Norcold Icemaker dripping water

[afchap]

We have a Norcold 1200 LRIM refrigerator. Twice in the past several days the DW has complained of the ice cube tray being frozen in place. Both times, I?ve had to defrost the freezer compartment due to a column of ice down into the freezer starting alongside the left side of the ice cube tray. After defrosting this time I note a drip from the bottom of the ice make head. I put a small juice glass under the drip, and caught about 1/4 cup of water in an hour or so, after which the drip has either slowed down or stopped/frozen. After the icemaker emptied the frozen tray and cycled again, there was another period of dripping.

I have checked and know that the dripping water is not overflow from the ice tray. Is it likely the water valve sticking open/dribbling? If so, it that something that I can reasonably repair, or should I just plan on putting in a new ice maker? (which I understand should be a Whirlpool universal ice maker kit, Part no. 57773 Model No. ECKMF94, normally available from Lowes).

 

[Gary RV_Wizard]

Yes, the water valves can crack or leak. Or an adjacent fitting. Sometimes you merely have to fully defrost the freezer (several hours) to melt out a pesky piece of ice and it will be ok after that. That's what I would try first. If that doesn't do it, you can get parts - it is a Whirlpool ice maker, available from numerous appliance part sources. The part number is WP-4317943

 

[afchap]

We finally got to a location where I could get a replacement if needed, so I tore into it -- since the DW cannot do without her daily ice I had discovered that a small juice glass under the dripping area would catch most of the drips IF emptied 3-4 times every 24 hours.

Yesterday I used manuals I downloaded some time ago to check the function of the water valve/solenoid, etc and determine it was not leaking and had not suffered freeze damage -- all appeared normal there.  I removed the icemaker and found the teflon coating on the tray to be in very poor condition. A couple of folks on another forum had mentioned that could cause the water to wick out that end of the tray, and from the mineral deposits that seemed to be the case. So, based on the info I had on file, I went to Lowes and asked for a Whirlpool ice maker kit part #57773, model #ECKMF94. (I first asked for WP-4317943 but the appliance sales guy immediately said without even looking at a reference of any kind that that number didn't match any he knew...). Cost for the kit was $44.95 after my 10% Veteran discount. It is identical to what I removed right down to the electrical connections. It comes with icemaker, wiring harness, water valve/solenoid, water line, and tray. I installed only the icemaker, using the existing wiring harness (replacing it would require totally removing the refrigerator). Too bad the tray is too large to fit in the freezer compartment, but our old one is usable. The new icemaker is working great, and no drips!!!

 

[JoAnn]

We have been having this same problem. We have a Norcold model 1200LRIW    I will show this to Jim and see how he feels about removing the ice maker himself.  Any other helpful info would be much appreciated.  Thanks!

JoAnn

 

[afchap]

It really is a very simple job to swap it out ...4 bolts into the freezer wall & two screws up into the bottom of the ice maker itself plus the electric connection (has a catch that has to be pressed just right ...easy to see how it works IF you already have the new one to look at).

 

[JoAnn]

Thanks a lot!  Jim picked up the kit yesterday.  Not sure when he'll get to tackle the job tho.  I'll let you know how it works out.

 

[Jeff]

I am not sure about your Norcold but when our Dometic started dripping water all I had to do was use the adjustment screw (counterclockwise) to reduce the amount of water being dispensed by the ice cycle.

 

[JoAnn]

Ok, the new icemaker is installed and working, with one problem.  It works great when plugged in but it doesn't work at all on propane (the original did)  Did Jim miss something or is this just the way it is?

 

[afchap]

Great!!  He got it in ...not a huge problem to install, eh?

It works great when plugged in but it doesn't work at all on propane (the original did)

The Norcold icemaker only runs when it has 120v power  ...it may if fact work when the refer is running on LP AND there is 120v power available for the icemaker to use, and maybe that's when it worked for you in the past when on LP.  I believe your Norcold manual will confirm that the icemaker requires 120v power.

 

[JoAnn]

Good to know, thanks!  That could very well be and I didn't realize.  I'm very thankful to get this messy problem taken care of.  Thanks so much!
JoAnn