How Long Does an Ice Maker Take to Make Ice.
If you only use your ice maker a few times a day, you may never think about how much ice your ice maker can make in a certain time period. Until you have company or a need to use more ice than you normally do, do you realize if your ice machine is quick enough or if it takes too long.
You may ask yourself, “How long should an ice maker take to make ice?”
Typical Process for Ice Making
You may not realize this, but your ice maker is the hardest working compartment in your fridge/freezer. Your freezer keeps a temperature cool enough to keep items frozen but it did not always start off this way.
If it seems like your ice maker is taking a while, this is normal – to a certain degree of course. The tray must be filled with water, frozen, and then dumped into the ice holding tray. This all takes quite a bit of time.
It all depends on the volume of ice that can be produced and how much space is in the tray it is being dumped in. Statistically, your ice machine is making about 130 ice cubes in a 24 hour period.
Most common holding trays can hold between 4 to 11 pounds of ice and a typical ice maker makes about 3-7 pounds of ice. If the ice tray is able to be emptied after the first cycle is completed, it will then begin the process and fill another tray. If the ice sits in the tray for a few days, the cycle is going to pause when no more ice can fit in the tray. Once again, it all depends on the make and model of your refrigerator/freezer, the holding tray, and the amount of ice being removed in a day.
The Average Ice Making Process
Now you may be asking, “How long will it take to make one batch of ice?” Let’s understand the complete ice making process first. What we are going to call a cycle, is outlined below:
i) Ice maker tray is filled with water
ii) Water is frozen
iii) Ice is dumped into the holding tray
iv) If applicable, the ice maker releases ice into your cup
This may seem simple, but it is the process your freezer goes through to make ice. Now, to answer your question, it typically will take about 90 minutes to complete an entire cycle. The ice must have time to freeze so it can seem like a slower process. This cycle usually produces 8-10 ice cubes.
The cycle time can very a bit depending on the size of the tray and the amount of water for each ice cube.
How to Troubleshoot a Slow Ice Maker
As we said the average time to make ice is 90 minutes, if you find your ice maker is taking longer than 2 hours to complete one cycle, something is not right. Try these two steps to see if it fixes the issue:
Make sure the ice maker has power: Make sure that the feeder arm is in the on position.
Check your water filter: Having a clogged water filter can reduce the flow of water, allowing less to enter into the ice trays or stop your ice maker from making ice at all.
If you find your freezer will still not produce any ice, call in a technician to repair your freezer today!