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Honored Contributor
Posts: 13,936
Registered: ‎03-10-2010

You might want to disable your unused ice maker

I had the freakiest thing happen today.  We were sitting at the table eating a piece of sourdough toast and it started raining on my head.  It felt like a sprinkler and shocked the heck out of me.  Anyway, DH soon figured that a hose from the back of the frig had come loose and was pouring out water under pressure in an arc to hit me and the table. This was the line to the icemaker, which we never use.  The consolation is that this didn't happen when we were gone, or the entire floor might have been covered.  I've heard of worrying about the dishwasher when one leaves the house, but never the ice maker.

Esteemed Contributor
Posts: 6,476
Registered: ‎03-09-2010

Re: You might want to disable your unused ice maker

So many disasters can happen that will flood the house...... all of them stressful. Glad you were home. Good advice

Honored Contributor
Posts: 20,648
Registered: ‎03-09-2010

Re: You might want to disable your unused ice maker

Wow, what a shocker that had to be!  Glad it wasn't something more serious.

 

I really have no need for the ice maker (I put my bottles of water in the refrigerator as I do like my water cold), so whenever I get a new refrigerator I either have the ice maker removed or, if it came separate, I just wrap it up and put it out in the garage.

 

Not only do I not have to deal with something I won't use (maybe once a year I need some ice and I can deal with that), but I have more room in the freezer.  Smiley Happy

Respected Contributor
Posts: 2,808
Registered: ‎03-10-2010

Re: You might want to disable your unused ice maker

Well, my ice maker is well used. But I suppose it could still happen.

Esteemed Contributor
Posts: 6,250
Registered: ‎03-09-2010

Re: You might want to disable your unused ice maker

@depglass   we use our ice maker and something similar happened to us.  DH heard a swooshing sound.  He got up to investigate. The hose in the freezer was spewing water everywhere. There was water in the freezer, frig and about inch on the red oak wood floor. He said the rug was floating.

 

If it was up to me we wouldn't have an ice maker.

 

 

Honored Contributor
Posts: 14,662
Registered: ‎03-09-2010

Re: You might want to disable your unused ice maker

[ Edited ]

I've never had a refrigerator with an ice maker, but many of my family has and every single problem has been with that, leaks and all.

They stop working after so many years (or months) and cause so many problems.

My daughter had to have her whole floor and rugs replaced, from the kitchen to the family room.

To be fair to the icemaker though, it may have been how the contractors from Lowes installed it incorrectly, in this case anyway. Fortunately, insurance covered it.

I'm glad you were able to stop it before it got really bad. That must have been shocking to be sitting there and getting sprayed out of the blue!

"If you walk the footsteps of a stranger, you'll learn things you never knew. Can you sing with all the voices of the mountains? can you paint with all the colors of the wind?"
Esteemed Contributor
Posts: 7,810
Registered: ‎12-24-2010

Re: You might want to disable your unused ice maker

I drink ice water all day..........maker makes buckets of cubes...have to throw some in the sink to get rid of them.  (yes probably could adjust production level).

 

As long as there is a release of the water pressure (by allowing water in to the cube maker)........don't see how a blow up could happen.  Water in the pipe line has to escape.

Esteemed Contributor
Posts: 6,386
Registered: ‎06-10-2015

Re: You might want to disable your unused ice maker

I use the heck out of my ice maker and would be lost without it. I can reach the shut off if and when I ever leave this house again for more than an hour and will do so.

Honored Contributor
Posts: 43,258
Registered: ‎01-08-2011

Re: You might want to disable your unused ice maker

I've had a "pin hole" in a clothes washer hose flood the kitchen.  One winter, at Christmas, our 10 year old son awoke with poison ivy, went to get a drink of water and stepped into ice water one winter.

 

It went down the floor vents, pulled the vents down from the basement ceiling.  It looked like a cave!  When DH opened the garage door, the water went out in a wave!

Honored Contributor
Posts: 69,405
Registered: ‎03-10-2010

Re: You might want to disable your unused ice maker

It's the hot water hose to your washing machine that poses the biggest hazard for flooding.  Apparently the heat deteriorates the hose relatively rapidly.   Always turn the water off when you go on vacation. 

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