The short answer
An ice maker that has stopped is almost always a water problem rather than a broken ice maker. On this machine the first suspect is water supply line, shut-off valve or a kinked feed.
What you observe
- The bin is empty and the maker is silent — No cycle is being attempted, which points at a switch, an arm or a sensor.
- Cubes are small, hollow or half-formed — Water is arriving but not enough of it — a restriction rather than a stoppage.
- A thin sheet of ice across the bottom of the bin — Water reached the mould and overflowed, which is a fill or a level problem.
- NEAR MISS — no ice and the freezer is not properly cold — Fix the cooling first; the ice maker is a symptom and the cooling-failure page is the right one.
Causes, most likely first on a SH refrigerator
- Water supply line, shut-off valve or a kinked feed — A saddle valve that has partly closed, or was never fully opened, starves the maker without stopping it. Ranked first on a SH refrigerator: it is outside the appliance entirely, it is free to check, and it is where most of these faults actually are.
- Water filter clogged, overdue or not seated — A cartridge that is not fully seated leaks past its seal and drops the pressure the maker needs.
- Inlet valve not opening — The valve is electrically opened for a few seconds per cycle; when it fails, the maker cycles dry.
- Fill tube frozen — A partly frozen fill tube sprays rather than pours, which is where the sheet of ice in the bin comes from.
Check in this order, and why
- Pull the cabinet out and follow the line from the valve to the machine — Check the valve is fully open, not merely not closed.
- Take the filter out and run the dispenser with the bypass in place, if the machine has one — Reseat the cartridge firmly: a partial seat behaves exactly like a blockage.
- Listen for a short buzz and a fill sound at the back during a cycle — Silence at fill time points at the valve or its wiring.
What an owner can safely check
- Trace the water line from the shut-off valve to the back of the cabinet and straighten any kink — Then open the valve fully. A line crushed behind the machine is the commonest cause of no ice.
Tools: torchAbout 20 min
- Remove the filter, reseat it firmly, and run several litres through the dispenser to purge air — If flow improves with the filter out, fit a new cartridge — the old one is the restriction.
Tools: jugAbout 20 min
- STOP HERE if the next check needs a panel off or a meter on live terminals — That is where the owner checks end and a service call begins, whatever the ranking says.
Before you open anything
Safety
Disconnect power at the plug or the breaker before opening anything, and give a capacitor time to bleed down before you reach past a board. Nothing sharp goes near an iced evaporator: thin tubing, refrigerant under pressure, no home repair. Refrigerant work is licensed work, so the sealed system is where the owner job ends. Empty the cabinet before you move it.
When to call a technician
The owner work ends at the water path: line, valve, filter, arm and fill tube. The inlet valve, the module and the mould heater are a technician's job, and so is any leak you find while checking. Parts support for this nameplate is thin, so establish what the failed part is before you commit to a repair — a technician can tell you in one visit whether the part is obtainable at all.
Nearest pages of this class
What this page does not cover
This page covers the SH refrigerator as a class, not one family or model line. Where a family- or model-specific page exists for your unit it is linked above and it is the better answer — read it first. Deliberately not here: part numbers, wiring colours, panel removal order and torque figures, all of which differ between families under one nameplate.
Lead Appliance Repair Technician · 12 years experience
Experienced technician with 12 years specializing in washing machine and dryer repairs across all major brands.
