Icemaker repair input

[MikeandRuth]

The ice maker ceased to function and a puddle of water under the solenoid was a hint. After I did some looking, I am amazed that it lasted this long! Like several of you before me, I now need to replace the heated tubing section. I reread the posts from those of you that have done it, and thought I'd get a little feedback before I do it.
Is it worth using copper? Have any of you who did and reinstalled the heat circuit found that it did work? My heat cct seems to be fine so I thought I would reuse it rather than giving Dometic's profit margin a measurable boost!
We spend some piece of every winter in Southern Arizona, so preventing a freeze is important.
Did any of you find problems with the fridge deck? When I replaced the water heater a while back I found everything in there done so crudely that I rebuilt all of it.
Thanks for your input...

[Theberrys]

I replace mine with copper a couple years ago and reused the heating wire with no problems. But the ice maker in my 99 Tradewinds is so slow it just can't keep up with our needs so we bought a portable ice maker at Walmart and it has served us well. So well this year I didn't even turn on the water to the one in the freezer. It's a pain to pull the fridge into the hallway and when I did the insulation on the side walls fell to the floor. I couldn't fit through the vent hole and had to go get the neighbor boy to crawl in there and staple it back up. If I had it to do over I wouldn't bother fixing the water line and go right to the portable unit.
To be specific to your question, copper worked fine for me.
Good luck with your project.

Here is a link to the Maker we bought Magic Chef MCIM22TW Portable Ice Maker - Walmart.com there are some that cost less but when I searched for repair parts the Magic Chef brand was the easiest to find parts for.

Dick

[MikeandRuth]

Thanks for responding Dick. Your original post about the copper was what got me considering that option. Your comment about the insulation got me thinking about surprises in the box!
We are not big ice users so I will fix this one. We had a neighbor with one of those portable units. It served them well.
Regards
Mike

[M&EM]

I used copper also and helped several in our rally group repair the water lines using copper. Be aware that if the leakage has existed for some time before complete failure, you may need to rebuild the rotted plywood floor of the fridge compartment.

I also reused the heater wires wrapped around the copper pipe and retained the heating function. Since we rarely are in a freezing situation, I have removed the fuse for the heater.

If no wood reconstruction is needed, just sliding the unit partway out into the hallway was sufficient for me to get to the back side to do the repair work.

[Don and Kim]

I replaced ours w/a copper line too. I was able to save the heater wire by carefully cutting away the shrink tubing. I found some replacement heat shrink tubing on Ebay and its better than new. The tubing Dometic used was some of the poorest quality tubing I have ever seen.