Hi. I have a Kenmore Coldspot Model 51562101. Recently we were renovating our kitchen, so we disconnected our water connection. When I put the fridge back and reattached the water connection, we had water from the water dispenser and ice for 1-2 days. Then it stopped making ice at all, and only dispenses water.

My neighbor suggested there might be a kink in the line from the water to the fridge, so this weekend I replaced it with a nylon hose. Still no luck.

I did some searching on-line, and last night we removed the actual ice maker itself (just remove one screw and it pulls out), and there is no ice frozen in there, so it would appear that this unit is OK, and that there may be a clog in the line to the ice maker.

We opened up the back of the fridge, and you have the single line in, which then goes to the filter in the front of the fridge, then back where it splits into two lines -- one for the water dispenser, and one for the ice dispenser. I'm afraid I don't know quite what to look for in a clog.. One plastic tube comes back out of the fridge and goes up to the freezer area, and I'm assuming this is the tube to the ice maker. It appears OK, although at the top where it goes back in there is some white discoloration, which I'm not sure is just what happens when you bend a white plastic tube, or some sort of sediment. Could someone suggest something more specific about what I supposed to do at this point? Take the whole tube off? Put a whole new tube in? Carefully blow dry it?

Two other small points: 1) While down on our knees in the back of the fridge, we observed what I now know to be the Evaporator Tray with another tube dripping some droplets of water in there. The tray is 1/3 full of water with some mold on top. I assume we just take this out and empty it, and that this just fills up and evaporates ocassionally?, and 2) many tutorials recommend checking the "arm" of the ice maker to see if it's in the correct position. However, in the case of our Coldspot, there is no arm, but a push-in lever on the ice bucket side of the fridge that senses if the bucket is full. Is there some way we're supposed to test this?

Sorry for the long-windedness, and any help would be appreciated. Thanks!

For the icemaker: it's very likely that the water line to the icemaker is frozen. It's usually the last section of the line which is frozen. You need to open the freezer and inspect the last part of the line where it comes to the icemaker.

You can take a turkey baster and get some hot water on the frozen part of the line to defrost it. This part of the line is usually frozen when there is low or no water pressure to the refrigerator, which is quite a possibility since you were having your kitchen remodeled and the water turned off.

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Thanks for the quick response. I guess my question is--how would I inspect this? The plastic line goes into the back of the freezer, and then you don't see it again until you see the black nozzle inside the freezer that fills the icemaker. Are you supposed to pull it out and somehow place it back? Or do I just do as you suggest and force some hot water up inside it with a turkey baster?

Thanks again for your help.

Hot water with a turkey baster is the best way, just shot it in from inside the freezer above your ice maker, inside that black rubber tube. You can also run something in there, like a small wire or hose to see if an ice clog is further in there.

Jake

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Thanks for the advice. Last night we did the following:

1) ran hotwater into ice maker water spout to defrost any blockage
2) checked the two hoses coming from the back of the freezer
3) Checked the one-to-two hose connector by switching the two hoses, so that we ran water to the water dispenser from the ice hose and vice versa
4) my neighbor the electrician checked the soenoid, and managed to manually push the "make ice" button so that water flowed out the ice maker water spout, proving it was not clogged

We figured by process of elimination that it was probably the ice "sensor" in the front of the unit (we don't have an unit with a sensing arm), and were ready to replace it this weekend when, lo and behold, this morning we woke up to...ice! So one of items 1-4 must have fixed whatever clog was there.

Hope this information helps someone else. Just saved $100+ visit from the appliance person! Thanks again for having this forum.

Glad its working good again.

Jake

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Appliance Repair School 1987-1988
Star Appliance Tech. 2 yrs. 1988-1990
Wards Appliance Tech. 11 yrs. 1990-2001
Sears Appliance Tech. 4 yrs. 2001-Oct. 2005
Jake's Appliance Repair Nov. 2005-present

If you need more repair advice help on your appliance, click Here

Look-Up & Order Parts

Shop Home Appliances