FIXED FF Ice Maker Not Cold Enough. How to lower temp? Frigidaire FPBC2277RF5

[frieselu]

Model Number

FPBC2277RF5

Brand

Frigidaire

Age

6-10 years

I have a FPBC2277RF5 Frigidaire Professional from 2016 (this is the correct model number, sorry for the typo on the title). Recently the upper fresh-food ice maker stopped producing ice. Through this helpful forum I discovered the diagnostic tests to run. I'd love any insight you have interpreting the results and making suggestions!

• Ice Maker Thermistor: 29 degrees. Maybe this isn't cold enough to make ice reliably? When I ran the ice dump test it did release the ice, but it didn't look fully frozen even though it had been freezing overnight. If this is too warm, how should I go about lowering the FF ice maker temp? What is the target temp? The main freezer is set to 0 and the bottom freezer ice maker works great. Maybe the upper FF ice maker coil is iced? (See below). I removed the ice maker housing and there was some ice around the back edges of it on the outside of the housing and on the back fridge wall under the housing. Maybe that means the ice maker housing gaskets need to be replaced if there isn't a good seal?
• Twist Tray: worked fine to dispense ice.
• Water fill: water fills fine.
• Evap fan: Turned on and off fine. We did have a situation a few days ago where the fan was making a lot of noise when it ran, and I figured the coil had iced over. I ran a hair dryer for a couple minutes into the FF maker with the cube tray pulled out, and that took care of the noise. But perhaps the coils are still iced over and I should try more heat for longer? Could that be the reason the temp isn't lower?
• Ice level sensor: arm moves fine.

Thank you for any help!

Corrected model number

 

[Jake]

How did the ice maker evaporator coil look? Was it overly frosted up?

Here's a similar thread to yours:

FIXED - Frigidaire FPBC2277RF8 upper ice maker not making ice

Hello all. My ice maker in the fridge compartment slowly stopped making ice and then completely quit making ice. I still get ice in the lower ice maker, still get water at the door. There is small cubes in the tray in the upper ice maker. Test 52C yields 27 deg F and 55c does fill the tray...

www.applianceblog.com

Like I mentioned in that thread:

Ok if the ice maker fan is running, then its either a bad defrost thermostat or bad defrost heater OR a sealed system problem if you have no frost on the ice maker evaporator coil at all.

Here's the defrost thermostat for your model you can order if yours ohm tests bad:
Defrost Thermostat 5303918810


Watch this video to ohm test it, make sure you unplug the refrigerator before you remove it to ohm test it: https://www.repairclinic.com/Repair...rmostat-Testing-Troubleshooting-Repair-Clinic

Leave it in the ice water for at least 5 minutes before ohm testing it.

Here's the defrost heater for your model if yours ohm tests bad:
Defrost Heater Assembly 242094802


When you click the part link to the defrost heater you will see videos on how to ohm test the defrost heater and how to access/replace it.

I'm attaching your tech data sheet below.

Let us know what you find.

 

[frieselu]

Wow, those videos are amazing and so descriptive. Thank you for that information! I didn't take off the cover to see the evaporator coil in detail. I will need to do that sometime in the coming days.

Just to make sure I follow:

• If the evaporator coil is frosted up, then the likely culprit is the thermostat or heating element (in which case the solution is one or both of the parts you linked to, depending on the test results.
• If the evaporator coil is NOT frosted up, then the culprit is a sealed system issue (aka a much bigger deal)? I assume in that case it's more of a major repair thing.

Should I pursue the ice maker housing gasket route too, or is that more of a red herring at this point?

Really appreciate your insight Jake!

 

[Jake]

Just to make sure I follow:

• If the evaporator coil is frosted up, then the likely culprit is the thermostat or heating element (in which case the solution is one or both of the parts you linked to, depending on the test results.
• If the evaporator coil is NOT frosted up, then the culprit is a sealed system issue (aka a much bigger deal)? I assume in that case it's more of a major repair thing.

That is exactly right!

Should I pursue the ice maker housing gasket route too, or is that more of a red herring at this point?

That is more of a red herring at this point.

 

[frieselu]

Excellent. I'll report back on this thread once I have a chance to dig in more. I appreciate it!

 

[Jake]

Ok, sounds good.

 

[frieselu]

I finally took everything apart today. The entire assembly was iced up after I removed the fan housing. I defrosted it for awhile with a hair dryer so that I could pull the cover off and separate the heater assembly. Once I removed the heater and the thermostat, they both tested bad, so I just placed an order for those replacement parts you linked to. I'll give the install a shot this weekend - will keep you posted!

 

[Jake]

Ok, sounds your making good progress on it.

Yes, let us know how it goes when you get the new defrost thermostat and defrost heater installed.

 

[frieselu]

Hi Jake, I got all the parts installed earlier today, and after a few hours I ran the upper ice maker diagnostics to see how things were looking. The freezer temp looked good - it was hitting 0 degrees like the lower freezer, which it wasn't doing before.

All the diagnostic tests worked, except for 55C - no water came out when I ran that test. I had run 55C a week or two ago and it worked fine, producing water. The door water dispenser works fine, and the lower ice maker also has water. But no dice on the upper water flow.

I should also add that I read a thread on here about upper water not flowing, and the guy ended up removing the housing grommet on the top of the housing because water was freezing up there. I didn't remove the grommet, but I re-removed the housing and ran a hair dryer up into the water dispensing port to see if anything seemed to be thawing and dripping. I didn't see anything appearing to thaw / drip, and 55C still failed when I re-assembled everything.

Any ideas on how I might troubleshoot that? Is there a way to confirm whether water is flowing some other way besides 55C?

Thank you!

 

[frieselu]

Actually, disregard - we are back in business! I left things alone overnight and woke up to a nicely filling upper ice tray. So whatever is going on figured itself out over the evening. I'd consider this one fixed! Thanks for your advice Jake.

 

[Jake]

Actually, disregard - we are back in business! I left things alone overnight and woke up to a nicely filling upper ice tray. So whatever is going on figured itself out over the evening. I'd consider this one fixed! Thanks for your advice Jake.

Excellent @frieselu glad to hear the new parts fixed it.

Yes, we usually recommend giving it at least 24 hours for the ice maker to resume back to normal after replacing any of those ice maker related parts.

Thanks for the update!