Ice maker compressor

Liberty44140

Ok so in this thread I posted about two issues: 1, compressor not turning on and 2, drip in the back of the ice box. The first issue was not an issue. These things are on timed cycles and there is a period in the cycle where it literally does nothing that you can see or hear so you need to give it a half hour or so before worrying.

With regard to the drip and ice build up in the back of the I seem to have resolved this after some steps as I've been running it for days at a time in my basement, making ice, with no drip. Time will tell this summer. Either way, here is what I have done and learned:

1 - water pressure is important. I posted here that I thought I had too much pressure and that was part of the drip. WRONG. You need good pressure. When I turned pressure down the valve would stick and not open/close so the ice maker would over flow. You need pressure to make sure the valve opens and closes and I proved that.

2 - These things have three things coming in through the back of the unit in to the ice box: Water, power and thermostat wire. They need to be sealed or they are letting hot air in to your box which is condensing and melting water. I used plumbers putty to re seal these items nicely. Plumbers putty is probably not the "right" stuff but it works fine.

3 - They still make and sell the door seals for these units. They are $40 - $50 delivered. I got one and it has made a nice difference in sealing my box. You can use a hair dryer to carefully flatten it after the shipping box. Fits well and you can tell the improvement.

4 - Door Alignment. You need to pull the unit out for this, but my door was too low so the seal magnets were not properly adhering to the rim of the door opening. My door needed to go up 1/8". Its important to make sure the magnets on the seal align on all 4 sides.

I did remove the ice maker and thoroughly checked everything for cracks. No cracks at all. Getting it out of the "goop" that it sits in from the factory was not hard and I removed 95% of the goop. To reinstall I used this goop from Home Depot, Super Lube Heat Sink Compound for about $7. It never hardens but it has the thermo properties the goop needs so it will be easy to remove the ice maker if I need to do it again. Is this the "right" stuff? I dont know but I read good things online about using it for ice makers and all of my tests have gone well. I used half the tube on install: http://www.homedepot.com/p/Super-Lube-3-oz-Tube-Heat-Sink-Compound-98003/202932736 

I do still get frost in the box over time but these things are not frost free so that is part of the deal. In fact the manual says to thaw when the frost gets to 1/4" thick and I read somewhere that is monthly if you are continually using the unit.

I AM NO EXPERT on these things, just chipping away at the issue I had and thought I'd post my experience. 

Dream_Inn

Very nice update!  I do use mine all the time and find that it is probably once a month that it gets thawed out (mainly due to anchoring out and just emptying it).  I've never had issues leaving it on and turning off the water pump while away for the week (I don't like to leave water pump on when I'm not there).  I've had mine out several times and never noticed any "goop".  Is this removing entire ice maker from fixture or from within box?  Not sure how important that is, but...

I may have to check into the seal and any door alignment.  Thanks!

Liberty44140

Thanks Dream. Yea the goop is under the ice maker itself. The ice maker is screwed in to a white shelf within the box and between the ice maker and the shelf is this goop that adheres it and provides some thermo electric properties. In another post here someone posted pics of trying to remove the ice maker and difficulty removing it from the shelf due to adhesion to the goop. The shelf has freon running through it and the ice maker gets cold when freezing ice and hot when ejecting ice so this goop must be some kind of insulator between the cold shelf and the hot/cold ice maker. 

Liberty44140

A follow up to this - The interior box drip stopped while I was running the ice maker in my basement after doing the things I mention above. Then back in the boat, the drip came back. At first there was no drip but it returned. My guess is that the water pressure difference could have had to do with why but I really dont know. 

Solution - new valve. Last summer I removed the output line on the valve and didn't get a drip out of it but I assumed I would see a puddle. Last weekend I removed the output line again and watched it. It was around 1 drip every couple of hours and it would dry quick if I didn't catch it. That is enough for an icicle and small puddle over the course of the weekend inside the cold box. So I installed a new valve on Friday night and still no drips on Sunday night when I left. Fingers crossed! 

The Uline OEM valve is almost $70 but I found this aftermarket for $30 which seems to work well: https://www.waterfiltermart.com/universal-uline-water-valve.html

Dream_Inn

Very nice find!  Thanks for posting.

sneaky1967

Looks like I'll be getting a new valve.  Thanks Liberty.

Liberty44140

No prob. That $30 valve I posted fit great and 6 weeks later still no drips. 

Liberty44140

My cruisers has the exact same uline ice maker that my Rinker has so continuing my ice maker thread

problem here was two fold. First a lot of water dripping down the back of the ice maker to the bottom so the bottom of the ice maker cabinet had 1” of ice that the ice bin sat in, also water pooling at bottom of ice bin making another inch of nice. Really a mess. Additionally woke up one morning to zero nice, just didn’t work one night but worked the next. 

So I started watching it to realize it seemed to be getting stuck in heat mode. Part of the normal cycle is that the tray heats up to help pop the cubes out. Well it was getting stuck in heat melting ice and melting frost and I think even letting in more water from the valve to over flow.

called uline and they said that the timing system is all in the ice maker assembly. So I painfully ordered the $255 ice maker assembly and I replaced the $60 water valve while at it since they are known to drip over time.

all good, installed last night and today she is cranking out nice cubes with no drips or puddling ice. I really wanted to buy a $45 whirlpool ice maker and see if it would work the same but we are doing a week long trip this week and I couldn’t take the chance. Also the wiring is not the same so I’d need to use wiring instructions posted on an rv site with mixed results. Admiral mandated to get the right one lol!