A retired Maytag guy told me I was overcomplicating ice maker repairs and he was right

I was out at a house in the suburbs last Tuesday working on a Whirlpool fridge that was making this weird grinding noise in the ice maker. The homeowner said they already had two other guys look at it and both just replaced the whole ice maker assembly for like $250 each. I was about to do the same thing but I remembered an old retired Maytag tech I met at a parts counter in January. He told me that 90 percent of ice maker issues are just the little plastic gear that strips out, not the whole motor. I took the housing apart and sure enough the gear was shredded. Replaced it for $12 and it was running smooth in 15 minutes. Made me wonder how many customers get sold full replacements when it's just a cheap part. Has anyone else found a specific part like that where the easy fix is way cheaper?

2 comments

2 Comments

wadejenkins6d agoProlific Poster

Did the old Maytag guy happen to mention anything about those ice maker modules that crap out after a power surge? I had a similar situation with a Samsung where the control board was fried but the mechanic just swapped the whole ice maker and didn't bother checking the board first. Wasted a good Saturday for me.

blake_kelly196d ago

Hmm, I gotta push back a little on that. In my experience, swapping the whole ice maker is often the safer bet because even if the board tests fine, the surge might have damaged some other component that'll crap out in a month anyway. Take that with a grain of salt though, your mileage may vary.