French Door Refrigerators are one of the most popular choices for the modern kitchen thanks to their sleek and elegant aesthetic, as well as their practical layout, which allows them to store larger food containers that a regular fridge couldn’t handle.
Not only that, but they also have all the conveniences you’d want from a modern refrigerator, including a water dispenser and ice maker.
However, some owners of French Door Refrigerators have reported an issue where their Whirlpool ice maker will suddenly stop working. Needless to say, this is pretty troublesome, especially during the summer when you need ice to cool your drinks.
So in this article, we’re going to explain exactly why this problem occurs and how to fix it as easily as possible.
Why is your Whirlpool French Door Refrigerator Not Making Ice
When a refrigerator stops making ice, it’s usually due to the mechanism becoming blocked up with too much ice, which prevents the production of new ice.
While defrosting and removing the built-up ice will solve this temporarily, we also need to address the root cause of why it became frozen in the first place. Otherwise, it’ll just re-freeze.
1. The Ice isn’t Being Crushed
Some people don’t like those giant square ice cubes in their drink, so Whirlpool has given a crushed ice option on many of their fridges where a set of blades will crush and smash up the ice so you can enjoy a nice slushie.
However, if a piece of ice is too big and bulky and the blades are not strong enough to crush it up, then it will become jammed in the ice chute.
So we need to unjam the ice crusher blades to free up the flow of new ice.
2. The Motor is Burned Out
Even if the water inlet valve is just fine and ice is being produced normally when the Whirlpool ice maker auger motor burns out, it won’t be able to take that ice and deposit it in the ice bucket, resulting in a huge buildup of ice within the system.
Once the motor is repaired, we’ll need to clean out the old ice, which is clogging everything up, and it should start working usually.
3. The Ice Maker Switched Off
An easy one to overlook. Many modern fridges can turn the ice-making function off in case you don’t need to use it but still need to use the refrigerator itself.
This can be very helpful during winter when you might not want cold drinks and want to prevent the whole ice-making system from freezing over.
The on/off function is a simple button on the main control panel, so by turning it back on, we can restore power to the ice maker.
4. A Control Board Failure
The control board is the brain of the Whirlpool refrigerator, which controls its various functions and systems.
These digital control boards can sometimes experience glitches or failures, which must be addressed.
One of the easiest ways to try and correct this is by performing a power cycle, but if this doesn’t work, it’s often easier to just replace the control board with a new one.
5. The Ejector Arm is Jammed
The ejector arm is responsible for taking the newly formed ice cubes from the ice tray and dispensing them into the ice bucket. It’s very easy for these to become jammed up, which will cause an excess of ice to build up in the refrigerator ice maker.
We need to unjam and defrost this so new ice can flow into the ice bucket.
6. The Water Filter is Clogged
The water filter in a fridge, as the name might suggest, is there to help filter out unwanted contaminants and debris from making its way into the Whirlpool refrigerator and being used in the ice cubes.
Over time these ice filters can become clogged up, which may hinder, or completely stop the water flow to the refrigerator ice maker.
Whirlpool recommends replacing the water filter every six months, so if you haven’t done so, now might be a good time to put a new one in.
How to Fix a Whirlpool French Door Refrigerator Not Making Ice
As we can see, most of these problems can be corrected with a little bit of DIY cleaning and unblocking.
Let’s walk through how to fix these problems to get your Whirlpool French Door Refrigerator’s ice maker back in working order.
1. Unblock the Ice Crusher
When the ice crusher is clogged up, it will prevent new ice from flowing into the ice bucket. So we need to get it unblocked to get things working again.
- Start by turning off the power to the fridge and unplugging it completely from the wall. You should not interact with the ice crusher while power is still supplied to the fridge.
- Pull the ice bin out of the fridge by lifting it up, then slide it forward towards you.
- This will reveal the ice deposit area. Check and remove all the stuck and clumped-up ice. You may need to break it up a little; the handle of a wooden spoon can be useful for this.
- If you notice that ice is also stuck in the bin itself, which may add to the issue, you can run it under warm water until it breaks off. But you should ensure the bin is completely dry before reinstalling, or the residual water will just freeze.
- Reinstall the ice bucket and turn the power on.
- Give the fridge some time to produce new ice; this may take 15-20 minutes.
- Test out the ice maker to check it’s now dispensing ice correctly.
2. Fix or Replace the Burned-Out Auger Motor
Firstly we need to inspect the motor to see if it can turn; if it doesn’t turn, it may be blocked up with ice.
However, if it does turn freely, then it may be that the motor is burned out. At this stage, we need to test it with a multimeter to ensure power is supplied.
The power supply needs to be fixed if it’s not getting power. But if it is getting power but is still not turning, it means the motor has burned out and needs to be replaced. In either scenario, it’s best to call Whirlpool customer support and have a technician do this for you.
3. Turn the Ice Maker Back On
The ice maker function is generally located on the front control panel or maybe a physical switch inside the machine next to the ice dispenser in older models of refrigerators.
If you’re not sure, the best thing to do is to consult your user manual to find the exact location for your particular model.
For the modern touch screen, you just need to hold the button down for a few seconds, and you will hear an audible beep sound which confirms the refrigerator’s ice maker has been switched back on.
4. A Control Board Failure
The easiest way to tell that the problem is with the control board is to test the individual components associated with the ice-making mechanism; this includes the auger motor and the water inlet valve.
If these individual components are working but the overall ice maker isn’t, it’s more than likely a control board problem.
In this scenario, you should once again contact Whirlpool customer support, who will arrange for a technician to help replace it.
5. Unjam the Ejector Arm
When the ejector arm is jammed up, it won’t be able to dispense the cubes made in the ice mold into the bucket.
Here we need to take a utensil, something like the back of a wooden spoon or a plastic item that won’t damage the internals of the refrigerator’s ice maker, and use it to remove the jammed ice from the ejector arm.
6. Replace the Water Filter
Replacing the water filter should be done every six months, but Whirlpool has done a good job of making this process as simple as possible as they understand that it will be you, the user, who needs to do it.
-
- Start by ordering a new filter; you can do this directly from the Whirlpool website.
- Depending on your model, the filter may be inside the fridge’s upper right-hand corner or sometimes on the front of the base grille. Consult your manual if you’re not sure.
- Lift the front door of the filter up.
- Simply pull on the old filter to remove it; this can just be discarded.
- Take the new filter and remove the protective coverings from the O-rings, making sure you don’t move the position of these o-rings as they create the water-tight seal.
- Ensure the arrow on the water filter is pointing up toward the ceiling, and gently push the water filter into place. There are notches on the filter which need to align with the groove.
- Close the filter door.
Adrian is an ISCET licensed professional that has completed the National Appliance Service Technician Certification Exam and has the expertise to diagnose and repair any appliance. He is well-versed in the latest technologies and techniques and is always up-to-date on the latest industry standards.
