The short answer for these models
Before opening anything, find out whether water is reaching the mould. A dry mould and a wet one send you to completely different halves of the problem, and the difference takes ten seconds to establish. What changes on the HE models is the sequence rather than the diagnosis. A plumbed cabinet has a second source of water and a second thing to fail, and a page that ignores which one you have sends you looking in the wrong place, which is why the water-path checks belong at the top of the list here.
What you observe
- Which form your HE unit is — settle this first — Check the back for a supply line. Fitted, and a leak has two possible sources; absent, and there is only one.
- No ice at all, and the tray or mould is dry — Nothing is arriving. The fault is on the supply side of the ice maker rather than inside it.
- Ice tastes or smells of the cabinet — Taste is not a mechanical fault, it is a housekeeping one, and it is fixed by emptying and airing the bin.
- NEAR MISS — water is pooling under the cabinet rather than freezing — That is a leak, not an ice fault, and it belongs on the page about water where it should not be.
Causes, most likely first on this family
- The bin, the arm or the switch is out of position — Common, free to correct, and one of the few faults that produces a perfectly healthy machine doing nothing. This is where the order departs from the brand-level page: on the HE models the construction settles it, so the water-path checks come before the checks that lead anywhere else.
- Water is not reaching the ice maker — First because a dry mould settles it instantly, and because nothing downstream can work without it.
- The fill valve, the mechanism or its heater — Last because everything above it is cheaper, more likely and checkable without tools, and because confirming this one means live terminals.
Check in this order, and why
- First — look at the mould and the bin — Dry means a supply fault; wet or frozen over means the water is arriving and the problem is later in the chain.
- Second — confirm the compartment is properly cold — Check the compartment is genuinely cold rather than merely cool, because a marginal cabinet gives up ice first and everything else later. On these models this is the step the construction changes: read the result against the form you identified first, because the same finding means different things on the two.
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. No hand goes into an ice maker to free a jam while it is live: the harvest runs on its own schedule and does not know your hand is there. Clear ice with warm water only, shut any supply valve first, and dry the floor as you go.
Where the owner job ends
The line falls where the mechanism begins. Water supply, a raised arm and a frozen bin are yours; the module, the valve and the wiring behind the panel are not. Say whether ice stopped suddenly or faded over weeks — the two point at different parts.
The other symptoms covered for this family
Lead Appliance Repair Technician · 12 years experience
Experienced technician with 12 years specializing in washing machine and dryer repairs across all major brands.
