The short answer
Before anything else on an AR cabinet, settle whether your number makes ice automatically at all, because the table covers a family rather than one machine. Most numbers here freeze a tray rather than run an ice maker.
What you observe on these models
- Trays that take most of a day to freeze — On a compact that is compartment temperature and frost on the plate, in that order.
- A thick frost rind over the plate where the tray sits — Insulation between the cold and your water.
- Ice is made, but slowly and in small quantity — Slow is a temperature story.
- Cans and bottles freezing on the bottom shelf — The complaint is usually too much cold rather than too little ice.
- NEAR MISS — plenty of ice but the cabinet is warm elsewhere — Read the cooling page for this family first; ice is a symptom there, not the fault.
Causes, most likely first on the AR family
- Compartment temperature, not an ice maker — First on this platform: most numbers in this family make ice only in a tray, so the question is how cold the freezing compartment actually gets and how long the door stays shut.
- A frost slab insulating the evaporator plate — Second, and the classic manual-defrost story: the thicker the ice on the plate, the slower everything inside freezes, including your tray.
- Cold control set too high, or its sensing bulb off the plate — Third: both give a cabinet that is cool but never freezing.
- Set point too low for canned and bottled drinks — Fourth: glass bursts and cans split well before the cabinet reaches a freezing fault, so a cabinet making ice out of your drinks is a control and sensor question.
- The tray or mould itself — Last: a deep plastic tray insulates its own contents, and a tray standing on a shelf rather than on a cold surface takes much longer than one in contact with it.
Check in this order, and why that order
- Put a thermometer in the freezing compartment overnight — A freezer holds food safely at 0 °F (−18 °C) or below.
- Look at the evaporator plate and judge the frost — A thick rind is insulation, and it slows freezing long before it warms the food.
- Check the ice maker arm and module last — And where there is no ice maker, stop at the temperature reading: tray ice follows the compartment.
- Decide what you are actually asking of the cabinet — A beverage centre chills drinks.
- Read the set point and compare it with what is on the shelves — Cans split and bottles burst well before a beverage cabinet counts as faulty; a cabinet freezing its contents needs its control checked.
Before you open anything
Safety
Unplug the appliance or switch off its breaker before removing any panel. A capacitor can hold a charge after the power is off. Do it before the first panel rather than before the difficult one: the live parts are not where most people expect them.
Models in the AR family — The numbers this page covers.
Reference| Model number | Family key |
|---|---|
| AR17T0W | avanti:refrigerator:ar |
| AR17T1B | avanti:refrigerator:ar |
| AR17T3S | avanti:refrigerator:ar |
| AR2406W | avanti:refrigerator:ar |
| AR2416B | avanti:refrigerator:ar |
| AR24T0W | avanti:refrigerator:ar |
| AR24T3S | avanti:refrigerator:ar |
| AR321B | avanti:refrigerator:ar |
| AR321BB | avanti:refrigerator:ar |
| AR323SB | avanti:refrigerator:ar |
| AR32J1B | avanti:refrigerator:ar |
| AR4446B | avanti:refrigerator:ar |
| AR4456SS | avanti:refrigerator:ar |
| AR46J0W | avanti:refrigerator:ar |
| AR46J1B | avanti:refrigerator:ar |
| AR46J3S | avanti:refrigerator:ar |
| AR5102SS | avanti:refrigerator:ar |
| AR52T3SB | avanti:refrigerator:ar |
When to call a technician
Checking a supply valve, a fill tube, an arm and a compartment temperature is owner work on a compact manual-defrost refrigerator. On these models the line falls at the sealed system, which is licensed work from the first cut. Call without working through anything at all for a burning smell, a breaker that trips, or water reaching the machine compartment.
Nearest pages of this class
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