on. In my freezer, it's controlled by one little recessed lever behind the ice bucket.

If that's in fact the problem, you have a few choices: you can attempt to manually unstick the lever, which may break it. You can empty your freezer and allow it to thaw, which would melt the ice that's causing the sticking. Or, you can find the troubled frozen spot and hit it with a hair dryer or other source of warmth to melt the ice, then clean it up.

[Ca3799]

The two issues I have with my in-door ice maker junking up are:

1) the metal spring arm that fills and dumps the ice cubes seems to be sticking erratically. Sometimes I can't get ice from the in-door dispenser (just noise) and find a big frozen block of ice cubes in the tray.

2) when the kids don't shut the door completely, the ice chute in the door becomes frosted with a thick layer of ice, which blocks the cube chute. Sometimes closing the refrigerator door causes the freezer door to open a very small amount, allowing this frost build up.

Mine also has an under-the-paint rust streak from leaking water running down the front, but it came that way. The drip pan under the ice/water dispenser is not a drain, just a small catch basin.

My fridge is a Maytag plus- a hand-me-down from my M-I-L. She warned me that I didn't want it, but I really did as it was newer and better than my old machine. Plus, I really wanted that in door water and ice dispenser. It is a cranky cuss, thought.

[Hippy Hollow]

I don't think it's the crushed ice setting, but I'll look into it. What's more likely is that the door is not sealing correctly... the fridge is pretty stuffed, so maybe the weekend project is to unstuff and see if that makes a difference.

Thanks for the suggestions!

[aceplace57]

The other option is to disconnect the water and use the fridge without the defective ice maker. I think you may have a small leak around the seals in the ice maker.

Its probably not worth replacing the ice maker. the fridge may still have a few more good years of life. Pick up a couple ice trays at Walmart.