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Two different complaints arrive under this heading on the Almo refrigerator: too little ice, on models that make it, and too much ice, on models that do not. The record for this family is a list of bare model numbers — 9760101, 9760201 and 9760301 — with nothing recorded that says what separates them. Decide which of the two you have before reading any further, because the causes below are ranked for both and they have almost nothing in common.
The observables on these models
- Frost thickest near the seal or the lid edge — The build-up marks the leak: it is heaviest where the damp air comes in.
- The contents are freezing when they should not be — Setpoint, or a sensor reporting warmer than the cabinet really is.
- A sheet of ice across the bottom of the cabinet — Flat and clear rather than feathery — meltwater that refroze where it stood.
- NEAR MISS — water on the floor rather than ice inside — That is the water-leak page for this family, though a blocked drain causes both.
Ranked causes for these models
- A compartment that is not cold enough to harvest — First. Ice will not leave a mould that is not properly cold, so a compartment running warm produces slow ice, hollow ice, or none. That makes this a cooling fault presenting as an ice fault, and it is worth ruling out before anything is blamed on the maker. The same check covers everything from 9760101 to 9760301; the record gives no reason to treat those codes differently here.
- No water reaching the ice maker, on models that have one — Second. An ice maker with no water still runs its cycle; it just turns out nothing. A valve closed after a move, a line squashed behind the cabinet, or a line frozen at its coldest point all look identical from the front: a dry mould and a machine that appears to be ignoring the request.
- The ice maker itself — Last, because it is the least common and the only one that needs parts. A mould that fills and never turns out, or a motor that stalls mid-harvest, is a module fault — and it is only a sensible conclusion once water, cold and the bin sensor have all been proved good.
- Body: With nothing recorded beyond the numbers, the ranking leans on what the cabinet does rather than on what it is. An ice maker is a passenger on the cooling system: it cannot harvest out of a compartment that is not properly cold. The record does not say which of these codes pulls down fastest, so temperature is settled on the machine in front of you before anything about the maker is judged.
The order to work in
- Measure the compartment before blaming the maker — Where the compartment is warm, this is a cooling fault wearing an ice maker's clothes, and the cooling page for this family is the one to work. Identical on every code from 9760101 to 9760301.
- Prove water is arriving before anything else — Open the valve fully, look behind the machine for a pinch, and give a frozen line time to clear once the cause of the freeze is fixed.
- Body: Work these in order rather than picking the one that sounds most likely. Each check below removes a whole branch of the list above, and none of them needs a panel off or a tool in hand.
Before any panel comes off
Safety
Unplug the cabinet or switch off its breaker before working behind it; a capacitor can hold a charge after the power is off. Where a water line is involved, shut the supply valve before disturbing any fitting, and dry the floor afterwards: meltwater from a thaw finds sockets and extension leads.
Models this page covers — The three model codes recorded for this family; the record carries no column separating them.
Reference| Model number | Family key |
|---|---|
| 9760101 | almo:refrigerator:? |
| 9760201 | almo:refrigerator:? |
| 9760301 | almo:refrigerator:? |
Where owner work stops
Thawing, clearing a drain, correcting a setpoint and reseating a seal are all owner work, and between them they end most of these calls. It becomes a service call when the cabinet ices up again quickly with all of those right, when a plumbed line leaks at the fitting, or when the compartment cannot be brought cold enough to harvest at all — that last one is a cooling fault and is urgent in a way the ice is not.
The rest of this family
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