O
oblivioncth
Guest
- Model Number
- WSF26C3EXF01
- Brand
- Whirlpool
- Age
- 1-5 years
Hello,
Currently, no matter what is changed the ice maker on our WSF26C3EXF01 will not stop producing ice. This occurred after troubles with several ice related components started and damage to wiring was found and repaired. Here is the progression of things:
Originally, everything operated as normal expect that the ice dispenser motor would frequently not spin when trying to obtain ice. Because of this a relative ended up replacing the dispenser motor but this did not fix the problem. Soon after, ice production itself became intermittent and it was eventually discovered that moving around a pack of wires contained within a protective mesh running from the freezer body to freezer door would affect these functions, so it was assumed that there was a poor connection at some point in the line. The same relative reported once or twice seeing a faint orange light that was characteristic of arcing and even was slightly zapped while trying to move the mesh around. This is where I unfortunately believe several shorts may have occurred due to arcing between not just one end of the same wire and another, but between several different wires and ultimately may have created the issue with the ice maker we are currently having as noted in the post title.
After this clear evidence that there was an issue with the wiring under this mesh the power to the unit was killed and I proceeded to carefully cut the mesh open and tear back the fabric like wrap that was also shielding the wires. I quickly discovered that three of the six wires contained in this run under the mesh had all been completely severed about 1-2 inches away from where they go up into the freezer door. It was quite strange, there were no signs of fraying or uneven breaks, it looked like someone purposely cut them with a blade as the separations were clean, but I was positive I had not done so accidentally as I was quite careful when removing the mesh since I knew wiring was beneath. Regardless, it was clear that there is more strain on these wires than there should be when opening the door and that these broken connections were clearly causing the symptoms noted above.
The wires found in this conduit were green/yellow, grey/orange, black/white, blue, tan, and white. Other than having ever so slight surface burns from the arcing I mentioned previously blue, tan, and white all appeared fine so I left them alone for the time being, preferring only to touch them if evidence in the future made it clear they also have weak connections. green/yellow, grey/orange, and black/white on the other hand were the ones that had been completely severed.
I believe these correspond to the following connections on what I think is the schematic that applies to this unit:
Given the tight working conditions (only an inch or so of each wire available under the freezer door from the one side of the break) and the clear stress these wires are put under I wanted to make sure the best repair possible was made on the first attempt; so, I cut back the wires slightly from where they had separated, stripped them, soldered them back-together cleanly with similar gauge wire and a bit of extra slack compared to before, and then sealed them with 2 layers of heatshrink (one tube per wire and then one larger tube over the ends of all 3). Finally, I wrapped those and the untouched wires in electrical tape as a stand-in for the now cut away mesh lining and used some zip ties to try and keep the bundle together like it was while in the mesh:
After this repair everything at the time seemed perfect as the ice maker and dispenser motor both worked consistently; however, eventually we realized that at this point everything in the unit works 100% fine except that the ice maker now never stops making ice.
Here is what I know so far:
Before I proceeded with either though, I figured I'd stop and get the opinion of someone much more experienced with these appliances than I since they may have a much more guided intuition with all of this information.
Thanks for your time.
Currently, no matter what is changed the ice maker on our WSF26C3EXF01 will not stop producing ice. This occurred after troubles with several ice related components started and damage to wiring was found and repaired. Here is the progression of things:
Originally, everything operated as normal expect that the ice dispenser motor would frequently not spin when trying to obtain ice. Because of this a relative ended up replacing the dispenser motor but this did not fix the problem. Soon after, ice production itself became intermittent and it was eventually discovered that moving around a pack of wires contained within a protective mesh running from the freezer body to freezer door would affect these functions, so it was assumed that there was a poor connection at some point in the line. The same relative reported once or twice seeing a faint orange light that was characteristic of arcing and even was slightly zapped while trying to move the mesh around. This is where I unfortunately believe several shorts may have occurred due to arcing between not just one end of the same wire and another, but between several different wires and ultimately may have created the issue with the ice maker we are currently having as noted in the post title.
After this clear evidence that there was an issue with the wiring under this mesh the power to the unit was killed and I proceeded to carefully cut the mesh open and tear back the fabric like wrap that was also shielding the wires. I quickly discovered that three of the six wires contained in this run under the mesh had all been completely severed about 1-2 inches away from where they go up into the freezer door. It was quite strange, there were no signs of fraying or uneven breaks, it looked like someone purposely cut them with a blade as the separations were clean, but I was positive I had not done so accidentally as I was quite careful when removing the mesh since I knew wiring was beneath. Regardless, it was clear that there is more strain on these wires than there should be when opening the door and that these broken connections were clearly causing the symptoms noted above.
The wires found in this conduit were green/yellow, grey/orange, black/white, blue, tan, and white. Other than having ever so slight surface burns from the arcing I mentioned previously blue, tan, and white all appeared fine so I left them alone for the time being, preferring only to touch them if evidence in the future made it clear they also have weak connections. green/yellow, grey/orange, and black/white on the other hand were the ones that had been completely severed.
I believe these correspond to the following connections on what I think is the schematic that applies to this unit:
Given the tight working conditions (only an inch or so of each wire available under the freezer door from the one side of the break) and the clear stress these wires are put under I wanted to make sure the best repair possible was made on the first attempt; so, I cut back the wires slightly from where they had separated, stripped them, soldered them back-together cleanly with similar gauge wire and a bit of extra slack compared to before, and then sealed them with 2 layers of heatshrink (one tube per wire and then one larger tube over the ends of all 3). Finally, I wrapped those and the untouched wires in electrical tape as a stand-in for the now cut away mesh lining and used some zip ties to try and keep the bundle together like it was while in the mesh:
After this repair everything at the time seemed perfect as the ice maker and dispenser motor both worked consistently; however, eventually we realized that at this point everything in the unit works 100% fine except that the ice maker now never stops making ice.
Here is what I know so far:
- Both and optic receiver and emitter for the ice shutoff detector are receiving 14 VDC (if these were broken I'd expect no ice but figured I'd check to be safe)
- The red LED on the optic receiver does light up red when it sees the emitter
- Running diagnostic 15 for Ice Bin Status shows BIN_FULL_OR_NOT_PRESENT when the cover is switched to "Off" over the receiver and BIN_NOT_FULL_AND_PRESENT when there is line of sight between the emitter and receiver, so in software at least the Stealth board knows the ice maker should be stopped so it seems to be a signaling/connection issue of some sort
- If you follow the blue wire up on that schematic it goes to the ice dispenser motor which works so it must be fine
- If you follow the tan and white wires up on that schematic they go to the ice maker. I have no idea exactly how the ice maker works, but if it is designed so that by default it constantly produces ice while powered and doesn't stop until it sees a signal go high (instead of a signal going low, so a normally open switch) I could see the white or tan wires potentially causing the problem if their connections under the shielding are very weak and one of them is the signal line to kill the ice maker while it has power. tan has a thermal fuse so if anything I'd assume it would be white if this was the case
- Someone on reddit noted that they had seen shorts between these wires cause the relay that kills the ice maker get fused into the closed position. Not sure if this is true, but it would explain why the software knows the ice maker is off but it continues to run (i.e. if the low voltage signal to the relay goes low (or high, whichever is supposed to turn it off since it could be designed either way) when the bin is full but the relay doesn't change. I'm not even sure if there is a relay on this particular unit, this is just what they mentioned
Before I proceeded with either though, I figured I'd stop and get the opinion of someone much more experienced with these appliances than I since they may have a much more guided intuition with all of this information.
Thanks for your time.
