Ice maker
Frigidaire Ice Maker Not Working: Fill Valve First, Then the Frozen Tube, Then the Module
Frigidaire ice makers stop over water delivery more than mechanism: weeping fill valves, frozen fill tubes, starved flow. The check order that works.
Formerly Adam & Sam Brothers RepairIce makers · Woodinville 98072, 98077
Kitchen, bar and patio ice makers in Woodinville
Woodinville homes entertain, so plenty of them have two or three sources of ice: the refrigerator, an undercounter machine at the bar, sometimes another on the patio. We repair all of them, 18–23 minutes from our shop.
- Drive time
- 18–23 minutes by I-405 and SR 522
- Water
- Woodinville Water District, on Seattle's soft Tolt supply
- Housing
- About 81% built since 1980; large apartment blocks downtown
- $85 diagnosticBecomes part of the repair price when you say yes. If you pass on the repair, that visit is all you pay.
- Up to $18 offAny repair requested through the online form. The diagnostic itself is never reduced.
- $10 offA second appliance’s diagnostic when we check it during the same trip.
A town with roughly 130 wineries and tasting rooms takes hospitality seriously, and its kitchens show it. Chateau Ste. Michelle's summer concerts, the 1910 Hollywood Farm and the 1912 Hollywood Schoolhouse all sit in the same valley. About 44% of Woodinville's homes were built after 2000 and another 37% between 1980 and 1999, the decades when wet bars, beverage centers and covered outdoor kitchens became regular features of new houses. So when a Woodinville caller says the ice maker quit, we ask which one. The answer changes everything about the visit, because a refrigerator's ice maker and a dedicated ice machine are very different appliances.
A refrigerator ice maker borrows cold from the freezer and fills a small mold a few times an hour. A dedicated undercounter machine has its own compressor, water pump, drain and controls, runs for hours at a stretch, and on a patio it also faces rain, pollen and frost. Each has its own failures, and we carry the meters and know the cleaning procedures for both. Downtown's large apartment buildings, which hold nearly a quarter of the city's housing, mostly keep things simple with a standard refrigerator ice maker, and those get the same careful diagnosis.
Ice makers and ice machines: what goes wrong in Woodinville
Patio ice machine leaks or will not fill after a cold spell
- Likely cause
- Water left in the pump, valve or reservoir froze and cracked a part
- What we do
- Find the split part, replace it and walk you through draining the unit for winter
Outdoor unit runs nonstop in July and makes very little ice
- Likely cause
- Condenser packed with pollen, leaves and dust
- What we do
- Clean the condenser, test the fan and check clearance around the vents
Bar ice machine spills water onto the floor
- Likely cause
- Drain line clogged, kinked or sloped wrong, or the drain pump failed
- What we do
- Clear and re-pitch the drain, test the pump and run a full cycle
Bar machine's ice comes out thin and slow
- Likely cause
- Film in the water system or a weak inlet valve
- What we do
- Clean with the maker's approved cleaner and test the valve's flow
The bar machine keeps working but the refrigerator's ice maker stops
- Likely cause
- A fridge-side fault, often a frozen fill tube or failed valve
- What we do
- Thaw and protect the tube or replace the valve, then confirm a full harvest
Ice in the bar bin melts away faster than it used to
- Likely cause
- Bin door gasket not sealing, or the door out of alignment
- What we do
- Replace the gasket, adjust the door and check the bin drain
Patios, wet bars and refrigerators around Woodinville
Outdoor ice machines need winter planning. Woodinville sits in the convergence-zone belt, and on April 18, 2008, a band of snow left six and a half inches on the city, well after most people had stopped thinking about frost. Water left standing in an outdoor machine's pump, valve or reservoir expands when it freezes and cracks plastic parts. Even outdoor-rated units should be shut off at the water and drained according to the manual before hard frosts. If yours was not, we can tell you which parts survived and show you the draining routine for next year. A related mismatch we see is an indoor-only machine fitted under an outdoor counter: its controls have no protection from damp air, and it cannot tolerate cold at all.
Water from the Woodinville Water District comes from Seattle's Tolt supply, at roughly 20 to 24 parts per million of hardness, so mineral scale builds slowly. That makes cloudy output from a clear-ice machine a cleaning or water-flow question rather than a hardness one: film on the freezing plate or a struggling pump keeps the layers from forming cleanly. Clear-ice machines are also fussier about cleaning than refrigerator ice makers: the water washing over the plate carries impurities away, and they collect in the reservoir until the next cleaning. In kitchen refrigerators, the soft water means our findings are mostly worn valves, frozen tubes and tired modules.
We take I-405 south and SR 522 east and reach downtown in about 18–23 minutes off-peak. That covers the apartments near the Sammamish River, the neighborhoods around Hollywood Farm and the 98077 side of the city; Gold Creek Park, site of the 1969 Seattle Pop Festival, and the Eastrail corridor are part of the same territory. Electricity here is Puget Sound Energy; after a long outage, check that ice machines have restarted, since some need a manual reset.
Starting prices for Woodinville ice repairs
For refrigerator ice makers, the usual work is a new fill valve or a complete new ice maker, and that repair starts at $295. Undercounter and outdoor machines use model-specific pumps, drains and grids, so those repairs are priced after we have seen the unit. That figure is not a quote; it marks where pricing starts in our area. The $85 diagnostic produces a written number for your exact repair, and when you approve it, that diagnostic is part of the price. A second appliance checked on the same trip, say the bar machine and the refrigerator, gets $10 off its diagnostic. If an outdoor machine's compressor has failed, that repair is quoted on its own, and we tell you how it compares with replacing the machine.
- Frozen fill line thawed and protectedfrom $295
- Ice maker fill valvefrom $295
- Ice maker assemblyfrom $295
- Diagnostic visit$85, included in the repair
- Second appliance, same visit$10 off its diagnostic
Starting prices for the north Seattle area, 2026. The $85 diagnostic is included in any repair you approve, and the exact price is in the written estimate before work starts.
When an ice machine or refrigerator is worth fixing
For a refrigerator ice maker, the decision rests on the refrigerator. If it cools well, a valve or module is a small repair against the price of a new unit, and in Woodinville's 2000s-era kitchens a replacement fridge may also need to fit panels or a built-in opening. Dedicated ice machines follow different logic. Their pumps, drain pumps, valves, gaskets and cutter grids are reasonable repairs that can keep a machine going for years. The point to think about replacement is a failed compressor or refrigerant leak on an older machine, or an indoor-only unit that was installed outside and keeps suffering weather damage. In that case we explain what an outdoor-rated machine would change, give you the repair cost for the current one in writing, and let you decide. A dedicated machine that has been cleaned on schedule usually earns its repairs; one that has gone years without cleaning often shows several worn parts at once.
Common questions
How do I get a patio ice machine through the winter?
Follow the winterizing steps in your manual. Typically that means shutting off the water supply, draining the pump, reservoir and lines, cleaning the bin and unplugging the unit. Any water left inside can freeze and crack plastic parts. If you are unsure which drain plugs your model has, we can show you during a visit.
Do you repair ice machines in tasting rooms?
Our ice maker service is for homes: refrigerator ice makers and residential undercounter and outdoor machines. For a tasting room's reach-in coolers, walk-ins and prep tables, our commercial refrigeration service handles that equipment. Call us with what you have and we will tell you which visit fits.
Why does my bar ice machine make cloudy ice?
Clear-ice machines build cubes in thin layers as water flows across a chilled plate. When film coats the plate, the water distribution clogs or the pump weakens, the layers freeze unevenly and trap air. Woodinville's water is soft, so hardness is rarely the cause. A proper cleaning with the manufacturer's cleaner often restores clear ice; if not, we test the pump.
Do you serve the 98077 side of Woodinville?
Yes, both Woodinville ZIP codes are in our area, and there is no distance surcharge for either. Downtown sits about 18–23 minutes away when traffic is light. Morning requests, Monday to Saturday, usually turn into same-day visits. Putting the model number of the refrigerator or ice machine in the booking form, or giving it on the phone, lets us look up parts before we head out.
Can you look at the refrigerator and the bar machine in one visit?
Yes. The second appliance's diagnostic is $10 less when we check it on the same trip, and each repair is priced separately in writing, so you decide on each one by itself. Mention both when you book so we bring parts and cleaner for each.
Talk to Adam & Sam
Fridge, bar or patio, if the ice has stopped in Woodinville, call us or reserve a visit online and take up to $18 off the repair. Approve the written price and the $85 diagnostic is already inside it.
From Sam’s repair notes
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Your Kenmore ice maker's real builder (Whirlpool, LG or Frigidaire) sets the diagnosis: fill tubes and optics on 106s, ice-room icing on 795s, valves on 253s.
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LG Ice Maker Not Working: Frozen Fill Tubes, Starved Water Lines and the In-Door Trap
LG French-door ice makers fail in predictable ways: frozen fill tubes, clogged filters starving the flow, iced-up in-door ice rooms and tired fill valves.
Schedule a repair
Request a visit from Adam & Sam
Send the basics and we call you back with an arrival window, most days the same morning.
- $85 diagnostic Becomes part of the repair price when you say yes. If you pass on the repair, that visit is all you pay.
- Up to $18 off Any repair requested through the online form. The diagnostic itself is never reduced.
- $10 off A second appliance’s diagnostic when we check it during the same trip.