Hi All,

I have a 1.5 year old Sears Kenmore Elite Side By Side Fridge (made by Kitchenaid). I've been having problems with the ice maker. It works for a litle while, then it eventually stops producing cubes.

here's the scenario - I downloaded the ice maker's service manual (thanks to this great forum) and was able to get my ice maker running again. It looked like the system was jamming after a while and would not take the old cubes out to make room for the new ones. So I disconnected the ice making unit then let it defrost. Once I reconnected the system, the unit functioned well and made several batches of ice. Eventually, however, the system failed and the cubes got stuck again in the unit.

It looks like the system is unable to completely dump the existing cubes out before it starts making a new batch. If I look in the ice maker I see a set of cubes standing on end, frozen in a new batch of cubes. Once the machine gets in this state, it can no longer continue to make and harvest more cubes.

Does anyone have an idea on what might be wrong with the system? I have attached a photo of the cubes stuck in the tray (standing on their ends). Any idea of what tests I can do to isolate and correct the problem?

Is the heater not working correctly to melt the cubes before the harvest cycle? Or is there an issue with the harvest motor?

Thanks!

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Folks - I have some more info regarding my icemaker. I checked it again and it appears that it eventually does complete a cycle. I heard more cubes fall into the ice bin. When I checked it, I noticed that the cubes were irregular shaped. They had an "L" shape (see attached image).

it looks like the ejector bar doesn't make it all of the way around and the cubes get stuck on end. Then the system starts a new cycle and the stuck cubes freeze to the old cubes.

It looks like eventually the system some how gets back in synch and is able to complete the harvest with the "L" shaped cubes then move on. Eventually the problem occurs again and the "L" shaped cubes form again (after a batch or two of normal crescent shaped cubes).

Any suggestions on what might be going on? Do you think I have some damaged teeth on the gears that drive the ejector bar or something?

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This is something I have not seen before, I'm clueless on this problem. Hopefully another tech. or member that has seen this happen can help shed some light on this issue.

Jake

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Have you had any luck with this issue? My icemaker has just started doing the exact same thing, teeth stopping at the 8 o'clock position with cubes frozen, sticking up.

Joneser,

No idea what the problem is. I haven't done any detailed diagnosis yet - been too busy. Mine works intermittently. I THInk something might be stuck in the gears or something, but I've defrosted the unit twice and I still get the same problem. The machine works sometimes, and then doesn't work at other times. I always have cubes in the tray, but the machine fails to harvest them.