GE Ice Makers: Refrigerator Ice Makers and Opal Nugget Machines

Two machines, one word

When someone says their GE ice maker stopped, they may mean the module tucked into the freezer of a French-door refrigerator, or a countertop Opal machine that makes soft nugget ice. These share almost nothing beyond the ice. One is part of a refrigerator and draws water from a household line. The other is a small appliance that you plug in and fill. Sorting this out first saves a long phone call.

Ice makers built into a refrigerator

Many GE refrigerators carry an ice maker, and the water-and-ice dispenser in the door or the freezer section depends on it. Refrigerators with this feature are found in the French-door and side-by-side groups, for example GFE28GMKES, GNE27JGMWW and GYE22GYNFS, though a given number does not promise the feature, so look at your own unit. The ice maker has no model number of its own. You identify it by the refrigerator, and the section on reading the number in our GE refrigerators guide shows how.

Because it is plumbed to the house supply, the usual trouble comes from the water side:

• A supply valve behind or beside the refrigerator that was nudged shut during a move or a remodel.
• A line pinched when the cabinet was pushed back into a narrow Victorian-era alcove.
• Minerals. In parts of the East Bay and South Bay the supply is harder than the soft water common in San Francisco, and scale can narrow small passages over time.
• A freezer that is simply not cold enough to freeze the batch, in which case the ice maker is a symptom and not the cause.

Some models display CI, which means the icemaker may not be working properly. Check how the ice maker is operating, then read the step-by-step in the ice maker inside a refrigerator stops producing ice.

GE Profile Opal nugget machines

Opal is the GE Profile countertop nugget ice maker, and its model numbers start with XPIO. The ones listed on this site are XPIOX3SYMO, XPIOX3SZEB, XPIO13BCBT, XPIOX3SCSS and XPIO13SWBB. Notice that the numbers differ after the XPIO stem. As with other GE products the final letters often reflect color or finish, so the same machine may appear under several endings. We do not read more into the middle characters than the numbers themselves support, so quote the whole string when you call.

The model label on a countertop unit is generally found on the underside or back of the housing, so you will need to unplug it and lift it carefully to read it. Photograph it once and keep the picture.

What tends to go wrong

• Water in the wrong place. A reservoir not seated fully, or a unit that is not level, can leak onto the counter or stop the machine.
• Scale. Mineral buildup inside a machine that sits on a counter next to a sink is routine in hard-water cities. Follow the cleaning steps in the owner manual rather than improvising with household chemicals.
• Airflow. The machine needs space around its vents. Pushed against a backsplash under a cabinet, it warms up and slows down.
• Power. A kitchen outlet on a GFCI that tripped is a common cause of a machine that looks dead.

Which one are you dealing with?

Care habits

• Use the ice. Ice that sits for weeks in a bin clumps and picks up freezer odors. Empty the bin and clean it from time to time.
• Keep the freezer set where the manual says. A very warm freezer slows ice making.
• Know where the shutoff valve for the refrigerator line is. If you ever find water on the floor, closing it is the first step.
• Clean a countertop machine on the schedule the manual gives, and empty it if you will be away for a while.
• Replace water filters on the refrigerator when the manual says to. A clogged filter looks exactly like an ice maker fault. The post on keeping a GE ice maker clean and its water supply right goes through the routine.

What to have ready when you call

Say whether the ice comes from the refrigerator or from a countertop machine, and give the full model number. Describe the symptom the way you would to a friend: no ice at all, ice that melts into clumps, ice that tastes off, or water where it should not be. Mention anything that changed recently, such as a moved refrigerator, a replaced filter, a plumbing job, or a trip that left the machine idle for weeks. Those details shorten the diagnosis.

When to stop and book

Water on the floor around a refrigerator, ice that tastes of plastic or chemicals, or a machine that smells burnt are all reasons to turn it off and call. If water has reached an outlet or cord, the post on water leaking near outlets and cords applies, and you should unplug the unit only if you can do so without standing in water.

We diagnose in the home, give a written estimate, and do nothing until you approve it. The GE ice maker repair page explains how a visit runs. If the ice maker is just one symptom of a warm freezer, the GE refrigerator repair page may be the better starting point.