Refrigerator Single Water Inlet Valve

To troubleshoot - Check water supply to valve. It f that's good - remove back plate, remove water valve reconnect inlet line, disconnect electrical connector, place valve over a pan with outlet fitting disconnected, temporarily connect 110 VAC with clipleads to water valve solenoid. No water flow means valve is not opening. To install new valve, connect outlet line, and wiring connector, then insert in cabinet and install 2 screws, reinstall back plate, connect water inlet line.

I first poured water into the ice maker itself and it made ice, so knew the ice maker itself was working ok. Turned the water valve at the wall off, removed the inlet valve from the back of the fridge with a nut driver, disconnected the solenoid wires and disconnected the water supply line entering the inlet valve and turned the water supply back on and found that the water was flowing ok out of the supply line. Reconnected the water line to the inlet valve and disconnected the water line going from the inlet valve to the ice maker and reconnected the wires to the solenoid on the inlet valve and found no water going through and so determined that the inlet valve/solenoid was faulty and easily replaced it. Note that an ohmeter check said the solenoid was ok, so it could have been that the filter screen inside the inlet valve was blocked. It's a sealed unit, so there was no way to take the screen out to check.

First I ascertained that valve was faulty. Ordered replacement and installed without issue. Water now overflowed only during fill and found that filler neck had ice in it as a result of initial leakage. Defrosted with a hair dryer, removed ice plug and it now works as advertised.

Turn off the water supply.
Remove the two screws with a nut driver.
Disconnect the electrical connector.
Disconnect the water supply lines from the old valve.
Reconnect the water supply lines to the new valve.
(be sure to push the water line into the quick connect securely)
Reconnect the electrical connector.
Re-install the valve with the two screws.
Turn water supply on.

This would have been a less-than-5-minute repair except for one item. The water intake nossle was 180 degrees from the original part. As a result, the copper water inlet tube would not fit in the old space and still allow me to reattach the valve to the freezer chassie. I ended up leaving the valve hanging loose under the freezer. I spent most of my time trying to fit the valve into the old space.

Unplug freezer. Disconnect electrical connections (pull apart). Remove one screw holding the valve to the chassie. disconnect water inlet pipe and water outlet pipe from old valve.

Reconnect electrical connection to new valve. Reconnect in and out water hoses. Reconnect valve to chassie. Plug freezer back in. Finished

Everything works just fine !

I looked up the refrigerator on the internet and found this website. I got the diagram of the parts of the icemaker and found that the valve must be defective because no water was coming up to the icemaker.
I ordered the part which came the next day. Took out the screws, conected the water line to the new part. moved the electrical connection to the new part and we had ice. Saved a lot of money that the plumber would have cost.

I pulled the refrigerator out from the wali slowly so not to damage the water line to the ice maker. Then with a nut driver I removed all the screws holding the back plate on. Being careful not to kink the water line, I used the adjustable wrench to losen the water line feed nut and the nut that goes to the line to the icemaker. Then I removed the screws holding the valve in place finished unhooking the water lines with my fingers. I then got the new valve and finger tightend the main water supply nut to the inlet side, then I pushed the plastic supply tube going to the icemaker into the valve. The new valve does not use a nut to attach the tubing it is a presure fit very easy.

Shut off water supply, removed old valve (two screws, 1/4' nut driver), disconnect electrical plug, remove water lines (adjustable wrench). Cut fitting off tube to ice-maker (new unit has a push-to-connect fitting). Replace water lines and electrical connector. Mount valve back on cabinet. Turn water back on.

Only two possible failures can cause this problem. The valve itself could fail electronically/mechanically, or the ice maker controller on the ice maker itself failed to tell the valve to close. To cover all the bases I bought both parts. $196.00 To change the ice maker, three screws, one electrical plug, remove and reinstall face cover plate from old ice maker to new one, and remove and reinstall the metal bar that indicated when the ice bin is full, and tells the controller to stop making ice. It’s on YouTube and takes 10 to 15 minutes to complete the change.
To change the inlet valve, there is a little bit more to it then YouTube shows, ESPECIALLY SPECIAL TOOLING I PERSONALLY RECOMMEND. IF YOU DON’T HAVE IT YOU COULD DAMAGE NEW PARTS DURING INSTALLATION. Pull the fridge out, disconnect power and turn off the water. Have towels/ water catch tray/pan handy. Remove screws on the back cover plate as required to access inlet valve. Remove the water inlet line, (mine was 1/4 inch compression fitting, copper tubing.) remove 2 screws that hold valve in place. Pull valve out to full extension of electrical plug. Here is the part that YouTube DOES NOT COVER, take note of how many wires of go to each prong of the connector and its orientation while removing. I’m not a electrician/spark chaser, my guess it is a solenoid/relay type valve, when energized, it will open or close the valve. This is an AC circuit, and I will be honest, I don’t think polarity is a concern, but don’t quote me on that. It’s just easier to take note and put it back the way it was. It worked for 20 plus years, it should to the same if you put it back the way you found it, given you removed and replaced an identical part or a suitable substitute. Depending what valve you receive your water supply line from the valve to the ice maker can vary. It could be a Nylon compression fitting, (which could require additional parts,) or a quick disconnect. That is covered in YouTube, and its exact. Mine was a QD, cut 1/4 inch off nylon tubing and insert, pull back on line to insure security. Done. Very simple. Reconnect electrical plug, IN ITS PROPER ORIENTATION. Reattach valve with two screws. The next step IS NOT COVERED IN YOUTUBE. Before you reinstall cover plate, and push the fridge back, turn on water supply to the valve and perform a leak check. I would recommend applying power and make sure the valve cycles, and the line between the valve and ice maker doesn’t leak. I was good on the line between the valve and ice maker, that did not leak. My copper inlet tubing compression fitting failed at the valve attach point, and required special tooling to repair. A compression fitting to fix a leak you tighten till leak stops. So they say. This fitting was over torqued at one time or another, and leaked, so I spliced in about 6 inches of new copper tubing added a union, and 3 new compression fittings. The bad part, I had to go to hardware store, buy 10 feet of tubing (only needed 6 inches), the B-nuts, and the brass sleeves. To make the new attach point at the valve and new line, since the valve is mostly made of plastic, I used the union to fabricate the new end going to the valve, removed the union and attached the line to the valve. Here is where the special tool comes in, the fitting on the valve, is a very low profile hex head fitting, made of brass which is a soft material, very easy to strip if the wrench slips, and a back up wrench is near impossible to install as a back up with out fouling the B-nut while tightening the fitting. So I ground down a 1/2 or 9/16 open end wrench to fit, (check your fittings size before grinding or buying a wrench, yours could be metric), made it a thin wrench, so I can tighten compression fitting and back up the valve side WITH OUT DAMAGING THE VALVE I just paid 70 bucks for. If you own expensive tools Harbor Freight is your friend for a wrench to grind down or buy a thin wrench.
Snap-On makes thin wrenches, but I think they cost more then the valve. Once my splice was installed, I performed another leak check, all was good, I reinstalled, back cover panel, and pushed the fridge back. Since the ice maker was changed, the longest time took was adjusting ice cube size. You have to wait a complete cycle to see what size is dumped, then make the adjustment, and wait another complete cycle to see results. And do that until you get desired results. Those adjustments are on YouTube, and are fairly accurate. I ended up doing more then 1/2 turn at a time. More like 4 complete turns counter clockwise for larger ice. But it works! To change the valve actually takes about 15-20 minutes, very easy, I had complications. My luck, with any kind of plumbing, I make many trips to the hardware store. That is a given and completely unavoidable. Hope this helps.
Ron O.

I could not determine if the solenoid water inlet valve or the ice maker unit was bad, so I replaced both.
In this model of the refrigerator, the freezer is a drawer on the bottom, so this makes access to the ice maker mounting a little tricky. The need to contort to reach into the back made this take longer and was more uncomfortable than expected. I needed to completely remove the screws for the top brackets, even though most instructions indicate you can loosen these and lift the ice maker off. Be careful to properly re-seat the water guide that directs the water from the inlet tube to the ice maker. That tended to interfere with re-connecting the wiring harness to the back of the freezer. Again, this was likely difficult because of having to bend over into the freezer.
The ice maker needs to be in the freezer for about 12 hours before the sensor in the black wire is cool enough to allow operation. I did not know this at first, so I was initially worried that there was a bigger problem. If you want to use the test functions with a jumper wire, be sure the door switch that controls the freezer light is depressed.
The solenoid value replacement was fairly straightforward. I found it useful to use a small open wrench to push the compression lock for the value-to-ice maker water tube to remove the old solenoid. Otherwise, replacing the water valve was simple.