By Matt T

I’ve discovered when you’re a homeowner that you also have to be Sherlock Holmes sometimes.  There are always strange noises and creaking sounds happening in a house.  Some of them can be a bit creepy, like when you’re lying in bed and you suddenly hear water running.  When it’s the ice maker working properly, you hear the water running and then a loud noise when it shuts off.  It makes you feel as if the ghosts are getting themselves a glass of water in the middle of the night.

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My most recent adventure into detective work I called, “The Case of the Shrinking Ice Cubes”.  When I first bought my refrigerator with the ice maker, the ice cubes were just the right size.  I took great pleasure at listening to the sounds of ice dropping into my glass.  When you pay thousands of dollars for a refrigerator and the privilege of having ice and water on demand, it’s a real delight when everything works like it should.  Aahh…the sweet sound of convenience.
 
Everything was going fine until one day I noticed the ice cubes seemed to be getting smaller.  Now I’m not talking about ice cubes that are too small or too large.  I’m talking about ice cubes that seemed to be shrinking.  They were just the right size for a while and then began to well….shrink.  This was a mystery I had to solve or else I wouldn’t be able to bear the thought of all that money I paid for a refrigerator that would only give me shrinking ice. 
 
So I started doing my best detective work.  Mr. Sherlock Homeowner is on the case.  Most of the sleuthing I did online only talked about ice cubes being too large or too small.  I had a different dilemma and would not rest until I had an answer.  I did my detective work and finally had the “Aha” moment.  It seems there is a natural physics process that happens which is called sublimation.  Sublimation is when ice goes from solid to vapor and never becomes a liquid.
 
Here are the facts of this case.  The ice in the ice compartment is made up of a lot of frigid water molecules.  The little molecules on the surface of the ice are not firmly attached and try to break free like criminals on the run.  Instead the air that blows in the freezer compartment makes sure they don’t land anywhere so you never have to defrost your refrigerator.  The next layer of molecules on the ice starts thinking they can escape and not get caught, so they break free next.  Of course, my expensive frost free wind in the freezer catches them too. Eventually all these criminal molecules end up on the evaporator coil which then heats up and turns the ice molecules to liquid.  The water collects in a pan in the bottom of the refrigerator.  The refrigerator motor heat causes the water to evaporate.
 
And that’s why my ice shrinks.
 
After all my great detective work I learned that the only way to fix my shrinking ice cube problem was to throw away the guilty cubes and make some new ones.
 
But all was not lost.  I not only solved one problem, I learned a lot about how to avoid the ice maker from needing repair.  There are some steps a homeowner can take to make sure the ghosts can get their water at night and you can get your full-sized ice when you want it.
 
First and foremost, you should keep the water lines clean at all times.  They can get plugged with sediment and prevent water from flowing to the ice maker.  Now I like to think of this sediment as being natural minerals so I don’t have to spend any time wondering what the heck I’m getting in my water from the public water supply.  Ignorance really is bliss sometimes.
 
Speaking of clear water.  The second think you can do to avoid needing an ice maker repair is to put a water filter on the water line.  The filter will prevent the sediment in the water from reaching the ice maker, and it will also make your ice taste better.  The filter needs to be faithfully changed every 6 months. 
 
If your ice is not shrinking but really is too small or too large, then you should adjust the ice cube size control in the unit.  This is your third maintenance tip.  This will insure you get to hear the happy sound of ice clinking in the glass when you want it.  It’s really annoying to have to reach into the ice bin and dislodge pieces of ice that are too large.  It’s just as annoying to see miniature ice falling into your glass when you’re expecting the full blown real deal.
 
Fourth, you should make sure the water fill cup alignment is accurate.  When the ice maker is filling with water, the cup alignment insures the right amount of water is added.  A good alignment will also prevent water from splashing out of the cup and causing an ice problem in your freezer.
 
Since we’re on the subject of alignment, I might as well mention you want to keep your refrigerator level.  A level refrigerator is a happy refrigerator.  A refrigerator that is not level can experience all kinds of problems and the ice maker will jump in out of sympathy and cause trouble too.  For example, the ice maker water line may decide to not fill the water cup properly and you’re back to the weird looking ice.  So the fifth tip is to avoid weird ice. 
 
Now I had to solve a case dealing with shrinking ice, but you will be dealing with bad tasting ice cubes if you decide to use a plastic water line.  The sixth maintenance tip for avoiding ice maker repair is to use a copper water supply line.  You don’t have to worry about mold, fungus or any other water born organism deciding to make a home in your water line or ice when you use a copper line.
 
Your water line should be kept free of kinks too.  You won’t get any ice if there’s a big kink in the line.  If there’s a small kink, it can take forever for the water fill cup to get filled with water.  I don’t know about you, but the sound of the ice maker filling with water is not something I want to listen to for longer than is necessary.  So your seventh maintenance tip is to not roll your refrigerator so tight against the wall that you kink your copper water line.  (Now I wonder how I know that’s how it happens…..?)
 
Anyway…on to the eighth tip.  Always keep old stubborn cubes cleaned out of the ice maker working parts.  You don’t want ice jamming the ejector blades or preventing the shut-off arm from working.  This doesn’t happen very often, but the operative words are “very often”.  I had a piece of ice that somehow got caught in the ejector blades and was making the ejector motor work too hard.  Don’t ask me how this happened.  It just did.  I guess it is just another of life’s little mysteries.
 
The ninth maintenance tip is concerned with ice makers added to refrigerators.  You should make sure the wiring in the refrigerator will accommodate the ice maker you are adding.  If it doesn’t, you will either have an ice maker that doesn’t work or a fire.  Just kidding!  What really can happen is the wiring or the ejector motor can burn up trying to handle the ice maker.  
 
For the ice maker to operate properly there must be adequate water pressure.  The tenth maintenance recommendation is to maintain the water pressure somewhere between 40 psi and 120 psi.  Of course, if you don’t have enough water pressure in the house, you will probably know it long before you try to dispense ice.  You’ll find out when the toilets don’t flush properly or your nice strong shower turns into a weak stream of water.
 
But I digress.  We were talking about how to prevent an ice maker repair.  The eleventh tip is to keep your freezer temperature at the right degrees.  If the ice does not freeze properly then the freezer temperature is not set correctly. 
 
Finally, the twelfth tip is to keep the ice maker bin clean.  You shouldn’t let half frozen ice take up permanent residence in your ice bin.  Old ice can affect the taste of new ice -  kind of like one person having a bad influence on another person.
 
Most ice maker repairs must be done by a service person.  There are really just a few the homeowner can do like replacing a water line.  But the best thing to do is follow the maintenance tips and chances are your ice maker will work just fine for many years. 
 
So this is Sherlock Homeowner letting you know the files on the “Case of the Shrinking Ice Cubes” have been officially closed.