One of the best things about summertime has to be all the sunny days that seem to last forever, and cold drinks that make you feel like you’ve come alive. This is especially valid when it’s humid and hot outside and you will do anything to cool down your body.
In the past, you would have to manually make ice by pouring water into an icecube tray or mold and placing it in the freezer. Then you would have to wait for a few hours for the ice to form. Thankfully with new ice makers canton mi, you don’t have to do all that anymore.
Read on to find out more about how an ice maker works.
How Does An Ice Maker Work?
If you own an ice maker, you’ve probably wondered how exactly it works. It seems almost miraculous that you can have access to ice cubes to make cold drinks anytime you wish. Technology is awesome.
Thankfully, you don’t have to manually make ice cubes any longer. The ice maker in your fridge has automated the process for you.
Be aware that you have to connect your ice maker to both a power source and a plumbing line through the back of your refrigerator. The following are the steps your ice maker takes to make ice:
- An electrical signal gets sent to the water valve in the icemaker
- This causes water to fill the ice mold
- The freezer then goes to work freezing the water
- When the internal thermostat indicates that the ice cubes are at 5-9 degrees Fahrenheit, that halts the process
- Once the cubes get created, a heating coil gets activated
- This loosens the cubes from the mold
- The ice maker’s ejector blades then push the ice cubes from the mold
- They are funneled into the collection trays
- A shaft separates the collection tray from the dispenser in the front of the unit
- When a level gets pressed (by or someone in your home) – the ice cubes are released into the dispenser
- Once the ice cubes are stacked to their maximum capacity, the shut-off arm at the front of the ice maker signals to stop the process
As you can sense this is quite a complicated process with a lot of moving parts, and therefore, prone to quite a few mechanical and technical errors.
Why Is My Ice Maker Not Working?
Now that you are more aware of the process that your ice maker uses to make ice, you must understand how many things could go wrong in the process. If your ice maker isn’t making ice or isn’t working in some other way, then there could be a wide variety of things that have gone wrong. Let’s look at some of them below:
- The shut-off arm could be defective or could have accidentally been turned off
- The ice maker thermostat could be defective – causing the water valve not to be released as the temperature isn’t in the proper range
- The ice maker motor could be faulty and not cause the process to be set in motion properly
- The water valve could be faulty
- The fill tubes could be clogged or frozen (so water can’t flow into the ice trays)
- Maybe the water filter is clogged with dirt and needs to be replaced (the red filter light might be on to indicate this)
- The freezer temperature might be too high and thus your ice maker isn’t getting to the right ice-making temperature
- Maybe your home plumbing line doesn’t have enough water pressure
- And so many other reasons
As you can imagine, it isn’t as easy as switching your refrigerator on and off when your ice maker doesn’t work. If it were only so easy!
There are so many moving parts in an ice maker that you could be searching for a long while before figuring out what your ice maker needs to work properly again. If you have looked through all the points listed above and you still can’t find what’s wrong, call your refrigerator’s manufacturer or a licensed technician and have them check out your ice maker.
Some Ice Maker Buying Tips
If you are the kind of family or household that uses lots of ice, you are going to need a different ice maker from someone who only uses it occasionally. Some refrigerators have a bigger storage capacity than other ones, so keep that in mind when choosing an ice maker. This way your refrigerator will produce more ice cubes for your family to use.
Another thing to be aware of is that there are two kinds of ice that different ice makers produce. There’s the gourmet ice and the traditional one. The gourmet one is clear, higher quality, cleaner, and better tasting. If you don’t care about quality, and only about quantity, then a traditional ice maker should suffice for your needs.
Don’t forget that an ice maker needs to be cleaned every 3-6 months. The cleaning process doesn’t take long, and all you need to do is remove all the ice cubes from the machine and run a cleaning solution through it. Read your refrigerator’s manual for more details on this.
This will ensure that the ice your refrigerator produces is clean, clear, and doesn’t taste strange.
If you are ready to buy your ice maker, check out Ice Maker Depot for some great deals.
Ice Makers Are a Relatively New Luxury
Even though it might seem like ice makers have been around forever, they are a new luxury that’s overtaken the modern consumer world. That’s why they are also less understood.
With the ice maker guide above, you are all set to use your ice maker to its best capability and efficiency.
Don’t forget to check out other related articles on foods & culinary on our blog.
