How to Repair a Viking Refrigerator Ice Maker?

Whoever first came up with the idea of installing an ice maker right into a refrigerator door was a genius. What a fantastic idea! Most people report that having this handy ice water on hand all the time has drastically increased the amount of water they drink every single day. This has led to clearer skin, fewer headaches, and overall better health. Considering how much you use the ice maker, discovering that it has stopped working can be a devastating experience. The good news is that the odds are pretty good that you’ll be able to repair the Viking refrigerator ice maker by yourself.

How Viking Refrigerator Ice Makers Work

The way the ice maker on your Viking refrigerator works is that it receives water through a very small tube. The delivery tube than dumps the water into a filling tube where it’s turned into ice. The entire process is controlled by a thermostat.

What Goes Wrong

Do to the small size of the Viking refrigerator ice maker it doesn’t take much for things to go slightly wrong. The good news is that it also doesn’t usually take much to repair the problem.

The two most common issues with the built in ice makers is that they either get blocked or they leak.

When the ice maker gets blocked, which is usually a blockage caused by a piece of ice, you’ll have to gently melt the bit of ice. Once you’ve done that, the unit should be restored to its previous perfectly working order. If the problem keeps happening over and over again, the cause is most like the thermostat which will have to be replaced.

If you have hard water, it’s possible that the accumulated buildup of minerals is causing your ice maker to get blocked. If this is the case, you will have to remove and replace the blocked tubes, something you will most likely have to do every few years. Regularly cleaning the unit with Lime Away or white vinegar might help reduce the mineral build up.

If your Viking refrigerator ice maker has started leaking, you’ll need to identify the exact location of the leak. If the location is at one of the insertion points, you might be able to solve the problem by tightening the connection. If the leak is somewhere else, or tightening the connection doesn’t solve the problem, you will have to replace that particular part.

If you aren’t getting ice when you want it and upon opening the ice maker, you find the bin full of regular shaped ice cubes, the water supply fill valve needs to be replaced.

If the ice maker is running continually, even after the bin has filled, you should try removing the entire unit from your Viking refrigerator and then reinstall it.

If you decide that the best thing you can do is to replace your current ice maker with a brand new unit, make sure that you get the exact same model that is currently installed into your fridge.

Good luck!