Dometic fridge Ice Maker noise

[KBolin]

We purchased our DSDP new last year, we absolutely love the coach but like any new unit we have some niggly items that have to be sorted out.

Our fridge completely failed on us last year and Newmar replaced it with a new one. Then we started to get a grinding noise coming from the freezer area, we think it was the ice maker. So back to the dealer it went and they did end up replacing the ice maker.

Well that grinding noise is back. It's annoying enough that it interrupts our TV viewing and can be clearly heard outside the couch as well.

Here is a video of the ice maker problem.

Dropbox - Public - Simplify your life


Any ideas? Still an ice maker issue?

Thanks,
Kelly

[wa8yxm]

I saw no movement of the pusher fingers or bail, Of course you did not run the MOV long, But if there is no movement that means the gears are stripped.

YOu can verify this by pulling the front cover off.. Just grab the front plastic part with your RIGHT hand on the RIGHT side. Pull the cover toward you (Yes it will rotate just a bit) But it just snaps off and on.

Once it's clear you can see two very important parts.

1: The gears

2: The screw that adjusts the size of the ice crescents (how much time the water valve is open)

[hometool]

do you use the i/m? when i was dooing in home service on fridges i handled many calls for noise. it was not uncomin to find that the fridg was equiped with an i/m not connected to a water supply the i/m tries to make ice the solinoid water valve makes a loud buzzing sound when it calls for water and none is flowing. the valve is located at the lower back of the fridge right near the vent opening so it could be plainly heard outside the coach lee

[KBolin]

Hi wa8yxm, at least you are on the same thinking I am. I thought it was possible stripped gears or something as sometimes the push fingers move and other times they don't.

hometool, I use the ice maker all the time (love my crown royal and coke at the end of the day). I just reconnected the water lines a few days ago (de-winterizing the unit) and ensured there was adequate water flow to the solenoid units. There is flow to the water dispenser and must be flow to the ice maker as the bucket is about 1/2 full now and started out empty.

I'm thinking it must be stripped gears but the unit is still under warranty and I'm hesitant to mess with anything in there as I'd hate to break something and for Newmar to come back and say "no warranty". I'll get it to a dealer in NV in the next week or so and see what they say.

Thanks for your comments....
... K

[KBolin]

After much learning and paying attention to what is happening I finally figured out it was one of the fans behind the fridge (immediately behind the ice maker) that was a little loose and was rattling against the metal frame causing the noise. I didn't even know the fans were there until I was looking closely at a wiring schematic and saw two fans. What? I say to myself, it couldn't be that simple, could it.

So up a ladder I go and open the top hatch and stick my head in the opening and look down about a foot and voila, two fans. I wait inside until I hear the grinding noise I heard before (of course I had to wait 2 days before the fans kicked in) and ran outside, up the ladder and reached down to the fans and as soon as I grabbed onto one the rattling (what I thought was grinding) noise quit. Ughhh... what a simple fix but it took me a while to figure out.

All I can say is for a new coach I kept having the attitude that these problems are for the dealer or manufacturer to figure out and fix but once I took the attitude that this is my mh and took responsibility to figure these things out the sooner they got fixed and resolved.

Lesson learned... fix it myself if I can. Sometimes I can't but at least I have to try. Learnt so much since buying this motorhome!