TIL letting a fridge sit unplugged for a full 24 hours actually fixed my ice maker issue

I used to think the whole "unplug and wait" thing was a myth. Last Monday I got a call about a Frigidaire that wouldn't dispense ice. I spent two hours testing the water inlet valve, the ice mold thermistor, even the door switch. Nothing was obviously broken. My coworker Dave told me to just unplug it for a full day and come back. I figured I'd try it since I was out of ideas. Came back Tuesday morning, plugged it in, and the ice maker started working perfectly within four hours. The buildup in the water line must have frozen and cleared while it thawed out. Has anyone else had a simple cooldown fix work like that when the testing showed nothing wrong?

2 comments

2 Comments

iris_rivera441mo ago

Hang on, I gotta push back a little here. You spent two whole hours testing parts and that still didn't tell you the line was frozen? That seems like a lot of work to skip the simple stuff first. A frozen water line is pretty common, especially if the fridge is in a garage or a cold spot. Unplugging to thaw it out makes sense, but calling it a fix when the real issue was just ice blocking the flow feels off to me. You probably could have saved all that testing time by checking the water line for frost or giving it a hairdryer for five minutes. It's not really a mystery or a trick, it's just basic troubleshooting that a lot of us skip over.

matthewh281mo ago

Oh man, I've absolutely done this before. Spent an hour swapping a water valve on a fridge only to realize the line was just frozen in the garage.