How does icemaker work?


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Old 01-01-16, 12:23 PM
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How does icemaker work?

I have a 2010 Maytag MFI2569VEW1 french door fridge with a door mounted ice and water dispenser. the Ice maker unit is in the refrigerated compartment and it seems ice cold air blows thru the ice maker which in turn cools the fridge.

My question is this, what determines when the ice cubes are ready to be ejected from the tray? Is there a thermostat, or it it a fixed timer.

I have no issues with it, I am trying to determine if I turn down the freezer and refrigerator temp, will it make ice slightly faster. I know that if it did it would be a negligible amount, im just curious how it works more than anything.
 
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Old 01-01-16, 02:30 PM
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A technician here will be able to help you with the mechanics of the icemaker.

I just wanted to say I have a Maytag French door fridge similar to yours and the icemaker has much to be desired. I love the fridge.
I have a cheapo Roper fridge in the garage that makes ice about 100 times better than the deluxe Maytag.
 
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Old 01-01-16, 02:53 PM
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There is a thermostat that monitors the temperature of the ice mold (tray). The ice maker harvests the ice at approx. 15°f.

At 15°f mold temperature the mold heater starts to heat the tray.
The timer motor spins to turn the ejector to push the ice out of the mold.
At this time the ice mold is pretty warm.
The timer activates the water fill valve for approx 4-5 seconds.
The ice mold is now at room temperature due to the fresh water filling.
The mold and water freezes and when it hits 15°f. it starts all over again.

The freezer should be kept between 0 and 5°f for best ice production.
The ice makers in the fridge that are in the cold air flow have their own issues.

Normal (acceptable) ice production is one load every hour.
 
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Old 01-02-16, 06:11 AM
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Thanks A lot! That is what I was after. I haven't had any issues with the ice maker, I do go thru a lot of ice because I drink a lot of iced tea, and I will use it to fill my ice water jug I take to work with me and that usually depletes the ice supply. It seems like it makes a load an hour, give or take.

In our old house we bought a french door fridge with the ice maker in the freezer, there was just a big tray in the freezer that the ice dumped into, which I liked at the time because I never had an ice maker before. Well then we moved and the house we bought had an older side by side with an in door water and ice dispenser, that fridge lasted 3 years and when it went out we replaced it with a french door and by then I grew accustomed to the in door dispenser and had to have it on the new fridge.

I assume that in my current fridge with the ice maker in the fridge compartment that the cold air that cools the refrigerated compartment also cools the ice maker?

My parents have a Korean made Kenmore (I assume its actually an lg?)french door fridge and the ice maker in it is completely in one of the doors, how does that work? I know it doesn't hold much ice at all, but it has cubed, and crushed ice where as mine only has cubed which is fine by me.
 
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Old 01-02-16, 01:35 PM
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I don't know much about how they work aside from the experience of trying to clean mine out because I used to get specs of stuff in my ice.

I started by trying to clean out the tray that the water fills in & eventually freezes in, which the cubes then get ejected from by a rotating arm.

That didn't do it.

By chance a couple days ago, I happened to look up at the small door which covers up the slot where the ice falls from the tray in the freezer to the outlet on the front of the door. In other words, when you press your cup against the lever, this small door opens to allow cubes to fall out the tray, while there's an electrical signal at the same time you press the lever that activates the motor which pulls cubes towards the front of the tray so that they can fall out.

The seal around this door was COVERED in black crud...I want to say black mold. Though it was at a part that doesn't really come into contact with the ice, due to the mechanical nature of the door, probably not a longshot to presume that some of the crud gets loosened up & thrown into the cup from usage. Unplugged the fridge, removed the plastic base cover that was hiding some screws, got the face plate with the buttons off, disconnected the electrical wire connector, then removed more screws & a wire connector that held the whole dispenser thing to the door & really went to town cleaning it. Also killed the water shutoff just in-case because the hose did connect to the dispenser & I didn't want to take that off.

So I advise giving the dispensers (as opposed to the mechanicals _inside_ the fridge) a good cleaning every once in a while!
 
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Old 01-04-16, 09:10 AM
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@jpritzen1: Interesting discovery. I occasionally get a cube (or several) stuck on top of that door if I happen to pull my glass away just as the auger has pushed several in position to drop. Maybe they melt a bit and soak that door--perhaps flowing into the internals that surround it--and cause mold growth. Ick!

I've never seen black bits in my ice but I do get white flecks floating in my drink when ice is dispensed. I assume it's harmless minerals that are left behind on the mold--although I would have thought the filter (and my water softener) was supposed to remove the minerals. I don't mind the flecks but my wife absolutely hates them and will buy bagged ice just for her drinks.
 
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Old 01-05-16, 07:49 AM
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Originally Posted by guy48065
Maybe they melt a bit and soak that door--perhaps flowing into the internals that surround it--and cause mold growth.
Yeah that's pretty plausible. Stuck my flashlight up there yesterday & I can see that area is already sweating again with mold definitely growing back. The funny thing is it's on the outside of the door. Guess it'll just be a monthly cleaning routine for me.

At least on my fridge, only the water dispenser water gets filtered from the fridge's filter. I don't believe the water for the ice gets filtered water. Don't remember how I came to that conclusion but it's something where I came to that realization at some point in time.
 
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Old 01-05-16, 08:33 AM
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Most fridge filters supply the ice maker and the cold water.
 
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Old 01-06-16, 09:17 AM
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PJ can you confirm the white flecks I see in icewater are mineral residue on the cube mold?

Wife refuses to believe this because she's never seen any residue on ice trays. I explain that trays get rinsed every use and even washed on occasion...while that ice mold just sits hidden accumulating god-knows-what over the years.
 
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Old 07-04-16, 01:45 PM
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Just to update this on my ice maker cleaning experience...

The mold simply comes from condensation of outside-the-refrigerator air condensing on the outside of the cold ice dispenser door. Eventually enough condensation forms that it can drip into the glass/cup when ice is being dispensed. If that condensation has been there for a while, mold grows - therefore, mold-infested water dripped into the cup when ice is dispensed. The seals of the ice dispenser door were good - I could pour a cup of water into the chute, and it'd hold the water with no leaks.

I got into the habit of checking if ice is left behind the dispenser door (like all the ice did not exit the door) and it was always clear of ice. I don't use the "crushed" setting, only the "cubed" setting, so this may be possible with crushed ice.

In the end, I stopped using the ice dispenser because I was cleaning it up every other week or so, and I still had the feeling I was consuming mold-ridden ice/water. May be a coincidence, but in the last 2 months since foregoing the ice dispenser, I've had less gastrointestinal issues. Not hospital/life-threatening worthy, but my stomach disagrees with the food I consume a lot less, with no change in diet.

I also started using a dehumidifier to reduce the humidity outside the refrigerator, making it less likely to condense (or at least build up to the point of dripping).
 
 

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