Great Value
Reviewed in the United States on November 20, 2024 | Rating: 5/5 | Best Sellers in Appliances
after two years and two months of daily use through two summers in the deep south at a house with a pool with guests for all the usual holidays and including a full year as the sole ice maker for an adult couplethe fan quitfor about the last month it had been giving indications that something wasn’t normal  after 44 years of marriage pattern recognition becomes a finely honed survival skill so when a machine in the kitchen starts acting up you tend to notice it this past sunday afternoon i was dozing on the sofa ignoring the tv when this ice maker made a unique noise that woke me up i can’t describe the actual noise it made i was dreaming i swear it shouted something at me but it was weird enough that i went to check on it the ice in the bin had melted the back of the unit felt hot and the fan wasn’t running i quickly unplugged the machine without paying attention to the status lights so unfortunately i don’t know what was displayed and positioned a small desk fan blowing into the rear vent to cool it down after 30 minutes i repowered the unit and it started making ice again except the exhaust fan was deadi unplugged and drained it then removed the rear cover five screws on the bottom and used the external fan for cooling to verify the ice maker still worked otherwise which it did the fan would start if i gave it an assist but would not run full speed and would not restart on its own after several hours i was confident a new fan would fix itexact replacement fans are plentiful and inexpensive here on everyone’s favorite home shopping site just search for the part number printed on the fan motor for 17 a new fan arrived overnight removing the fan from the radiator is super easy two obvious screws however unplugging the fan from the controller board and fishing the power wire out with plug intact is extremely difficult the controller board is mounted inside a plastic box and getting the cover off the box without full disassembly requires a lot of cussing needle nosed pliers and at least one skinned knuckle once the controller cover is off the fan’s power plug had a glob of hot glue covering it and the socket and the wire was tiewrapped in a spot that i couldn’t even see at first the manufacturer doesn’t intend for you to remove this and if you’re not careful you’ll break the socket off the board or something else theres lots of wires all bundled together easy to mess upif i were to do this again i’d simply cut the wires to the old fan careful to leave as much length as possible and splice in the new fan using small wire nuts or solder and shrink wrap if you prefer be sure to clean the dust from the backsideinlet side of the radiator internal facing the compressor using a soft bristle toothbrush mine was completely blocked by dust which is what caused the fan to fail in the first place this unit does not have an air filter so if you live in a dusty environment andor have pets you probably need to open it up and clean the radiator once a year before you put the cover back on blow the whole thing out with compressed air or a leaf bloweras to cleaning the actual ice making “wet” section of this model i use a hand held steam gun with a flexible nozzle about three times a year and it keeps it clean as new inside no need for running vinegar through it it’s not like a coffee pot and doesn’t develop calcium deposits i use a mild bleach solution for running the built in cleaning cycle while blasting the top out with the steam gun then thoroughly rinse out the whole thing using the sink hand sprayer the moldslime that will develop in the top of the unit comes from exposure to room air like most ice makers i’ve ever owned it’s difficult if not impossible to access the actual ice tray section to hand clean it and every ice maker i’ve ever owned will develop mold wherever it’s regularly exposed to room temperature air so the complaints i’ve read about this unit are not unique to this unit if your refrigerator has an ice  water dispenser in the door i discourage you from looking at it too closely with a flashlight or you’ll stop using itanyway the unit has been cleaned and reassembled and making ice again like it was new while this particular machine has not been subjected to vibration like it might be in a motor home or rough handling from potable use it has run for over two 2 years continuously sometimes needing multiple tank refills per day i subtract one star for being moderately difficult to repair but i’d give it 10 stars if i could for being a great value for the money