It’s kinda almost unbelievable how much trouble we have with ice makers. We bought the current fridge/freezer when we moved here 2-1/2 years ago but the first 4 months, we didn’t have the ice maker hooked up because the water wasn’t good at the rental. In the 14 months or so that we’ve the ice maker hooked up, it’s been repaired/replaced I don’t know how many times.
In addition to the fridge in the house, over in the shop, we have:
- A full size fridge that has an ice maker that isn’t hooked up because there’s no water in the shop.
- Two upright freezers. They’re full of meat and veggies.
So, I really wasn’t looking forward to moving the house fridge with the non-working ice maker to the shop and getting yet another full size fridge. That’s a whole lot of electricity when we’re trying to cut back on our usage, and we really need a third big upright freezer for the meat since we prefer to buy a half a cow from a local farmer, a pig from a local farmer and then get a few deer each year. But, what else can you do when your ice maker keeps going out?
Really, with those bottom freezers, since the drawers slide in and out, I can’t even imagine how messy it would be to have ice trays in there . . close the drawer and half the water would slosh out.
Home Depot is having an appliance sale so I said . . let’s go buy a new fridge! Vince wasn’t happy but I was so tired of dealing with never having ice that he agreed to go buy a new fridge. We went Friday and looked at them all. I Swore I’d never get another bottom freezer fridge but the way our fridge is up against the wall, with a window, with a deep windowsill, we almost have to get a bottom freezer. We had just about decided which one to get on Friday night but then we wanted to come home and do more research.
Then we went back yesterday and looked again and changed our mind about which one to get but we had the repairman coming out to work on the oven and the ice maker today so we waited til we talked to him about which fridge he recommended. While here, he broke the news to us . . it’s our water! Too much lime is causing the problem and if we want an ice maker, we’re going to have to plan on replacing it about every 6 months or, we can install some fancy water filtration system that costs about $3,000.
Neither of those options sounds great but he did tell us that our current freezer is about the easiest there is as far as changing the ice maker, so we ordered a new ice maker, and a spare and we’ll just change ice makers every 6 months. That’s better than switching to water we have to pay for. We do have a water softener and apparently that helps a lot. The other night when I was canning, I filled the canner with a water house from outside (water that hadn’t gone through a filter or water softener) and I ended up with about 1/4″ of powdered lime (or something white) on all the jars! It was pretty unbelievable how much was in a small amount of water.
Next option . . order a free standing ice maker. Our laundry room has a water line for an ice maker. We looked online, found one that makes nugget ice (like Sonic) and were just fixing to order it and I said to Vince .. better check that water line and make sure it works. We’ve never used it. Nope, it doesn’t work! Somewhere, there HAS to be a turn on valve but we don’t know where. Vince thinks maybe it’s in the attic but we aren’t about to go up there when it’s this hot.
Strike 2! Next option . . order a tiny freezer, stick it in the laundry room and fill it full of ice trays.
That’s what we did. I’ll stick it in the laundry room, put ice trays on it and maybe use it for the meat I bring over out of the big freezers each week. It isn’t the best solution but it’s about the least expensive, easiest, quickest fix.
During veggie season, when I’m using lots of ice, either blanching veggies or skinning tomatoes, so I end up freezing water in Solo cups so I can have big chunks of ice. This will work perfectly for sticking a few of those cups in there and keeping that ice handy.
Way too much time has been spent trying to figure out what to do with this fridge/ice maker situation and I’m happy to have the decision made, to have extra ice makers coming and hopefully have ice . . because it’s real hot around here!
That says 114.4º on my dusty outside thermometer!
Teresa F. says
We live in town and have extremely hard water and neither of us like the taste of our tap water. Since we buy bottled water to drink, I fill our ice cube trays with the bottled water too so our ice doesn’t taste like the tap water.
Gayle Bong says
I can really relate to your posts today. We just got a new fridge cause of icemaker problems. It was over 20 years old though. I was shocked when Hubby went to youtube to see if he could learn how to fix it. No luck there.
Never thought of pulling up a chair to watch the chickens. 4 of our neighbors chickens (the ones from last year) have become our pets. They hop the brook between our lots and come begging for corn whenever they hear us outside. They are sooooo funny.
Not about to can my own roasted garlic, but you can bet I love the stuff. Keep up the good work Judy.
Marla says
I was thinking you had a small counter top ice making machine a few months ago. Did it stop working too?
JudyL says
No, it still works but the ice has to be put in the freezer as soon as it dumps since the little ice maker doesn’t have a storage area so it involves constant babysitting. I use it when I’m in the kitchen doing something else and I can transfer the ice to the freezer as it dumps but I can’t leave it alone and have it make a bunch of ice.
Rebecca in SoCal says
The little freezer dedicated to ice sounds like a GOOD solution. As you said, you can make big blocks, and the lime build-up will occur on the trays, which are removable and entirely cleanable! (I’m sure you know the magic vinegar works on that stuff).
p.s. I wiped my computer screen when the thermometer picture was up!
Carol says
I know the water in your area causes all kinds of headaches with ice makers. We had an ice machine installed in our kitchen when we built our house 25 years ago and have replaced it once. It has been wonderful and one of the handiest appliances we own-especially when my 2 boys were still home. Now when I have big groups here ice is never a problem. We have never even hooked up the water to our refrigerators (2) as we had trouble years ago with ice makers in them so just decided to forget that option for ice.
JudyL says
We talked about having a big ice machine put in but the water is going to do the same thing to it and since the stand alone machines cost more, it just isn’t worth it knowing we would have to repair it and replace parts every 6 – 8 months. There are advantages and disadvantages to being on well water but for now, the advantages far outweigh the disadvantages.
Jean says
What a timely blog message! Our icemaker just went out for the third time on our 16 year old refrigerator, otherwise in good shape! First two times we paid an arm and a leg to get it repaired. This time DH ordered parts online and will fix it himself. I’m going to suggest a small freezer to make ice with trays. Think he will like the idea. We were talking about a stand alone icemaker but would have to solve the waterline problem. Your solution is going to be our solution too! Thanks for sharing. In the past year we’ve had 2 hot water tanks go out (two story), 1 of two heat and air units went out, major steering problems in one vehicle, and all faucets needing replacing around house, and on and on and on…
I’m ready for a break. Luckily DH is pretty handy for most of the work. I love your blog, and get so many good tips, recipes, and quilt ideas. Love that you love watching your chicks.
Inka from Germany says
In Germany almost none of the freezers have an ice maker. I use Ice cube bags, so theres no sloshing out of water when closing the drawer. When using the ice to cool the water for canning you can dump the whole bag in the water and refreeze it later. Good luck with your new one.
maggie says
between the shop and the house we have 3 freezers and 2 frig. when we moved in here and began learning about the water eating away the pipes. we made the decision to pay the big bucks and bought the filter system. then we had a generator hard wired into the circuit box. has been worth every penny. service the water filter system every 2 years. and the power goes out often enough to exercise the generator fairly regularly.
maggie
Karin Vail says
what do your ice makers do when they ‘go out’? Several years ago, I woke to a couple inches of water all over my kitchen, soaking into the living room, pouring into the heat vents, and dripping into the basement. I had to get the shop vac and vacuum for what seemed like hours. We just turned off the water to the fridge and just haven’t had automatic ice since (I put bagged ice in the bin so I can still use the dispenser). It sure would be nice to figure out why it leaked though, but I’m afraid to start digging to figure it out, LOL.