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ApplianceGuru.com: The Samurai Appliance Repair Forums > Do-It-Yourself Appliance Repair Help > The Kitchen Appliance Repair Forum > GE Icemaker stops and blinks
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ApplianceGuru.com: The Samurai Appliance Repair Forums > Do-It-Yourself Appliance Repair Help > The Kitchen Appliance Repair Forum > GE Icemaker stops and blinks |
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| Moderated by: RegUS_PatOff, appl.tech.29501 |
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| GE Icemaker stops and blinks | Rate Topic |
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| Posted: Sat Jun 11th, 2005 11:27 pm |
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1st Post |
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fortywatt Senior Apprentice Appliantologist 
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GE side-be-side refrig/freezer, model GSH25KGMCBB, 2 or 3 yrs old. A nice ice river  had formed last night due to a leaky solenoid valve: water was constantly dripping thru the feeder tube into icemaker. I've now installed a new solenoid assembly, cleaned out all the ice, cleared the tube, and no leak now. Icemaker starts its cycle but stops at about the point I'd expect the solenoid to actuate to fill the ice tray, and the icemaker's green LED then begins flashing. If I unplug the icemaker and restart, I get a small squirt of water thru the tube and it will cycle partially as described above, stopping again with the LED blink.I can get water to flow thru the tube to icemaker if I jumper 120 VAC at the circuit board over to the white wire going back to the solenoid, so I know the wiring is good from the lug at the board on back to the valve. I tried disconnecting and reconnecting all electrical connections, looked at the icemaker's circuit board and motor etc, and see no visible defects. There are no obstructions or jams. The icemaker is completely clean and dry. The OTHER problem: constant drip leaking from bottom corner of the freezer door nearest to the refrigerator side. I realize the water dispenser tube runs up thru the hinge, but this is weird. This didnt show up until I replaced the solenoid, as described above. thanks for any input! ---John
____________________ I have a full-size map of the world... I hardly ever unroll it. |
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| Posted: Sun Jun 12th, 2005 12:41 am |
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2nd Post |
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Ron Sublime Master of Appliantology 
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Fortywatt, give this a shot once. Turn the ice maker off for 5 seconds, then turn it back on. Then within 15 seconds push the feeler arm in 3 times. This will start the harvest cycle immediately followed by a water fill. The water fill cycle will be about 5 seconds without waiting for the mold to pre-chill. Try this and see what happens....Ron
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| Posted: Sun Jun 12th, 2005 12:08 pm |
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3rd Post |
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fortywatt Senior Apprentice Appliantologist
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I tried your procedure several times, but it just sits there with green LED on and doesn't start the cycle. Maybe it needs a new circut board. Do they sell the board or do you have to buy the entire icemaker? The drip from the freezer door has stopped. I'm thinking that water got in there during the leak and now it's dried up.
____________________ I have a full-size map of the world... I hardly ever unroll it. |
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| Posted: Sun Jun 12th, 2005 08:41 pm |
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4th Post |
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fortywatt Senior Apprentice Appliantologist
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Eureka! (I think) Thanks to your troubleshooting diagram (reduced version attached below) Ron, I've found a problem. It's plastic... GE seems to have built this refrig out of brittle plastic, as I've had lots of it break on this unit. Anyway, I'm not sure what you call it, but the tip of the ice sensing arm that rides along the cam is broken off. Don't know why I didnt see it before. But the diagram helped zero in on the "magnet failure". I knew my ejector was not in home position when the green LED began flashing, and the thermistor, heater and TCO showed continuity with my multimeter, there was no jam, no overall motor failure.. so that left 'control board failure' and 'magnet failure'. The sensing arm has a small magnet which passes over a device soldered to the circuit board. Since the sensing arm (and thus, the magnet) never moved during a cycle, it would not pass over the reciever at the appropriate time. I finally saw some the tiny bit of plastic which broke, stuck to the lubricating grease on the camshaft. The internal sensing arm lever piece looks easily interchangeable, but I don't know what its part name is and can't find it using the fixitnow.com site. Any guidance in this area? I've tried to test my theory by manually moving the sensing arm during a cycle but it's pretty hard to tell where it's supposed to be. I didn't get a water fill during a cycle during this test, but then I didn't get a flashing LED either. Attachment: GE icemaker.gif (Downloaded 47 times) Last edited on Sun Jun 12th, 2005 09:09 pm by fortywatt ____________________ I have a full-size map of the world... I hardly ever unroll it. |
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| Posted: Mon Jun 13th, 2005 12:22 am |
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5th Post |
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Pegi Fellow, Academy of Sublime Masters of Appliantology 
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To my knowledge you can only purchase the whole IM6 ice maker, no parts are available for it from G.E. except a beveled edge paddle to address an over flowing ice bin problem. Only other option is to find a shop that has broken ones lying around and see if you can purchase this part for your ice maker off of one of them.
____________________ Moderator & Assistant Admin. for Servicetechhelp Associaton, Inc. http://www.servicetechhelp.com STH HELPDESK URL.... http://www.servicetechhelp.com/h2desk/ ___________________________________ For Gordon... http://serviceeveryday.com/ |
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| Posted: Mon Jun 13th, 2005 01:55 am |
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6th Post |
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fortywatt Senior Apprentice Appliantologist
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That figures. Buy a $100 icemaker to solve a broken piece of plastic worth a fraction of a penny.  I'm including the offending part in a photo attachment to illustrate the less-than-adequate design. It's such a small amount of material missing, looks like I could attach a piece of something to make it work. Any ideas? [Note: in the photo, I've already removed the yoke that holds down the top of the part, and the ice paddle thing.] This part is termed "control magnet 2" in this pic And now I've googled this thread on the wonderful IM6 which leaves me less than optimistic. Attachment: GE icemaker broken arm.jpg (Downloaded 38 times) Last edited on Mon Jun 13th, 2005 04:50 am by fortywatt ____________________ I have a full-size map of the world... I hardly ever unroll it. |
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| Posted: Mon Jun 13th, 2005 03:08 am |
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7th Post |
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Pegi Fellow, Academy of Sublime Masters of Appliantology
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Yes, I have seen lots broken like this. Perhaps this is why G.E is going to phase this wonderful ice maker out of production since it is causing so many problems and is not holding up. Have not heard about a replacement yet tho.
____________________ Moderator & Assistant Admin. for Servicetechhelp Associaton, Inc. http://www.servicetechhelp.com STH HELPDESK URL.... http://www.servicetechhelp.com/h2desk/ ___________________________________ For Gordon... http://serviceeveryday.com/ |
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| Posted: Thu Jun 16th, 2005 05:38 am |
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8th Post |
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fortywatt Senior Apprentice Appliantologist
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An update: After checking with several local repair shops and used appliance places, no one had a late-model GE icemaker to scrounge parts from. So I repaired the broken plastic part using QuickSteel, a five dollar item at W*M. Attached photo shows the process, and maybe will help someone else out there save a hundred bucks, too. I scuffed the area with a file, mixed and applied the putty, let dry overnight, then used a grinder to shape it, a little at a time, until it fit perfectly. The IM6 is working great now, and has harvested several batches of ice today.  I think the root cause of my whole problem was sediment in the water line, which caused a leaky inlet valve, leading to ice buildup and part breakage (ice would build up on the sensor paddle also). I want to install a filter next. Thanks for the help and for this great forum. Attachment: QuickSteel Repair.jpg (Downloaded 103 times)
____________________ I have a full-size map of the world... I hardly ever unroll it. |
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| Posted: Thu Jun 16th, 2005 05:47 am |
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9th Post |
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Samurai Appliance Repair Man Fermented Grand Master of Appliantology 
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Cool fix! Your proven ability to improvise, adapt, and overcome distinguishes you from the Grasshoppers. You have earned the degree of Apprentice Appliantologist. Cro Maat!
____________________ For service manuals and lots of other goodies, become an Apprentice==> http://apprentice.applianceguru.com  |
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| Posted: Thu Jun 16th, 2005 05:57 am |
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10th Post |
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fortywatt Senior Apprentice Appliantologist
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Samurai Appliance Repair Man wrote:Cool fix! Your proven ability to improvise, adapt, and overcome distinguishes you from the Grasshoppers. You have earned the degree of Apprentice Appliantologist. Cro Maat! Woo Hoo!!!  I should celebrate with a select dark stout in a frozen mug.
____________________ I have a full-size map of the world... I hardly ever unroll it. |
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| Posted: Mon Jul 17th, 2006 11:55 pm |
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11th Post |
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mwreese Grasshopper
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Thanks so much for posting the solution. The exact same thing happened to us. We used the same fix. You saved us $100.
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| Posted: Tue Jul 18th, 2006 12:08 am |
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12th Post |
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FrustratingFridge Grasshopper
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Looks like your refrigerator too is included in the class action lawsuit against GE. Been telling everyone I can that posts affected model numbers. See this thread... http://applianceguru.com/forum1/8080.html Applies if you are having moisture related problems at all. Last edited on Tue Jul 18th, 2006 12:10 am by FrustratingFridge |
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| Posted: Tue Jul 18th, 2006 12:50 am |
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13th Post |
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fortywatt Senior Apprentice Appliantologist
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mwreese wrote:Thanks so much for posting the solution. The exact same thing happened to us. We used the same fix. You saved us $100. HEy, glad to help... my QuickSteel fix has been running strong for over a year now Only other problem I've had with this model over the last year is the icemaker door solenoid.. not an electrical problem, but more mechanical. the mechanism occasionally gets kind of rusted and crusty, keeping the chute door from closing completely, thus causing ambient air to leak into the freezer, and tending to make a snowy mess at the chute. easy to fix though,, just remove the exterior faceplate and clean it up, as in wire-brush it and WD-40 it.
____________________ I have a full-size map of the world... I hardly ever unroll it. |
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