Your LG refrigerator ice maker was working, but now is not making ice? In this article, we will show you the most common LG Refrigerator Ice Maker Problems and how to test ice maker.
The most common LG refrigerator Ice Maker problems caused by temperature fluctuations (in the ice maker compartment), a faulty water inlet valve, a broken ice maker, a malfunctioned control board, or a faulty ice maker fan in the freezer section.
Let’s start with a simple diagnostic test you can run that may provide some insight on what that problem could be.
Please see Updates at the end of this post ” How To Troubleshoot Optical Sensors On The Ice Maker?”
Lg Refrigerator Ice Maker Troubleshooting
To run the ice maker test mode, first of all, pull the handle to open the ice room and remove the ice bucket.
There are two styles of LG refrigerator ice makers. On this first model, this is the power button.
Make sure it is turned on. The test button is underneath.
Here in the ice room put the towel to catch water or ice that may fall when you run the test mode.
Press and hold the button for about 3 seconds and the ice maker will begin to turn. If water or ice were to fall from the tray, the towel is there to catch it. The tray only holds about 4 or 5 oz of water.
Here’s a another style of ice maker on this model. There’s no power switch and no tray. Even though there’s no tray you should still place a towel below the ice maker before running the tests.
On this type of ice maker, there is a tiny hole on the left side. This is a Test Button. So press and hold the button for about 3 seconds until the arm starts to turn.
For the first 2 hours, the refrigerator has been plugged in, the ice maker test can only be run once. If you wish to run the test mode a second time, unplug the unit for about 30 seconds to reset the ice maker.
Why Lg Refrigerator Ice Maker Not Filling With Water
1.Water Filter – If during the test mode your ice maker didn’t fill with water, then check your water filter.
Without filter or when the filter installed not properly in the filter housing, water will not flow to the ice maker and water dispenser.
You just need slide filter into the housing, PUSH and TWIST to lock it.
If you recently changed the water filter and you noticed the ice maker started to leak, the problem can be with water pressure.
With a new filter, water will flow more freely and when it reached ice maker it may create a splash.
Some amount of water will leak in the ice maker compartment to the very bottom and eventually will be on the floor.
If you have ball-type water tap behind the fridge, try to decrease incoming water pressure to the fridge by turning at 45 or less degrees. You need to play with it, to reach reasonable water pressure.
To do this adjustment, turn water tap to 45 degrees and let somebody will push water dispenser using big cup or something like that.
This way you will be able to decrease water pressure to desirable level.
Another problem can be when the ice maker leaking, its when ice maker dumping ice in the bucket, some ice cubes might stuck in the tray.
And when fresh water will fill ice maker, it actually will overfill and some amount of water will spill over the tray.
In this case, pull the ice maker out and clean inner side of the tray from the calcium build up.
2. Inlet Valve – When the water inlet valve failed, you will not have water as well. In order to check the inlet valve, you just need Multimeter.
But keep in mind, that LG fridges have 2 inlet valves. Main valve on the back of the fridge, secondary(for the ice maker) in the left door.
You need to check them both. Secondary valve getting water from the main valve. But from my experience, secondary valve causing most of the problem with the ice maker.
3. Water Hose – Behind your LG fridge there is a water hose connected to the inlet valve. If the water hose is kinked, it will restrict water flow to the inlet valve.
4. Ice Maker – If ice maker failed to perform diagnostic test and you not able to run it, then most likely ice maker motor failed.
5. Control board – Every LG refrigerator has a control board. If the control board not sending power to the ice maker or one of the relays on the control board failed, then the ice maker will not run.
Important: If all components mentioned above in the article are ok and ice maker working ONLY when you press RESET button (ice maker should make a full turn and not making ice in automatic after that), then there is a problem with the main control board or optical sensors on the ice maker.
Make sure the control board will fit with your model of the fridge !!!
why Is Ice maker not producing ice?
One of the reasons is malfunctioned ice maker fan, which is located in the freezer compartment.
This fan blows cold air into ice maker compartment and freezes up water.
If the temp in the ice maker compartment will be high than -12C, ice will not be produced.
In order to check if this fan is working, you need to apply a magnet to simulate a closed door ( see top side of the door where the magnet is located)
If you feel cold air coming out from the vents, fan is good.
This is a picture of back panel in the freezer compartment with evaporator and ice maker fans.
Ice maker fan part# ADJ72911303
What should my LG freezer be set at to produce ice?
-2°F or -20°C is the recommended temperature setting for normal ice production. In order to adjust the temperature: Press the FREEZER button to cycle through the range of available settings and set it to the desired temperature.
How to Reset LG Refrigerator Ice Maker
In order to reset ice maker, unplug your refrigerator or turn breaker OFF for at least 30 sec. This procedure will reset the ice maker.
What Does Ice Plus Mean On My LG Refrigerator?
When all the ice in the LG refrigerator is used, it will take 2 hours to produce the next bunch of ice cubs. Some LG models are equipped with an “Ice Plus” feature. This feature just speeds up the freezing process and allows it to produce ice cubes 2 times faster.
How long does it take for LG fridge to make ice?
It depends. If you just bought and installed LG refrigerator then it may take about 24 hours. But if your refrigerator works more than 24 hours, in this case, every 2-3 hours ice maker will produce new ice cubes.
UPDATE: This is how ice maker works when releasing ice cubes and it’s normal to twist ice tray. For those who didn’t know that, it seems like the right side of the ice tray been jammed.
Update: How To Test Optical Sensor on The LG Ice Maker?
Optical sensor malfunctioning, one of the reasons why your ice maker may complete Harvest Cycle, but not working in Automatic Mode.
The first thing you need to do is to check optical sensors:
- Remove Ice Bin from the compartment
- Close the left door
- Wait for 3 minutes
- Freezer Door stays open
- Push Refrigerator button and Lock button at the same time
If ETY is shown on the display after the procedure above, Ice-detecting sensor is normal.
If FULL is shown on the display after the procedure above, Ice-detecting sensor is abnormal.
When it shows FULL with empty ice bin, something wrong with these sensors. As long as they are part of the ice maker, one of the options is to replace ice maker and see if it will solve the problem.
You can get a new ice maker on the link below
LG Fridge Service Manual
Ice Maker Troubleshooting starts from page 106
All of a sudden it takes 6+ hours to cycle through And drop ice into the bucket. It feels as though the ice is formed and solid however just doesn’t drop. The ice tray does fill up with water right after the 7 cubes drop. I went from a full compartment of ice to maybe 20 cubes a day.
So my LG is filling the ice cube trays with just a little too much water. It makes for a large chunk of ice and makes a horrible clunking noise as it tries and fails to dislodge the cubes. How can i adjust this so it doesn’t fill up with too much water?
The issue on my LG Ice maker is that the fridge was level, but the icemaker was not and was leaning forwards a bit causing ice to not be level in the tray. The water then froze at too high towards the front part of the tray and caused the the rotating Ice Remover claws to not be able to rotate due to them getting caught on the frozen Ice cubes due to being elevated so much that the water in the trays was touching the claws and freezing the claws in place. I simply removed the existing ice using a small screwdriver and then leveled the ice maker by using a couple wedges. Reset it and all has been good.
I have an LG fridge model LMXS30776S / 03
I got an E 15 error code and originally I could open the ice maker door and the code would go away and the ice maker would operate when I pressed the test button, it would refill once and never dump the ice it made.
Fast forward to now and the code still pops up and it won’t reset unless I unplug the fridge. But now the ice maker won’t operate at all when I press the test button.
I saw at LG’s site that with that code it’s the fan or the sensor that isn’t working properly.
I used a magnet to simulate the door shutting and the fan blows air out of one of the vents, and one vent has nothing blowing out (maybe a return vent?) This test won’t work at all when the code is lit on the operating panel.
After reading the article, it seems like the ice maker or the control board is the problem but before I take the gamble and buy either, I wanted to see if anyone had any other thoughts before I proceed and replace one or the other.
If the ice maker fan is working and you can feel it, then the problem can be with the wiring located on the left top door hinge. I can not give you the exact procedure on how to check that. But you need to check wiring for continuity from the freezer where the fan is located to the inner wiring of the left door.
Thank you I will check it.
My ice maker makes ice fine but the they continue to stick (freeze) together. After a few knocks on the ice container…all’s fine till the next attempt.