GSF26C4EXB02 Black Whrilpool Gold. Almost 8 years old. Ice maker died about 4 months ago. I spent a good deal of time researching the internet and troubleshooting the ice maker and ice level optic boards. I almost started down the path of replacing parts one by one, but didn't have the time or $. A few months later and we are about to move and rent the house where the the fridge will stay, so I had to get it fixed. I was feeling a bit overwhelmed and short on time with trying to get the correct replacement parts, so I decided to call a repair service.
The repairman noted no power at the ice maker, He assumed it was the optics receiver board and was going to pick one up from a local FSP distributor. He called back and then offered come back the next day, if I could wait, and to start with only replacing the ice maker with a spare he happened to have at home. $175 for that.
With this delay, I then got online and was looking for ways to diagnose the optics and thankfully came across this blog. and this particular thread of posts. I don't know why I never bothered to check for 120VAC at the connector for the ice maker myself, but thanks to this post, I did that and then checked for continuity of the four wires that go to the ice maker plug and sure enough, the white wire had no continuity. Upon inspecting the wiring harness at the bottom of the door, I found the break in the white wire, exposed copper on the black/wht wire and some brittle and cracking insulation on the grey and blue wires.
After some soldering and taping, it's all fixed now and the ice maker is making ice. I am only out the service charge, whatever that will be. (I don't have an invoice yet and was never told what that charge will be.) He does know I fixed it myself, so maybe he is a bit embarrassed about his mis-diagnosis and he will decide to not charge me. I did take up his time, so I do feel I should pay him for that, and he did get me started on the right path by checking for power at the ice maker. I am surprised that he did not also check the plug near bottom of the door and deduce a wire might be broken. I suppose he has not come across this issue before.
BTW... the red LED on the receiver board never did any blinking patterns. I had read in some other posts that it will blink in a certain pattern if there is some sort of error. On mine, the board seemed to be working and the red LED would go out if I blocked the IR beam, but about five minutes after each power cycle. The red LED would go out, even with nothing blocking the path. Even after repairing the wires and restoring power to the ice maker, the red LED still has this behavior. The repairman felt the red LED should always be on, except when the ice bucket gets full and the path is interrupted. Does anyone know what the normal behavior of the red LED on this board should be?
Thanks to everyone who shared their experiences. You saved me hundreds of dollars and countless hours that would have been spent on replacing perfectly good parts and wasted labor charges. At the time of writing this, the ice bucket is almost full.
I came across another post with similar symptoms, but the problem was not a broken wire. The person who posted described doing a bunch of diagnostic tests, but didn't say how those tests were initiated. I'd like to learn about this. How does one do the diagnostics as described in the following post?
My refrigerator has stopped making ice. Other than replacement, is there a way to check the Ice Level Sensors to prove if they are working or not? These parts are not inexpensive so I don't want to replace parts that are not needed. I have run the diagnostics on my refrigerator and everything...
www.applianceblog.com
