Ice maker solution

[Ed B]

I have a Norcold 4 door refrigerator with a built in ice maker. It worked great that first year, but it has worked in a less than great way much of the time. An excess of water would over fill the ice cube maker and then end up in the bottom of that compartment as a thick slab of ice. Most of the time the mechanism was not able to eject the completed ice cubes due to the excess of ice.

In a call to a Newmar dealership, I was told that the entire unit needed to be replaced. In fact, the parts man at that dealership told me that he also had that problem with his unit and he solved it by getting a new unit. It seemed like a less than exciting way to solve the problem.

I got an answer from an iRV2 contributor. It was filed away for future use and only recently attempted. The solution was based on Service Bulletin TNCSTP 093002 from Norcold. The problem is sometimes caused by improper winterizing of the ice maker. The place you want to go for the solution is inside of the outside access door to the refrigerator. It is involved with the solenoid valve. That blue thingy.

If the line is not removed in the winterizing process, water is trapped in the water chamber of the solenoid, ice is formed, and the pressure of this pushes the water seal out of its proper orientation. You can tell if this might be the cause if the screen filter is pushed out to the very edge of the fitting. When the water is turned on in the Spring, the water will bypass the valve's seat and cause excess water to overflow the ice cube mold.

Finally, the solution to prevent this during winterization: Disconnect the water hose connection on the solenoid from the water supply line. See that the water is no longer in the solenoid and the water line. Put a baggy over both, seal with a twist lock, and leave until you dewinterize the unit.

The solution, if you did not do this and you have a problem with overfill: Carefully remove the screen filter from the solenoid at the water hose connection. Remove the diffuser, the orifice, and orifice seat. Replace all of these, making sure that the orifice is seated completely. Replace the screen filter and hook up the water line.

Due to the response I got from an iRV2 contributor, I now have a "as it should work" ice maker. I will also, in the future, winterize the ice maker correctly.

[JohnFreyja]

As Ed B says Service Bulletin TNCSTP 093002 from Norcold. It has specific instructions and very clear drawings or diagrams.

[wa8yxm]

A comment on that solenoid:....

Solenoids come in basically 2 x 2 types, Either the inlet is a 1/4 " compression fitting or a 3/4" garden hose fitting, If you get the wrong one there is often an adapter in the box to fix it, so it does not matter if you get a 3/4" inlet type.

The other 2 is single stage (Basic on/off vavle) or 2 stage (First stage is a pressure regulator)

I do not know what Norcold specifices, but Dometic, which uses the same ice maker (most Refrigerator makers do) specifices a single stage unit costing 120 collars if I recall correctly from Camping world or 150 from serve-All appliance parts..

A very nice 2 stage unit designed to fit Amana, from the Buy-it-now store on E-bay, in my hand $27.00.... I did have to re-drill one mounting hole.

Since this one has it's own low pressure regulator, no matter if I'm no park water, high or low pressure, or "internal" as I am now, crescens are all the same size, I did have to back all the way out on the cube size adjustment though (max size)

[Floridakamper]

My unit did the same thing and I was convinced it was the solenoid. Long story short, it wasn't. The ice cube trays are coated with teflon. It deteriorates and the water is wicked out of the tray. I found a Whirlpool, universal ice maker at Lowe's that was nearly identical for about 40 bucks. Had to swap a couple of parts from the old one to the new one but it was not too difficult to change out. New ice maker works like new.