The short answer
Before anything else on an AV cabinet, settle whether your number makes ice automatically at all, because the table covers a family rather than one machine. Anything that steals cold from the freezer side shows up as slow ice first.
What you observe on these models
- Slow ice upstairs at the same time as a refrigerator compartment that is drifting — One cold source, two compartments, one fault.
- 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.
- Cubes that are hollow or noticeably small — A short fill, which sends you to the supply and the fill tube rather than to the module.
- 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 AV family
- Freezer compartment temperature on a shared-evaporator cabinet — First on this platform: both compartments share one cold source here, so anything that steals cold from the freezer side, including a refrigerator door left open, shows up as slow or hollow ice.
- Frost over the evaporator limiting how cold the compartment gets — Second, and on this platform it also explains a refrigerator compartment that is drifting warm at the same time.
- Door opening and load in either compartment — Third: warm shopping put into the refrigerator side pulls cold away from the freezer side on this cabinet.
- Where the number is plumbed: supply, valve, fill tube — Fourth: checked in that order, cheapest and most likely first: a half-closed valve gives thin ice, a frozen fill tube gives none at all.
- Ice maker module or arm; otherwise tray ice and temperature — Last: the arm is free to check and off more often than anyone expects.
Check in this order, and why that order
- Read both compartments, not just the freezer — On a shared-evaporator cabinet the refrigerator side steals cold from the freezer side, so ice is the first casualty of a fault downstairs.
- Look for frost over the evaporator in the freezer compartment — It explains slow ice and a drifting refrigerator compartment at the same time.
- Check the cold control and its sensing bulb — Worth doing once the checks above are clean: a control set too warm looks identical to a cabinet that cannot cool.
- Read the freezer compartment temperature overnight — A freezer holds food safely at 0 °F (−18 °C) or below.
- On a plumbed number, check the shut-off and the line behind the cabinet — A half-open valve gives thin, hollow cubes rather than none at all, which is a useful distinction.
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 AV family — The numbers this page covers.
Reference| Model number | Family key |
|---|---|
| AV1081VFK0W | avanti:refrigerator:av |
| AV160VFK0W | avanti:refrigerator:av |
| AV170VFLJM#** | avanti:refrigerator:av |
| AV210VFLJM#** | avanti:refrigerator:av |
| AV2121VFB0W | avanti:refrigerator:av |
| AV230VFLJM#** | avanti:refrigerator:av |
| AV701VFB0W | avanti:refrigerator:av |
When to call a technician
Checking a supply valve, a fill tube, an arm and a compartment temperature is owner work on a two-door refrigerator-freezer. 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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