Troubleshooting broken ice maker in side by side fridge

I had a similar problem and could not get the refrigerator ice maker to work. I ended up taking back wall cover plate off and the cooling coils back there were completely frozen over in ice.

What tipped me to look there was while testing the ice maker, I saw a little water by the back wall. I cleaned up the water, but there was a little more water a few minutes latter.

I removed all the ice and the ice maker has been working for several years now.

An old post I saved from Napoleon

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Posted by Napoleon on 3/11/14 at 7:15 pm to Mac What type of fridge? If you think it's the icemaker, pulle the white cover off of the front of the unit. Depending on manufacturer you will have 2-3 variations. Whirlpool based units are the most common by far. When you pull off your cover if you see a bunch of letters next to holes, it's a whirlpool unit. If you put a jumper between H and T the icemaker will enter a complete cycle and you can watch it and see where the fault is. If no water comes in, then likely its a bad fill solenoid, or there is a frozen clog in the line. Both of these are the most common failures for icemakers. So the fault usually isn't the unit itself. But if it does fill but say the fingers don't reset or the heater doesn't come on, then it's best to replace the icemaker (as it's only like $5 more than the control and easier to change) Okay, lets say you pulled off the cover of your icemaker and instead of the above you saw two gears. Then you have a Frigidaire made icemaker, and this is the second most common. Even Sub-Zero has used this model (Subzero and viking use regular icemakers in most models) then simple insert a phillips screwdriver into the screw at the larger gear and turn to the right. This will start the harvest cycle on the unit and is the same as touching "H" to "T" with a jumper wire. Same thing look for it to fill. But more common in the frigidaire based units is a failure in the heating element. So if it doesn't start it's cycle look to see if it has ice in it. If it does, take the ice maker out (only two screws, just loosen halfway then pull out wire harness) And rinse ice out in sink, then reinstall and test. After a cycle the bottom of the ice make should be warm, if it isn't replace the ice maker. Again if it doesn't fill, replace the solenoid. Lastly, if you have a GE, Samsung or LG you are going to have a more complicated unit, but one that is generally easier to test. For GE follow this Graphic again same symptoms as before are usually the culprits. You are looking to replace the Ice Maker or the solenoid, or in some cases the wire harness. generally a combination of button inputs turns those the harvest cycle on on the Korean brands. One of the three above is the most common in any fridge.

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If it's a frigidaire and you recently changed water filter, it's the filter. Causes low pressure to ice maker.Buy off brand filter , not frigidaire ones.