How to Reset Your Whirlpool Ice Maker

The products and services mentioned below were selected independent of sales and advertising. However, Better Home + Living may receive a small commission from the purchase of any products or services through an affiliate link to the retailer's website.

If your ice maker is giving you the cold shoulder, don’t worry! Now and again it’s normal for an ice maker to misbehave. You might find that there’s no ice being produced at all, or the tray is filling up with flakes of ice that are better suited to rolling into a snowball than putting into a drink.

When our ice makers break down, it can leave our poor drinks a little ice-olated. So, show your ice maker who’s boss with a frosty reception of your own. Here we’ll tell you how to reset your Whirlpool ice maker as well as some other tips and tricks to make sure you continue to enjoy the cool life once again.

Snow Doubt About it – We Love the Ice

We’re a nation that can’t get enough of ice. Whether we’re enjoying a sweet lemonade, a tangy iced tea, or even a smooth, mellow bourbon, we always need a cube or two of ice to make it the perfect beverage.

Related: Different Types of Ice

There was a time when ice was such a precious commodity that people would pay through the nose for such a luxury. Blocks of ice would be delivered from a cart that went around the neighborhood and it had to be used up quickly as there was nowhere to store it before it melted.

These days, freezers and coolers have made it possible for us to have ice on tap any time of the day or night, no matter if it’s freezing cold outside or we’re baking at the height of a heatwave.

Whirlpool – in Homes for Over 100 Years

The Whirlpool Corporation, founded in 1911 in Michigan, has spent over a century working at making life around the house easier. From its first patent, that of a clothes washer, right through to the millions of home innovation items that have furnished our homes, Whirlpool has been a constant fixture in US appliance manufacturing.

Whirlpool is a popular product in our kitchens, particularly when it comes to refrigerators. We take for granted the ease with which we can keep our food and drinks either chilled to perfection or frozen safely for use months into the future.

A feature that now comes in most Whirlpool refrigerators is the ice maker, so there’s no need to purchase a separate ice making machine, unless your ice needs are so great that you find a dedicated under-the-counter Whirlpool ice machine will be the best thing for your kitchen.

No more filling ice trays and slowly carrying them from the sink to the freezer! An ice maker, sitting either in the door of your Whirlpool refrigerator or inside the freezer compartment itself, is programmed to keep you topped up with ice without you having to lift a finger.

Why Your Ice Maker Might Need a Reset

Like all electronic goods, your ice maker is made up of an intricate set of circuits and parts and at times, one or more of them has an issue. For example, we want water to freeze in order to make ice, but we need for the water to be in liquid form before it reaches the ice maker!

If the ice in the inlet valve has frozen, then this can cause you to be without ice, so a quick fix will have the water flowing freely again. There could even be an issue with water pressure in the whole house or in the kitchen, which would be enough for your ice machine to give up the ghost.

Resetting Your Whirlpool Ice Maker

If you’re ice-less, then the first thing you can do is try the old turn-it-off-then-turn-it-on again approach. After all, it works for our phones, our Wi-Fi, and a whole host of other electrical appliances.

To reset your Whirlpool ice maker, you’ll need to do the following:

Check which model of Whirlpool ice maker you own.
If your model has a red reset button at the bottom, push this in and hold it for 10 seconds, before releasing.
If there’s no reset button, carefully pull out the refrigerator from the wall and take the plug out.
Wait 30 seconds, then plug your refrigerator back in again

Once you’ve done the reset, it may take some time before you see ice in your ice tray once more, as the refrigerator system will need time to do its thing before it can make more ice. So, in the meantime, put on a pot of coffee instead.

When Resetting Doesn’t Solve the Problem

If resetting the ice maker hasn’t kicked it into touch, it’s time to play Ice Maker Doctor. The white coat’s optional, but it never hurts to wear one for that professional touch. You’ll want to run a full diagnostic, eliminating each issue in turn.

Even if you solve the problem along the way, it never hurts to go over the mechanics and make sure that everything’s working the way it should. So, check the following:

Is Your Freezer Cold Enough?

Your freezer should never go above a temperature of 5 degrees Fahrenheit (-15 degrees Celsius) if you want to not only keep your ice maker in good working order but also keep your food frozen for longer.

If the temperature of the freezer is a too high, the ice maker won’t produce good quality ice. If you’ve turned the freezer to its lowest setting and the temperature still isn’t low enough, make sure the coils at the back of the refrigerator are free from dust and that there’s nothing blocking or obstructing the fan.

Is There Water Getting to the Ice Maker?

It sounds obvious, but there’ll be no ice if there’s no water. The beauty of the Whirlpool ice maker is that it sources its water directly from a water valve, as the refrigerator is connected to the mains water supply in the kitchen. Even the water line can freeze, especially if it’s not connected properly, so check there’s no ice blockage in the line itself.

If there’s an issue with the water inlet valve, then no water will be getting into your ice machine. A great way to check if the water supply is defective is to force the ice maker to perform a test function. You do this in the following way:

Is the Feeler Arm Frozen?

The feeler arm is the sensitive mechanism that tells the machine to stop filling up once the tray’s full of ice. Given that you’re working with parts that are in a freezer, there’s always a chance the mechanism can freeze.

Manually pull the feeler arm down and see if it’s stuck. If it is, apply some gentle heat with hair dryer for a few seconds to melt any ice that’s holding it firm. You may find that once your feeler arm is free again, then you’ll hear water being pulled in through the inlet valve once more.

Is the Water Filter Clogged?

Over time, microscopic traces of elements in the water supply can build up and clog the filter. Clean out the water filter in your ice maker if you can physically see something blocking it; alternatively, it’s always good to replace an ice maker’s water filter every six months or so.

If All Else Fails, Check the Manual!

Whirlpool have prepared for the times your ice maker might not perform at its usual high standard, so if you’ve done the above and you’ve still got no ice, check the manual. Something seemingly as inconsequential as the refrigerator light not working could be affecting the electronics of your ice maker.

If your refrigerator is still under warranty, contact Whirlpool directly but if too much time has passed, check online for new parts for your ice maker, especially if you’ve located the problem. A call to Whirlpool will also help as the representative will be able to take you through even more steps to try and isolate the issue.

Within no time at all, now that you know how to reset your Whirlpool ice maker, you’ll be back to having cool drinks once more!