Icemakers

[kenny]

Love yours?
Hate yours?

Do tell.

 

[Karl_K]

The in door units cut the useful life of a fridge/freezer in half.
The ice units only last 1/2 as long as the fridge itself would and cost more than a new fridge to replace after a few years.
The makers intentionally make minor changes to the design even with the same model fridge so that newer ice units will not work in the older ones.

The ones that are inside take up a lot of space and make the freezer a bit of a joke in smaller ones.

 

[Karl_K]

Also if you dont change the filter in the door mount units at least yearly(some recomend 6 months) they can make your whole family sick and even kill someone.
No one changes them.
The first thing I ask someone who says their whole family has stomach issues is if they have indoor ice/water on their fridge and when they changed the filter last.
It can get bad enough the entire thing has to be scraped.
Hardly any one changes the filter, most of the time they don't even know it had a filter.

 

[MollyMalone]

Love mine

Amazon.com: OXO Good Grips Covered Ice Cube Tray Set, Blue, 2 Pack: Kitchen & Dining

Online Shopping for Kitchen Utensils & Gadgets from a great selection at everyday low prices. Free 2-day Shipping with Amazon Prime.

www.amazon.com

 

[kenny]

Love mine

Amazon.com: OXO Good Grips Covered Ice Cube Tray Set, Blue, 2 Pack: Kitchen & Dining

Online Shopping for Kitchen Utensils & Gadgets from a great selection at everyday low prices. Free 2-day Shipping with Amazon Prime.

www.amazon.com

No no no no no.

I'm sorry I wasn't clear enough.
This thread is about those ice makers built into the fridge:

 

[MollyMalone]

I was being a smart-ass -- but it's true that I don't have an ice maker that's a component of the fridge.

More seriously, do you care about getting ice water dispensed? If not, you might consider (don't know the layout and room you have in your kitchen or adjacent area) a stand-alone ice maker. There are portable/countertop ones (not connected to a water line; you fill the reservoir manually) and larger capacity ones (need not be a huge, honkin' one) that are hooked up to a water line, similar to ones that restaurants/bars have.

I have friends who opted for a stand-alone & have been happy with it.

 

[Daisys and Diamonds]

In our house the ice maker is called Nicky

Sigh
That's me

When we went to get our new fridge and freezer when we moved into this house, we went shopping with the intention of buying a fridge with all the bells and whistles

It just got too confusing
We ended up with a pigion pair with tons of space - but no extras

In the end i think we thought just another thing to go wrong

And i would just like to add this year im getting real good about filling up the ice tray as soon as i empty it
In the past ive been a but slack in that dept

 

[MollyMalone]

P.S. If you haven't shopped for a refrigerator in years, be prepared for skimpy, manufacturer warranties. The last time I shopped for one was 30 years ago, so when I made my first foray earlier this year, I was stunned to learn of the current state of affairs.

 

[MollyMalone]

P.P.S. Yale Appliance & Lighting in Massachusetts offers an incredible variety of informative appliance guides and other resources that they post online. Their reliability reports are especially meaningful because they themselves service what they sell & the reliability reports are based on those service records.

Learning Center | Yale Appliance | Framingham, Hanover, Dorchester, MA

Learn before you buy for every appliance including in depth brand analysis, videos, reliability studies, and checklists designed to make appliances shopping easier.

blog.yaleappliance.com

Home Appliance Blog | Yale Appliance

Insights, reviews, and resources about buying home appliances and plumbing.

blog.yaleappliance.com

 

[MaisOuiMadame]

Also if you dont change the filter in the door mount units at least yearly(some recomend 6 months) they can make your whole family sick and even kill someone.
No one changes them.
The first thing I ask someone who says their whole family has stomach issues is if they have indoor ice/water on their fridge and when they changed the filter last.
It can get bad enough the entire thing has to be scraped.
Hardly any one changes the filter, most of the time they don't even know it had a filter.

This!!! Saw a GREEN from mold unit once .
No built in Ice makers for me , ever again (and obvs never any refreshments at this place if not straight from the bottle into my glass).

So I'm with @Karl_K and @MollyMalone .

 

[kenny]

P.P.S. Yale Appliance & Lighting in Massachusetts offers an incredible variety of informative appliance guides and other resources that they post online. Their reliability reports are especially meaningful because they themselves service what they sell & the reliability reports are based on those service records.

Learning Center | Yale Appliance | Framingham, Hanover, Dorchester, MA

Learn before you buy for every appliance including in depth brand analysis, videos, reliability studies, and checklists designed to make appliances shopping easier.

blog.yaleappliance.com

Home Appliance Blog | Yale Appliance

Insights, reviews, and resources about buying home appliances and plumbing.

blog.yaleappliance.com

Thanks MM, but to get their "free" info you have to GIVE them your personal information - which they can sell.

No thanks.

 

[arkieb1]

We have a cold water tap in the top fridge door part and a ice maker down below in the freezer part that automatically makes ice. I love ours but I live in a hot climate!!!

We have this one;

Westinghouse 600L Stainless Steel 4 Door French Door Fridge with Ice & Water Dispenser

Offering plenty of storage space for different kinds of food while still fitting a 90cm kitchen cavity, the Westinghouse 600L Stainless Steel 4 Door French Door Fridge with Ice & Water Dispenser is a practical option for small yet busy households.

www.harveynorman.com.au

 

[kenny]

Also if you dont change the filter in the door mount units at least yearly(some recomend 6 months) they can make your whole family sick and even kill someone.
No one changes them.
The first thing I ask someone who says their whole family has stomach issues is if they have indoor ice/water on their fridge and when they changed the filter last.
It can get bad enough the entire thing has to be scraped.
Hardly any one changes the filter, most of the time they don't even know it had a filter.

Good riddance!
People who don't read and follow directions deserve to die!!!!!
Plus, dying is the greenest thing that anyone can do to slow climate change - well, after not having kids.
What's greenest? ... dying before reproducing.

Just kidding ... well, sort of, actually yeah, uhm but not really.

 

[Karl_K]

We have a cold water tap in the top fridge door part and a ice maker down below in the freezer part that automatically makes ice. I love ours but I live in a hot climate!!!

We have this one;

Westinghouse 600L Stainless Steel 4 Door French Door Fridge with Ice & Water Dispenser

Offering plenty of storage space for different kinds of food while still fitting a 90cm kitchen cavity, the Westinghouse 600L Stainless Steel 4 Door French Door Fridge with Ice & Water Dispenser is a practical option for small yet busy households.

www.harveynorman.com.au

6 month filter replacement at $50-$60 au each.

Westinghouse 600L French Door Fridge : User Manual : Page 16

Find and download user guides and product manuals

www.manualshelf.com

 

[Karl_K]

Good riddance!
People who don't read and follow directions deserve to die!!!!!
Plus, dying is the greenest thing that anyone can do to slow climate change - well, after not having kids.
What's greenest? ... dying before reproducing.

Just kidding ... well, sort of, actually yeah, but not really.

um ok
But no one mentions it when they are buying and who needs directions to use a fridge right?

 

[Bron357]

I always wanted one.....

 

[kenny]

... who needs directions to use a fridge right?

Wrong.
Smart people read directions, especially today since nearly everything now is WWWWAAAAAYYYY more complicated than ever before.

But hey, let the dummies die.
Pfffff. Who needs em?
Earth has too many humans already, and sex feels good so zillions more carbon footprints are on their way.

 

[MollyMalone]

Thanks MM, but to get their "free" info you have to GIVE them your personal information - which they can sell.

No thanks.

Oh geez... I didn't remember that & think I'm almost as conscientious as you about trying to maintain a small electronic footprint.

In order to access the downloads, I must have given them my "junk" email address that I use for that kind of thing. FWIW Yale Appliance has never sent me email or "snail mail." And unlike the case with some apparel companies, I've never gotten anything from another company that undoubtedly had purchased my address from Yale. So it does seem that Yale Appliance abides by their promise to "never share or sell your email address for any reason."

In any event, their blog posts aren't merely "filler." E.g.,

The Most Reliable Dishwashers for 2025

The most reliable dishwasher brands for 2025 are LG, Thermador, and KitchenAid. Learn the main dishwasher problems, how long a dishwasher lasts, and when

blog.yaleappliance.com

So perhaps you'll find something useful there.

And here's a PDF for which you don't have to first give an email address:

https://blog.yaleappliance.com/hubfs/docs/buying-guides/Delivery-Checklist.pdf

 

[Karl_K]

6 month filter replacement at $50-$60 au each.

Westinghouse 600L French Door Fridge : User Manual : Page 16

Find and download user guides and product manuals

www.manualshelf.com

Be very careful if you ever move it they have a known issue of the water pipe snapping off where it enters the fridge from what I have seen online.

 

[MollyMalone]

@Daisys and Diamonds, this
"In the end i think we thought just another thing to go wrong "
is the primary reason I didn't want an ice maker in my new fridge. I don't know if this is true in your part of the world, but here in the US now, you can end up paying more for a refrigerator without an ice maker because that's considered a "special order."

 

[Daisys and Diamonds]

@Daisys and Diamonds, this
"In the end i think we thought just another thing to go wrong "
is the primary reason I didn't want an ice maker in my new fridge. I don't know if this is true in your part of the world, but here in the US now, you can end up paying more for a refrigerator without an ice maker because that's considered a "special order."

Does not surprised me
We were very lucky to get a while fridge when we did (2 years ago) because now they cost more than stainless steel

What we miss is the butter conditioner
They disapaired when our major manufacturer started gearing towards the export markets
Now days every thing is imported so the butter conditioner is saddly no more

 

[Daisys and Diamonds]

P.S. If you haven't shopped for a refrigerator in years, be prepared for skimpy, manufacturer warranties. The last time I shopped for one was 30 years ago, so when I made my first foray earlier this year, I was stunned to learn of the current state of affairs.

Oh dear
The sad thing is this fridge idn't going to last 30 years like the last one

 

[dk168]

I use ice cube bags and keep in the freezer.
Don't need a lot of ice, so that will do for me.

DK

 

[missy]

Hate ours. I will explain below.

We have an in the door ice maker on our 48" subzero side by side freezer/fridge from 2004.
Just recently we started needing ice way more than usual. Generally we rarely use ice except for our weekly trip to Costco when we fill our cooler with ice and then we just open the freezer and empty the ice into the cooler vs using the in the fridge door ice unit.

My dh had TKR surgery January 17th and the surgeon wanted him to use a special cooling machine to wrap his leg as often as possible requiring me to use our ice much more frequently as in twice a day. I was getting the ice from the in the fridge door unit. After about a week of that the Subzero started flashing EC 40 meaning the condenser from the freezer was working too hard. Had the authorized repair person come and (ouch) $400 later he couldn't find any real reason for the issue.

So not wanting to tempt fate I am now taking ice from my friend's freezer daily (thank you M) who lives in our building and using it in Greg's cooler machine for his leg.

Sorry for the long explanation but in short, I am not enamored of our in the door ice unit. At all.

Photo of Greg's ice machine. Today it goes back Bah bye. Not sad to see it go.





Bad photo of our in the door ice maker. It's still dark here and I had to put all the lights on causing reflections.

 

[MeowMeow]

Also if you dont change the filter in the door mount units at least yearly(some recomend 6 months) they can make your whole family sick and even kill someone.
No one changes them.
The first thing I ask someone who says their whole family has stomach issues is if they have indoor ice/water on their fridge and when they changed the filter last.
It can get bad enough the entire thing has to be scraped.
Hardly any one changes the filter, most of the time they don't even know it had a filter.

Oh wow. I had no clue about that. Good to know though if I ever have a fridge with one of those in it. I know my husband will use that function if it's available. I'm not an ice user though. I prefer water without ice and room temperature.

 

[rainydaze]

I have never understood the appeal, personally. I had a hard time finding a fridge without one when buying my first fridge, so I ended up buying one with an in-door unit. A cube or two often missed the glass and I had to chase them around the floor. We have hard water so there was a perpetual hard water stain (black finish fridge) on the tray that I could not get off. It just looked unappetizing. Having this means there is more that can go wrong, and does. I don't care for the fact that there are water lines piped in for this, that can leak and destroy the floor. I also feel uneasy every time I am at someone's house and they indicate the in-door water/ice dispensers when I say yes to some water. Karl confirms my suspicions as to why I feel that way. Water perpetually sitting in tubes that never get cleaned or see the light of day, no idea how often that water is flushed out... erm. No thank you.

I now have a built-in ice maker inside the freezer (no door unit). I like it better, although it still has the 'more that can go wrong' and 'water line piped in' concerns. We only use the ice for coolers though, not to use in our drinks, so I am less concerned about water quality from the tubes.

 

[arkieb1]

Be very careful if you ever move it they have a known issue of the water pipe snapping off where it enters the fridge from what I have seen online.

Oh well that sucks. I assumed that you would turn off the water supply out the front of my house and then move the fridge and figure out how to shut it off....

This is a fairly new fridge, the one before which was a Fisher and Paykel with just a water dispenser lasted 17 years and recently blew up, so we bought this one with ice as well, a plumber came out and sorted out the water situation in the new fridge and the old one.... and the ice maker.

I love the ice maker but I eat ice all day to cool down.... it was well over 100 F in your measurements today and 95% humidity....

 

[missy]

Also if you dont change the filter in the door mount units at least yearly(some recomend 6 months) they can make your whole family sick and even kill someone.
No one changes them.
The first thing I ask someone who says their whole family has stomach issues is if they have indoor ice/water on their fridge and when they changed the filter last.
It can get bad enough the entire thing has to be scraped.
Hardly any one changes the filter, most of the time they don't even know it had a filter.

Oh wow. I had no clue about that. Good to know though if I ever have a fridge with one of those in it. I know my husband will use that function if it's available. I'm not an ice user though. I prefer water without ice and room temperature.

Our fridge is so old there is no filter with the ice maker. It wasn't made that way in the "old" days.

 

[MeowMeow]

Our fridge is so old there is no filter with the ice maker. It wasn't made that way in the "old" days.

Haha yep those are the types of refrigerators I am used to also. They don't give you fancy shmancy refrigerators in military housing either xD

 

[lyra]

I hate our LG fridge in general, and would never buy another one. But we DO use the water and ice feature a lot. Ours has a countdown feature for the filter, and I insist on always having it changed immediately. Still, I don't know if I trust it. We use the ice in the summer time. I hate that it takes up door space, yet I can't imagine not having it either. Lose-lose then?