The short answer
An ice maker that has stopped is usually a water problem rather than an ice-maker problem. Supply, fill valve and a frozen fill tube account for most of them, and all three can be investigated without tools. On the RBM models the water path is common across the family, so the supply checks below hold for all of them even where the bin and the dispenser differ.
What you see in the bin
- The dispenser runs water but makes no ice — Water at the dispenser proves the supply reaches the cabinet, which removes the whole upstream half of this list in one press.
- You can hear the valve buzz but nothing fills — Hearing the valve energise without a fill is one of the most useful observations here, because it splits the electrical side from the water side.
- Ice is produced but tastes or smells wrong — That is a filter or storage problem rather than a production one, and it is worth separating before anything is replaced.
- Production stopped after the freezer was defrosted or moved — Anything that happened just before production stopped matters: a defrost, a move, work under the sink. Each of those has a characteristic aftermath.
- NEAR MISS — No ice and the whole cabinet has gone warm — A warm cabinet with no ice is one fault, not two. Fix the temperature and the ice usually returns on its own.
The ranking that matters here
- The ice maker is switched off or its shut-off arm is held up — Every ice maker has a way of stopping itself when the bin is full, and every one of them can be left in that position by a bag of frozen peas, a bin pushed back too hard or a cleaning session. This ranks first here because the rest of the list only matters once water is confirmed to be arriving. That is the difference from the brand-wide order: on the RBM models the ice maker is switched off or its shut-off arm is held up moves ahead of a clogged or wrongly seated water filter, because it is the faster of the two to confirm here.
- No water reaching the refrigerator — Lines pinched behind a refrigerator pushed back against the wall are common enough to be worth checking before anything is dismantled.
- A frozen fill tube or a frozen supply line — The fill tube that drips water into the mould is thin and sits in the coldest part of the machine. Once a slug of ice forms in it, each fill cycle adds to it.
What to check first, and why
- First — check the ice maker is actually switched on — Look at the ice maker control and at the shut-off arm, and move anything leaning against it. A bag of peas pressing the arm up stops production completely and silently. Each step confirms that water reaches one point further along the path, which is why working out of sequence tells you almost nothing.
- Second — confirm water is reaching the refrigerator at all — Run the dispenser if there is one, and check the shut-off valve and the line behind the machine for kinks. No water at the dispenser means the fault is upstream of everything inside the cabinet.
- Third — look for ice in the fill tube above the mould — With the machine unplugged, look at the thin tube that feeds the mould. A plug of ice there explains a buzzing valve and an empty bin at the same time.
Before you open anything
Safety
Disconnect the refrigerator before working in the freezer compartment, and close the house water valve before disturbing any line. A supply line under pressure that is pinched or split behind a heavy cabinet floods a kitchen quickly, so check the line while the valve is shut rather than while it is not.
Where the owner job ends
Book a visit once the supply, the filter, the arm and the freezer temperature have all been cleared. Say what you found in that order — it maps directly onto the parts a technician will bring.
Other faults on this appliance
Lead Appliance Repair Technician · 12 years experience
Experienced technician with 12 years specializing in washing machine and dryer repairs across all major brands.
