Whirlpool Side by Side Ice Maker Quit Working

by Ron Jackson
(Fort Worth, TX, USA)

Whirlpool GD5YHAXNL02 Ice Maker has quit working. I've checked the optics and it works correctly. As this model has the ice-bin mounted on the door I unplugged the frig, installed a jumper from T to H, then re-connected the power. Nothing. I replaced the water inlet valve with a new one and did the same check again. Nothing.
What's my next step short of calling someone that knows what they're doing?

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Answer

Hi Ron,

As explained on my Whirlpool icemaker repair page the jumper wire test is almost useless and very hard to make work on models with the ice bin in the door. I have had to try as much as five times to get this to work, what normally happens if the jumper will not make contact for the entire test. What I would do is let it go and see what happens. If it hasn’t made ice a day after you installed the water valve then you know you haven’t fixed the problem.

Make sure the tube above the icemaker that feeds the icemaker water isn’t clogged with ice and if so remove the ice.

If the optics passes the test then they are more than likely not the problem but they could still be the problem. Almost all of the optics I have seem bad didn’t pass the optics test but I have seen this happen once or twice.

The most likely problem is the motor/modular on the icemaker. You can replace just the motor/modular or the whole icemaker (I don’t think it is a huge difference in the price). You can confirm that the motor/modular is the problem if the large gear on the front of the icemaker will pull off easily.

Thank you,
Shawn/administrator