The short answer
On the BD family an ice maker that has slowed or stopped is usually reporting a compartment that is not cold enough, not a fault of its own. The maker harvests on temperature. Anything that leaves the compartment a few degrees warm stretches the cycle out until it looks like a failure.
What you observe on these models
- No ice at all, and the tray or mould is dry — A dry mould means water is not arriving, which puts the fault in the supply rather than in the freezing.
- Ice is made but it is hollow, small or cloudy — Water is arriving but not enough of it, or not for long enough, which points at pressure and at the fill valve.
- Ice forms and then fuses into one block in the bin — That is a temperature and moisture problem in the storage, not a making problem.
- NEAR MISS - the whole cabinet is warm as well as ice-free — Ice stops early whenever a cabinet loses temperature, so a warm cabinet makes this a cooling fault and a different page.
Causes, most likely first on this family
- Freezer compartment not cold enough to harvest — First on this family. A freezer holds food safely at 0 degrees F (minus 18 degrees C) or below, and a maker in a compartment above that takes far longer to reach its harvest point or never reaches it, and because the family is one platform whose model numbers share a prefix, the same fault turns up across the models listed above.
- Door left ajar, gasket leaking or the bin blocking the door — Second, and it is the usual reason for the first.
- Frost on the evaporator restricting airflow to the mould — Third. Ice on the evaporator starves the compartment of moving air, and the mould is often the first place that shows it because it depends on air rather than on contact.
- Supply and module faults — Last on this ordering, because a maker that is filling and simply harvesting late reports a temperature problem, not a water problem. Check these once the compartment is genuinely cold.
Check in this order, and why this family dictates it
- Put a thermometer in the compartment for a few hours — Nothing else on this list is worth doing until you know whether the compartment is actually cold.
- Check the door seal and whether the bin is fouling the door — Second: it is the commonest reason the first check comes back warm, and it is free to fix.
- Look at the rear wall of the compartment for frost build-up — Third, because frost explains a warm compartment and a slow maker at the same time.
- Check the fill only after the compartment is proven cold — Last: replacing a valve on a warm compartment gives you a cold-water leak and no more ice than before.
Before you open anything
Safety
Unplug the appliance or switch off its breaker before removing any panel, and close the water supply at its shut-off before disconnecting any line. A capacitor can hold a charge after the power is off. Never use a knife, a screwdriver or a heat gun to free ice from a mould or an evaporator: the tubing behind it is thin-walled and a puncture turns a cheap job into a scrapped cabinet.
Models in the BD family
Reference| Model number | Family key |
|---|---|
| BD-100B-E | antarctic-star:refrigerator:bd |
| BD-150B-E | antarctic-star:refrigerator:bd |
| BD-150C-E | antarctic-star:refrigerator:bd |
| BD-165 | antarctic-star:refrigerator:bd |
| BD-200B-E | antarctic-star:refrigerator:bd |
| BD-200C-E | antarctic-star:refrigerator:bd |
| BD-285C | antarctic-star:refrigerator:bd |
| BD-40-E | antarctic-star:refrigerator:bd |
| BD-50 | antarctic-star:refrigerator:bd |
| BD-60-E | antarctic-star:refrigerator:bd |
| BD-80 | antarctic-star:refrigerator:bd |
| BD-88B-E | antarctic-star:refrigerator:bd |
| BD-88C | antarctic-star:refrigerator:bd |
| BD-90B-E | antarctic-star:refrigerator:bd |
When to call a technician
Call when the supply is proven good and the mould still fills short, when the fill valve drips after it closes, when the fill tube freezes again after being cleared, or when the compartment will not hold its temperature. Take the model number from the table above before calling, because the ice hardware is not identical across this model list.
Other faults covered for this family
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