Community Forums

JavaJelly · 09-30-2007, 01:00 PM

Norcold 1200 series 4 door fridge. Have the water on the door. Ice maker has worked great.

This last start up of the fridge, it has ice made in the "tray" up top but, won't turn over to push it down into the tray.

Wondering if there is any advice and/or if anyone knows how to force the gear to turn?

Couple of things, I know it is getting water because one the water on the door works and they go through the same valve and two the ice tray is full.

Second, for the last shut down, there may have been some water left in the tray which would have re-froze this start-up. Maybe there is too much water and there is too much ice for the gears to push through.

As always, thanks much for your advice and guidance.

JavaJelly · 09-30-2007, 01:00 PM

Norcold 1200 series 4 door fridge. Have the water on the door. Ice maker has worked great.

This last start up of the fridge, it has ice made in the "tray" up top but, won't turn over to push it down into the tray.

Wondering if there is any advice and/or if anyone knows how to force the gear to turn?

Couple of things, I know it is getting water because one the water on the door works and they go through the same valve and two the ice tray is full.

Second, for the last shut down, there may have been some water left in the tray which would have re-froze this start-up. Maybe there is too much water and there is too much ice for the gears to push through.

As always, thanks much for your advice and guidance.

paz · 10-01-2007, 02:50 AM

JavaJelly, I don't think you can force the ice out of the trays without doing some melting first. I think there is actually a small heater in the tray that melts the outside surfaces of the cubes just prior to the rotation of the fingers.

Also, the motors in the icemakers are usually small and they turn large gears. If you force the fingers to turn, I think you will end up stripping the plastic gears.

Have you checked in the outside panel to make sure the plug for the icemaker is getting power? Try plugging the icemaker into an extension cord plugged directly into the 20 amp plug on the power pedestal. When our coach was new, the icemaker worked intermittently. I found out the plug in the outside panel was faulty. The fridge side was OK, but the contacts on the receptacle that the icemaker was plugged into were bad. When driving, vibrations apparently would cause the plug to sometimes break contact.

GerryB54 · 10-01-2007, 03:27 AM

I have the same unit, basically, without the water in the door.

Chris Bryant's RV repair website helped me troubleshoot my ice maker recently by using this Norcold Icemaker Troubleshooting Guide

My ice maker unit was bad, and found the entire ice maker kit to replace it at Lowe's for $40.00 (Lowe's P/N 57773 normally $49.00)...INCLUDING the solenoid valve (CW sells valve alone for $45)...even after I got the new icemaker installed, I was getting poor water flow out of the original solenoid valve, so with some minor valve parts swapping I replaced it and all was finally well.

Good luck.

bounderman · 10-01-2007, 05:31 AM

I had the same problem. The tray would be filled with too much water and then freeze. The cube ejection mechanism could not deal with this. I closed the water shut off valve behind the refrigerator to the half way positon and it worked just fine.

JavaJelly · 10-01-2007, 05:48 AM

Thanks all for the info.

I took the coach in for service and turned the fridge off but, did not empty the tray up top. Is it possible that when I started it up, it filled it w/even more water?

In other words, there probably isn't a water level sensor in the mechanism.

I have shut the fridge down, will let it thaw, dry out the tray and start over to see what happens. Then I will work through the trouble shooting guide.

GerryB54 · 10-01-2007, 06:30 AM

This is my first ice maker experience in an RV with turning the fridge on/off...I've been making a point of using paper towels to absorb/remove the water from the eight cube tray after it thaws out, maybe this does avoid the overfill situation. (and keeps mold from forming)

Hope that is your solution.

An FYI PS - If your tray is overfilling (or underfilling) slightly, there is an small adjustment screw on the motor mechanism under the white plastic cover...I drilled an access hole thru the cover when I was repairing mine so I could adjust it without having to remove the ice maker. Instructions say only to turn it a half turn either way, it's for a small adjustment only.

JerryForwood · 10-01-2007, 07:01 AM

<BLOCKQUOTE class="ip-ubbcode-quote"><div class="ip-ubbcode-quote-title">quote:</div><div class="ip-ubbcode-quote-content">y </div></BLOCKQUOTE>
Isn't the unit still in warranty?
Why not call service?
Jerry Forwood

GerryB54 · 10-01-2007, 11:37 AM

He probably wants ice before ice-in in NYS...tried to schedule a service appointment at a dealer lately?

JavaJelly · 10-03-2007, 04:06 AM

Just updating everyone.

I defrosted fridge. Sopped up the water in the ice maker tray. Restarted the fridge and the maker is working like a champ.

Any ideas out there on how to get the water out of the ice maker tray faster? It is a bit of a pain and we don't full time so, we start up and shut down several times a year.

GerryB54 · 10-03-2007, 05:00 PM

I've been thinking of cutting slots in a sponge to fit into the 8 ice trays (or less...keeping sponge intact)...been using paper towels but it's tough to get down in there easily.

cyko · 10-03-2007, 05:12 PM

I had a Norcold service technician tell me that I shouldn't be making ice while traveling. He said it was bad for the unit for water to be sloshing around while it was working. I used to do that once in a while while running the refrig on the inverter.

RV Wizard · 10-03-2007, 11:44 PM

To prepare teh ice maker for storage simply turn off the water supply before you get ready to store. Lift the ice sensing arm. When you are about ready to store with 120 power still available pull the arm back down and let the ice maker go thru a cycle. It will dump the ice in the mold but will not let any water in at the end. Turn off ref. and you are ready to store.