Appliance Repair in 08110 · Camden, Pennsauken & Merchantville

A refrigerator with an ice maker or door dispenser needs a water supply, and in a house built before such refrigerators were common, that line was added later. In many older Pennsauken homes the connection is a quarter-inch copper or plastic tube running from a basement pipe through a hole in the kitchen floor, often tapped with a self-piercing saddle valve. Saddle valves were popular because they are easy to install, but they tend to clog or leak over time, and plastic tubing can become brittle.

Problems usually show up as small ice cubes, hollow cubes, a slow or sputtering dispenser, or an ice maker that stops entirely. Before anyone replaces the ice maker, the water supply is worth checking: a partly closed or clogged valve, a kinked line behind the refrigerator, or a filter that has not been changed in a long time all restrict flow. A frozen fill tube, where the line enters the freezer, is another common cause, especially if the freezer door was left ajar.

Our technician tests the inlet valve, the fill tube and the ice maker module, and checks the water pressure reaching the refrigerator. If the supply line or valve is the weak point, we will say so; replacing old tubing with a braided supply line and a proper shutoff valve is often the most lasting fix.

Find the shutoff for the refrigerator water line, usually in the basement under the kitchen, and make sure it can be reached. Clear a few feet in front of the refrigerator so it can be pulled out, and empty the ice bin. Driveway parking is common here, which makes the visit straightforward.