Automatic icemaker cycling rate -- adjustable?

Factual Questions
1

Our automatic ice maker has been giving us problems for the past few weeks. Before the problem arose, the icemaker would produce enough ice to fill the bin within a couple of days, even with moderate-to-heavy ice usage by us. Lately, ice production has fallen off considerably, and we don’t get a full bin of ice, even if we go for a couple of days without using any.

I have called around to various home improvement-type stores, and asked if a drop-off like this is likely to be caused by an old in-line water filter that will restore capacity when it is replaced. Of course, the answer has always been “Yes.” They sell replacement filters. What else would they say?

Our refrigerator-freezer is still in warranty, and we had a serviceman out last week to investigate the problem. He checked the size of the cubes that it does produce, and determined that the problem is not related to any loss of pressure in the feed line, and said that an expired filter is not the likely cause. His explanation was that with the heat wave we’ve been going through, we need to lower the temperature settings in both the freezer and the refrigerator to obtain the same amount of cooling that we get with less intense settings in cooler weather. He also changed the icemaker control unit, as a precaution. There doesn’t seem to have been any significant improvement in this (even though we did buy a replacement filter anyway – it was over a year old).

ISTM that the rate at which an automatic icemaker produces ice is based entirely upon time-related factors" the time required to fill the trays with water, the time required for the water to freeze, the time required for the eject mechanism to push the ice out, and a preset interval for the system to wait before beginning a new cycle. Shouldn’t this cycling time be adjustable? If I take an access cover off the control module I see a little wheel that rotates when the system is changing conditions, and I also see an unlabeled slotted shaft that looks like a screwdriver adjustment. I’m afraid to just monkey with this without some idea what it will do.

Anyone have any ideas about whether I can use this to increase the procuction rate?

2

You can’t adjust it, at least easily. Once the mold is filled, chilling continues until the mold temp stat verifies ‘frozen’, at which point the mold heater energizes to allow harvest, while the harvest fingers sweep cubes, semi-circular crescents or other ice shapes into the receiver. Filter restriction will cause smaller cubes, crescents, or whatever, because the fill cycle is time based.

In an non-air conditioned home, ice production would likely fall off during extreme heat. Have you cleaned the dust bunnies out from under the refrigerator?

3

Ah. Now I get it. I began wonder how a strictly time-based operation would contend with a constantly-cycling unit in a freezer compartment that never achieved 0[sup]o[/sup]C. Dust bunny check was negative, btw.

Thanks for the clarification on the operation of the unit.

4

You may be having problems with the fill container switch. Ice makers have some typ of mecanical switch that stops the production of cubes, when the storage area is full, It should return to the on postion when the ice cubes get used. In the future, if water is filling the mold, then the filter isn’t the problem. Did you set the freezer colder, because that does matter in the summer.

5

Does the ice maker ever seem to “dry cycle” and not produce any ice even though it’s going through the motions? If so, my first guess would a bad connection at the fill valve, preventing it from activating, or the valve may be sticking. (At least it’s not sticking in the “on” position, or you’d have a flood.)

As a point of reference, I was once told by a GE tech that the ice maker in that particuar GE fridge I had would cycle every 75-90 minutes, depending on how cold the freezer was set.