What Causes the Ice Machine on a Frigidaire Refrigerator to Freeze Up?

Fused Cubes

• One problem that will make your ice machine unable to eject cubes normally is when all of the cubes freeze together in one big lump. This can make it difficult for the ice maker to dump the ice into the storage bin. The ice and water filter being clogged with sediment can cause fusing of cubes and making partially frozen or hollow-centered ice that trap water in the center. The low temperatures in the refrigerator can cause the excess liquid to bind the cubes together either in the molds or in the bin.

Temperature Fluctuations

• Temperature is the key to making ice. Water freezes at 32 degrees Fahrenheit and begins to melt as the temperature climbs above that mark. When there are temperature fluctuations inside the freezer compartment of your Frigidaire, the ice cubes in the ice machine may partially melt or not freeze entirely in the allotted time before the machine dumps the new batch of ice. If this happens, the circulating air may freeze the water in an unacceptable time. If the temperature in the freezer is far too high, the water may not freeze at all and there will be nothing produced.

Jams

• Sometimes the location of the ice itself can jam up the ice maker and prevent it from working correctly. If ice gets jammed between the ice maker and the back of the ice bin it can prevent the parts from moving as needed. This will result in a non-working ice maker that is frozen in place, unable to dump the next batch. Mineral buildup from the water supply could also make the cube molds sticky and keep the machine from releasing the newly formed cubes. This may require you to manually remove the existing ice and clean or lubricate the molds with cooking spray.

Infrequent Use

• If you don’t use your ice maker very often, your Frigidaire may not continue making ice for a couple of reasons. The normal reason is when the ice bin gets too full it raises the feeler arm and shuts off the machine. If you dump out all the ice it still will not start working again and may appear to be frozen until you manually lower the feeler arm to restart the system. Another possibility is when the ice partially melts and water freezes around the auger that releases the ice. This is common if you rarely use the ice maker, and you may need to manually remove the existing ice and thaw the freezer compartment to get it going again.