--- title: "Ice makers" description: "KitchenAid ice makers: two different appliances share this card, and knowing which one you have changes everything." url: "https://kitchenaidmiami.support/appliances/ice-machine/" date_modified: "2026-08-23" Appliance type: "Ice makers" --- # KitchenAid ice makers ### The two machines, and why we ask which The undercounter machines are 15 and 18 inches wide, make 25 or 35 pounds a day, and come panel-ready or in stainless. They plumb in and they drain. The ice maker in a refrigerator is a module in the freezer or in the door and has no drain at all. Same words, different appliance, different visit. ### What actually goes wrong - **Water in.** Supply valve, filter, inlet valve, and a fill tube that has frozen — which stops the ice and then hides why. - **Water out**, on the undercounter machines. A slow drain will stop a machine cold. - **Scale.** The evaporator plate, the pump and the water path, in water this hard. It shows first as cloudy or small cubes. - **The harvest.** Cubes that form and will not release, which is usually the hot-gas valve or the sensor watching the plate. - **The ice maker module or the ejector** on the refrigerator machines, and the bin thermostat or optics that tell it the bin is full when it is not. ### Why South Florida is hard on these Warm ambient air, hard water and near-constant demand. An ice maker in a Miami kitchen runs closer to its limit for more of the year than the same machine anywhere north, and the two things that suffer are the condenser it breathes through and the scale in its water path. Both are maintenance rather than repair, right up until they are not. ### What to have ready when you call The model number, whether it is undercounter or inside a refrigerator, whether it drains to a pipe or a pump, and when it last had a cleaning cycle. Undercounter 15" and 18" · 25 lb and 35 lb · Clear Ice · Panel-ready · In-door Ice maker repair No ice at all, with water reaching the machine Cubes coming out small, cloudy or hollow A cleaning message, or a machine that will not restart after cleaning The two machines, and why we ask which The undercounter machines are 15 and 18 inches wide, make 25 or 35 pounds a day, and come panel-ready or in stainless. They plumb in and they drain. The ice maker in a refrigerator is a module in the freezer or in the door and has no drain at all. Same words, different appliance, different visit. What actually goes wrong Water in. Supply valve, filter, inlet valve, and a fill tube that has frozen — which stops the ice and then hides why. Water out, on the undercounter machines. A slow drain will stop a machine cold. Scale. The evaporator plate, the pump and the water path, in water this hard. It shows first as cloudy or small cubes. The harvest. Cubes that form and will not release, which is usually the hot-gas valve or the sensor watching the plate. The ice maker module or the ejector on the refrigerator machines, and the bin thermostat or optics that tell it the bin is full when it is not. Why South Florida is hard on these Warm ambient air, hard water and near-constant demand. An ice maker in a Miami kitchen runs closer to its limit for more of the year than the same machine anywhere north, and the two things that suffer are the condenser it breathes through and the scale in its water path. Both are maintenance rather than repair, right up until they are not. What to have ready when you call The model number, whether it is undercounter or inside a refrigerator, whether it drains to a pipe or a pump, and when it last had a cleaning cycle. ### How often does an undercounter ice maker need cleaning? More often here than the manual assumes — realistically a couple of times a year, and more if it is in a bar area or outdoors under cover. These machines run a cleaning cycle themselves with the maker's solution; what they cannot do is clean the bin and the scoop, which is where most of what people can see actually lives. ### It will not start again after I cleaned it. Very common and usually not a failure. The cleaning cycle has to finish and be acknowledged, the drain has to be clear, and on most of these the machine needs the power cycling before it goes back to making ice. If it has run a cleaning cycle and then sat, that is the sequence to walk through before anybody is called out. ### What is Clear Ice, and why does mine look cloudy now? Clear ice is made by freezing slowly in layers so the air and minerals are pushed out; cloudy ice means that process is being cut short. Water quality and a scaled evaporator are the usual reasons, and both are fixable. It is a good early signal — cloudy ice usually shows up months before a machine stops. ### The one in my refrigerator has stopped and everything else is fine. Then work outward: the shut-off arm or switch, the filter if it is overdue, the fill tube frozen solid, the inlet valve, and only then the ice maker module itself. A refrigerator ice maker is a small machine bolted into a cold box, and most of what stops it is water arriving rather than the module. ### Does an undercounter machine need a drain? Most of them do, and it is the part people forget exists. A drain that is slow or blocked will stop a machine that is otherwise perfect, and a gravity drain that was installed with too little fall never worked properly in the first place. It is worth mentioning when you book whether yours drains or has a pump. --- **[Read full article: Ice makers](https://kitchenaidmiami.support/appliances/ice-machine/)**