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A BC refrigerator that has stopped making ice has failed at one of three stages: it is not getting water, it is not cold enough to freeze what it gets, or the mould itself is not cycling. The first question is which — and it is answerable by looking at the mould rather than by taking anything apart. Start by checking whether your cabinet has a factory ice maker at all, because not every model under this stem does.
What the owner sees
- Cubes are welded into the bin as one lump — Melt and refreeze between cycles, which is a compartment question rather than an ice maker one.
- The mould is completely dry — No water is arriving, so the fault is upstream of the ice maker rather than in it.
- Ice is made, but far more slowly than it used to be — Almost always a temperature drift in the freezer section rather than a fault in the ice maker.
- NEAR MISS — no ice and the food in the freezer is soft — That is a cooling fault first. Fix the temperature and the ice usually returns on its own.
Causes, most likely first on BC models
- The cabinet is not fitted with an ice maker, or its switch is off — Across a stem this wide the fitting is not uniform, and an arm resting in its raised position or a switch left off produces exactly the same complaint as a broken machine. It leads here anyway: of the nine codes under this stem the ones that carry the fitting are the ones that generate this complaint, so it is the first thing to settle.
- Bin jammed, or the arm held up by the ice already in it — The arm stops production when the bin is full, and a bridged clump of old ice holds it up while the bin is half empty. Second on this family: it produces the same complaint as the cause above it, so the two have to be separated before either is acted on.
- Water supply shut off, kinked or restricted at the valve — The supply usually starts at a small valve under a sink or behind the cabinet, and that valve is the part most often found half closed or silted up. Ranked third here, because the two causes above it are both quicker to settle and more often the answer on a cabinet of this size.
The order of checks, and why it is this one
- Water, cold, harvest — in that order — The three stages fail in different places, and checking them in sequence means you never test a stage that the previous one has already explained.
- Look inside the freezer section for the mould and the arm — No mould means nothing to fix. An arm in the raised position, or a switch at off, means nothing broken.
- Empty the bin completely and break up any bridged ice — Then let the arm fall and give the machine a few hours before judging it.
- Follow the line back to its shutoff and open it fully — Then look along the line for a kink where the cabinet meets the wall.
Isolate the machine first
Safety
Isolate first: unplug the machine, or switch off the breaker if the socket is behind the cabinet. A capacitor can hold a charge after the power is off.
Models in the BC family
Reference| Model number | Family key |
|---|---|
| BC-160OD | avanti:refrigerator:bc |
| BC-46 | avanti:refrigerator:bc |
| BC-47 | avanti:refrigerator:bc |
| BC-50 | avanti:refrigerator:bc |
| BC-65 | avanti:refrigerator:bc |
| BC-70 | avanti:refrigerator:bc |
| BC-71 | avanti:refrigerator:bc |
| BC-90DAN | avanti:refrigerator:bc |
| BC-90OD-DC | avanti:refrigerator:bc |
When to call a technician
Call if the list above runs out without a cause, and call first rather than last if the fault involves water near live parts, a breaker that will not stay in, or a burning smell. A BC cabinet is small enough that a technician confirms most of these in a single visit, so there is little value in a long owner diagnosis once the cheap causes are excluded.
The rest of this family's faults
Lead Appliance Repair Technician · 12 years experience
Experienced technician with 12 years specializing in washing machine and dryer repairs across all major brands.
