I'll call it done when...

Last week... around friday...or was it thursday.... my icemaker quit.  I rarely use ice so my wife discovered it when she went to fill the glass.... no ice.

Yup.... the bin was empty. And the ice mold was dry.... not a good sign.  Hit the internet to see what I could learn.  Went to Lowes, and they had two models... one had a plug that didn't fit, the other did.  Plopped $50 on the counter and headed home.

Installed and plugged in the new icemaker and waited a few hours.... nothing....

OK test water solenoid. Determined that it works just fine. OK..... poured some water in the tray and let it freeze.... (saw that as a tip on the net) next day... ice in the icemaker, but not in the bin. 

DANG! Still not working.

Disconnect the ice maker... raised the cut off arm..... set it on the freezer floor... reached for a flashlight to look at something..... BANG!  What the? Circuit breaker popped when the metal arm touched the ice auger drive mechanism...also metal. Arm welded to the auger...

OK... what's going on here?  So I placed both ice makers on a towel side by side..... and yep.... there it was.... the wiring harnesss's are NOT the same. The 120v hot on the old one.....why lookie there... it's the ground on the new one.... so... the arm was at 120v....  no wonder it popped the breaker. I's a wonder I didn't get a tingle working on it.

Inside the cover on the new one is a wiring diagram.... (wonder of wonders)... so I re-wired the harness and plugged that sucker back in.

Checked it a few hours later and it's made some ice AND it has spun it out.

Getting ready to push the fridge back in place when I notice water on the floor..... huhhh?  Check the water line.... leaking at the connection to the fridge.... OK... grab a 13mm and tighten it a bit. Check again in 5 minutes.... water drops.... shut off the water. Fortunately, the shutoff is within easy reach... that means I don't have to crawl under the house. Yeah! I did something right.

Last night...sunday... 8:30 pm... discovered that the parts on the connection were corroded and needed to be replaced. The moving of the fridge had upset the delicate balance and it was leaking. SO..... head into town.... Lowes is closed, Walmart doesn't stock icemaker parts..... head home to an iceless night (well we did have some trays from the camper)

Get up this morning and stop at the local hardware store... bought exactly the parts I needed, came home and in 2 minutes they were installed, the connection tightened sufficiently and now it is functioning perfectly. No water on the floor or the fitting.

I will call this project finished ONLY when I see an ice bin full of crescent shaped ice cubes..... fingers crossed..... waiting.

I guess it was.... it was plastic... but all the metal parts were bonded to the ground which was not in the right place for my fridge.

The sales guy said that Admiral was sold to GE and Westinghouse bought it from them and this ice maker was a Westinghouse replacement so it should "work just fine".....because the plug is the same.

Lesson learned: never assume...always compare the plug wiring....

Dang... I though I learned that one already somewhere in the past.....

mike_mccue


I wasn't actually 100% sure what double insulated meant... but remember when AC powered hand tools began to be designed to that standard. So, I looked it up:

"Double insulated or class 2 electrical appliances are products that have been designed in a way so as not to require a safety connection to electrical earth (These products must NOT have a safety connection to Earth).

These products are required to prevent any failure from resulting in dangerous voltage levels becoming exposed causing a shock etc. This must be done without the aid of an earthed metal casing. Ways of achieving this include double layers of insulating material or reinforced insulation protecting any live parts of the fitting.

There are also strict requirements relating to the maximum insulation resistance and leakage to any functional earth or signal connections of such appliances. Products of this type are required to be labelled "Class II", "double insulated" or bear the double insulation symbol (the symbol displayed above) Follow some of the links below to view / purchase some examples of these products" 

In my mind... I would expect the exposed metal parts in that ice machine to be  insulated from the circuit for a variety reasons. It seems like cut rate engineering to rely on proper wiring. Double insulated is a standard met by lots of gear that is properly wired... just in case something goes wrong.

Anyways, your story really got my attention.

I'm glad you got it fixed.

best regards,

mike

That type of engineering may be what got Admiral sold to GE and then to Westinghouse.  When I was much younger, I thought Admiral had a pretty good reputation.  That opinion was probably based on their TVs, though.  I didn't have any need for ice makers at the time. 

I'm glad Guitarhacker wasn't touching anything when the solenoid kicked in--that would have been a whole new batch of trouble! 

Also glad everything turned out OK.  Congrats on that.  

You can mix and master song faster.

Guitarhacker

bapu


You can mix and master song faster.

wrong thread Bapu?

You've never heard of mixing and mastering on an ice maker--it's the latest trend.