The ice and water dispenser in the door of a French door refrigerator in a family kitchen, clean and quiet.

Start with what you own

Ice maker
types,
told apart.

Two ice makers can drop the same cubes and still work nothing alike. A door ice maker sits in a cold compartment in the door and pushes ice down a chute, a freezer ice maker fills a tray or a mold over a bin, an undercounter ice maker freezes clear or nugget ice with its own drain, and a countertop nugget maker runs on a reservoir with no water line at all. Once you know which of the four stands in your home, half of the repair question is answered before the doorbell rings.

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4 types
Serviced in place
What each one costs

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Four types,
each its own job.

Each one is built, reached and repaired differently. Open yours for what fails on it and what the work involves.

A tall stainless French door appliance with a recessed ice dispenser on its left door stands in a bright US home kitchen, a clear glass under the chute catching falling ice cubes.

Door ice maker

The ice maker that feeds the dispenser on the outside of a door: tucked into an insulated box in the left door of a French door model, or at the top of the freezer side of a side-by-side, with a chute and an auger carrying cubes to your glass.

An open bottom freezer drawer in a US home kitchen shows a white ice maker along its back wall above a clear bin heaped with crescent ice cubes.

Freezer ice maker

The ice maker that sits inside the freezer compartment itself, a tray that twists or a mold with a heater and an ejector, dropping cubes into a bin or drawer you open by hand, with no dispenser on the door.

Undercounter ice maker

A built-in residential ice maker that lives under a kitchen, bar or basement counter, making clear cubes or chewable nugget ice on its own cooling system, with a water line in and a gravity drain or a small drain pump out.

A compact stainless countertop nugget ice maker sits on a light stone counter in a US home kitchen, its front bin door open to show a heap of soft pellet ice.

Countertop ice maker

A portable nugget or bullet ice maker that sits on the counter and plugs into an ordinary outlet, fed by a reservoir you fill by hand rather than a water line, with an auger or tray, a small cooling system and a drain plug.

Not sure which you have?

Start from what it is doing

If the ice maker in your kitchen does not obviously match one of these, work from the symptom instead. It reaches the same answer from the other end.

17 problemsIn order of costWhat to check first Go to the problems

Which one
is yours?

One look at the ice maker usually settles it. The first sign of each type is on the right; its page has the rest, and what that type means for a repair.

Nugget, clear or crescent

DoorDoor ice maker

The door has a recessed dispenser with a paddle or push button, and a setting on the panel above it for cubed or crushed ice.

FreezerFreezer ice maker

There is no ice or water paddle on the outside of any door, and you scoop ice from a bin in a drawer or on a shelf.

UndercounterUndercounter ice maker

It sits under the counter like a small appliance of its own, with a full-width door that opens down or to the side onto a deep bin of ice.

CountertopCountertop ice maker

It is small enough to lift, sits on the counter with a cord to a wall outlet, and has no hose running into a wall or cabinet.

What a repair
usually costs.

Ice maker repairs are mostly small, because the water path is made of small parts: a filter, a line, a valve, a tube, a sensor. On a door or freezer ice maker the larger appliance around it is what a new purchase would cost, so repairing the ice maker nearly always wins. On an undercounter unit the math is still usually in favor of repair unless the sealed cooling system or a discontinued control board has failed. A countertop unit is the one kind where a new machine is often the sensible answer once the motor or the cooling system goes.

Diagnostic visit: Your ice maker is priced after it has been tested.

Read the full cost guide

Repair	Relative cost	Notes
Ice maker module, mold or twisting tray	moderate	A module for a freezer compartment is one of the more affordable parts in this list, while a door compartment module and its wiring sit higher. The price is set only after the water, the temperature and the bin sensor are proved good.
Water inlet valve and its fittings	low to moderate	The valve itself is a modest part. Rolling the appliance out, fitting new compression nuts and leak-testing every joint on the way back make up most of the job.
Frozen fill tube, tube heater or drip cause	low	Thawing the tube costs only time. The bill rises a step when the heater on a French door model or a dripping valve has to be replaced so the tube stays clear.
Auger, auger motor, crusher or chute flap	low to moderate	A flap, a switch or a coupling is small and quick to reach. An auger motor, or the gearbox on a nugget unit, moves the job toward the middle of the scale.
Ice bin, compartment cover, gasket or latch	low	Gaskets and latches are inexpensive and fitted from the front. A new bin made for one model, especially one with the auger built in, costs a little more.
Water filter, supply line or shutoff valve	lowest	A filter, a braided line or a quarter-turn shutoff is among the least costly work an ice maker can need. A line that has to be run a long way to reach the appliance adds some time.
Drain pump, check valve or drain hose	low to moderate	Clearing and rerouting a drain costs little in parts. A new drain pump for an undercounter unit, and pulling the unit from its cabinet to reach it, puts the job in the middle.
Cleaning, descaling and sanitizing	low	The work is mostly labor and the maker's cleaner, with no parts in most cases. A unit left uncleaned for years takes longer, and a scaled distribution tube may need replacing.
Control board, thermistor or bin sensor	moderate to highest	A thermistor, a bin sensor or a cleaned connector is a small repair. A control board for an undercounter unit is one of the costliest parts an ice maker has, and it can take time to arrive.

A parent and a child filling two glasses with ice from the door dispenser in a bright family kitchen — For the heart of your home.

Questions about
the types.

Which kinds of ice makers does this site cover?

The door ice maker behind the dispenser of a French door or side-by-side model, the freezer ice maker that drops cubes into a bin in the freezer compartment, undercounter and built-in ice makers that make clear or nugget ice, and countertop nugget ice makers that run from a reservoir. Commercial and modular ice equipment is not what we work on here.

Why does the kind of ice maker matter for the repair?

It decides where the water comes from, how the ice is frozen and released, and where the meltwater goes. A door ice maker and a freezer ice maker share most of their parts, while an undercounter clear-ice unit has a pump, a drain and a cleaning cycle that neither of them has.

Is a nugget ice maker harder to repair than one that makes cubes?

It needs different knowledge rather than more luck. A nugget maker freezes a thin layer inside a chilled cylinder and an auger scrapes and presses it into pellets, so scale on that cylinder and the auger motor are where trouble starts. Descaling on schedule prevents a large share of those calls.

What should I say about my ice maker when I book?

Whether it sits in the door, in the freezer, under the counter or on the countertop, the make, roughly how old it is, and whether it is plumbed to a water line with its own drain or pump. That tells us which parts to bring and how much time to set aside.

Back to your everyday

Let’s get your ice maker working again.

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Schedule a repair Call (844) 773-0701

Ice makertypes,told apart.

Four types, each its own job.