The quick verdict
An ice maker that has gone quiet on a Comfort Time refrigerator is usually a water-supply problem rather than a failed ice maker: a closed or half-closed stop valve, a kinked fill line, a frozen fill tube or a clogged filter starves the mould, and the module keeps cycling politely with nothing to freeze. All of those are checkable without opening the machine. What follows is arranged by likelihood rather than by how interesting each cause is.
What this looks like from the outside
- Cubes are small, hollow or half-formed — A hollow cube is the signature of a mould that filled part way, so the water path is open but not free. It is worth confirming twice before you act on it, since one observation can mislead.
- A plug of ice at the back of the maker or in the fill tube — Water is freezing before it reaches the mould, which stops the fill and hides the real cause under ice. This is the cheapest information available on the machine.
- Production stopped after the filter was changed — Air in the line, or a filter not seated.
- Ice smells of the freezer — Old ice absorbing odours in the bin, not a production fault at all. A result here decides whether the next two checks are worth doing at all.
Likely causes, ordered
- The water supply is closed, kinked or restricted — Ranked first for the simple reason that it is the whole input. A cause in this position is worth eliminating before you spend anything.
- The freezer is not cold enough to release a harvest — A mould that never reaches release temperature never ejects, so the cycle stalls with the tray full of water or soft ice, and the fault looks like a dead maker.
- A failed ice-maker module or motor — It is at the bottom because the mechanism outlives the plumbing around it on most cabinets, and because replacing it on a hunch is expensive.
- A dispenser flap left partly open — Warm moist air entering the chute refreezes and eventually stops both dispensing and production.
Check in this order, and why
- Clear anything leaning on the bin arm and empty the bin — Then wait a few hours. A maker that restarts on its own was never faulty, and you have saved yourself a part. It takes less time than reading about it.
- Run the water dispenser if the cabinet has one — Good flow at the dispenser proves the supply and moves the fault to the maker; poor flow proves the opposite. Treat the ordering as a route through the possibilities rather than as a prediction.
- Check the cabinet is level front to back — A tray out of true spills between fills, which is what produces a fused block instead of cubes. If you can only do one check, make it this one.
The homeowner checks
- Open the supply stop valve fully and straighten the line — Pull the cabinet out far enough to see the valve and the tubing, open the valve all the way, and ease out any kink rather than bending it back sharply. This is safe owner work as long as the power is genuinely off.
Tools: torchAbout 20 min
- Change the water filter and flush the new one — Fit the replacement, then run several litres through the dispenser to clear the air; a new filter that has not been flushed produces the same weak fill as an old one. Note the result even if it is negative, because a ruled-out cause is progress.
Tools: replacement filter, jugAbout 15 min
- Purge the line after any filter work — Run several litres through the dispenser into a jug until the flow is steady and clear. Keep the parts you remove in the order you removed them.
Tools: jugAbout 20 min
- Stop here if the next step would put a meter on live terminals — What is left is diagnosis rather than inspection, and diagnosis needs instruments.
Read this before touching it
Safety
Unplug the cabinet or switch off its breaker before any panel comes off. The power being off is not the same as the machine being safe to touch immediately. Water and electricity meet at the defrost drain on this class of appliance, so dry the floor before you kneel on it. Work with the door mechanism intact rather than around it.
When to stop and call
Where the owner side ends: you own everything up to the mould; the mechanism inside it and the valve behind the cabinet belong to a technician. It is drawn where the next step stops being reversible. Call promptly if frost or water keeps returning after you have cleared it, because something is still feeding it.
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How specific this page is
One page cannot be both general and exact, and this one is general by design.
Lead Appliance Repair Technician · 12 years experience
Experienced technician with 12 years specializing in washing machine and dryer repairs across all major brands.
