The short answer
Before anything else on an AVFF cabinet, settle whether your number makes ice automatically at all, because the table covers a family rather than one machine. Slow ice is the earliest sign of an airflow or defrost problem on a frost-free cabinet.
What you observe on these models
- 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.
- Ice production slowing while the food is still frozen hard — The earliest sign that the airflow or defrost side is in trouble.
- Trays take most of a day to freeze — Compartment temperature, or a tray that is not in contact with anything cold.
- 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 AVFF family
- Freezer compartment temperature, which on a frost-free cabinet is an airflow question — First on this platform: ice making is the first thing to suffer when the fan or the defrost system is struggling, and it fails long before the food in the compartment starts to thaw.
- Water supply and the shut-off valve behind the cabinet — Second: a saddle valve half turned on gives a trickle fill and a thin, hollow cube.
- Freezer temperature too high to complete a harvest — Third: the ice maker will not drop a load until its mould reaches its cut-out point, so a compartment running warm produces nothing at all rather than producing less.
- Door opening and load in either compartment — Fourth: warm shopping put into the refrigerator side pulls cold away from the freezer side on this cabinet.
- 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
- Read the freezer compartment temperature overnight — A freezer holds food safely at 0 °F (−18 °C) or below.
- Look at the rear panel for a frost sheet and listen for the fan — The two together tell you whether the compartment can reach its temperature at all.
- Watch how the cabinet is loaded and used for a day — Warm shopping and a door left ajar downstairs both show up as slow ice upstairs.
- On a plumbed number, check supply, fill tube and valve in that order — Cheapest and most likely first, as always.
- Fill a shallow metal tray and stand it directly on a cold surface — It separates a slow compartment from a slow tray in a single night.
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. On this platform there is no check worth doing that cannot wait the thirty seconds it takes to isolate the machine properly.
Models in the AVFF family — The numbers this page covers.
Reference| Model number | Family key |
|---|---|
| AVFF146DLJ#** | avanti:refrigerator:avff |
| AVFF146DLJ0B | avanti:refrigerator:avff |
| AVFF146DLJ0SS | avanti:refrigerator:avff |
| AVFF146DLJ0W | avanti:refrigerator:avff |
| AVFF18DLJ#** | avanti:refrigerator:avff |
| AVFF18DLJ0B | avanti:refrigerator:avff |
| AVFF18DLJ0SS | avanti:refrigerator:avff |
| AVFF18DLJ0W | avanti:refrigerator:avff |
| AVFF21DLJM#** | avanti:refrigerator:avff |
| AVFF21DLJM** | avanti:refrigerator:avff |
| AVFF21DLJM*** | avanti:refrigerator:avff |
| AVFF24DLJM#** | avanti:refrigerator:avff |
When to call a technician
Checking a supply valve, a fill tube, an arm and a compartment temperature is owner work on a frost-free compact refrigerator. On these models the line falls at anything behind a panel and anything on the sealed system. Call without working through anything at all for frost or ice returning within days of being cleared, together with a cabinet that will not hold.
Nearest pages of this class
Lead Appliance Repair Technician · 12 years experience
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