CTB1826ARU Magic Chef Refrigerator - Instructions

The whole job went smoothly,just the way others have described it. Unfortunatlly the water valve was not the problem. The problem was that ice had formed where the water enter's the tray . and therefore could not get into the ice forming area and just spilled into the refrigerator. I removed the ice maker(2 screws and cable connector.) let the ice melt and reconnected all is well again.

removed old ice maker by taking out a couple of screws in the back of freezer,when new ice maker arrived i saw that it didn't have the same hose apparatus as old one so I easily took apart old one then took apart new one and switched them out-very-- easily done for a 61 yr old lady I might add-- also had to reinstall ice maker arm off old ice maker as new one does not come with one Then installed new ice maker in freezer I am very very pleased,sure saved a lot of money doing it my self

Truth is, this took a couple hours of cursing, but that was due to poor information and no prior experience. I imagine the next one would take 20 minutes. The issues are these: videos tell you to use a putty knife to pry the old switch out. That is harder than it seems because each switch has a plastic spring that pops open to hold the switch on, and you can't access the spring when the switch is installed. So it is important to use the knife on the side of the switch (left or right of spring -- look at the new switch), and back and forth until the switch is worked out. Then it can get worse. The new switch has to plug in electrically before it can be installed mechanically. In my case, with the switch on the fridge wall rather than the top, the outlet for the plug was encased in foam insullation. That gives the appearance that the plug was fixed, immovable, which makes it impossible to plug it in electrically before the switch is in place, and of course once it is in place you can't then plug it in. The problem here was poor instructions. Just scrape out a lot of the foam around the plug and you find that the plug is really not fixed, but attached to reasonably long wires that allow you to plug it in with the switch a couple inches from the wall, and then insert the switch. None of the online instructions tell you this about the wires.

This was the third icemaker replaced since January 1999. Improvement need to be made in the design of the icemaker so that more than 2-3 years of life is available.
The most difficult part was disconnecting the power plug in the back of the icemaker. You must squeeze the upper and lower tabs together and pull out at the same time to disconnect. Once this is done, take out one nut head screw, lift up on the icemaker and remove from the hanger. Be careful that you don't break the plastic tabs on the hangers. Replace new icemaker in reverse, feed water supply where it must go in the back, resnap onto hangers, replace the nut head screw and snap in the power plug. It took about 2 hours before the icemaker began making ice. It has been working fine ever since. PS. I saved about $200.00 over having a repairman come in and replace the unit.

Removed freezer shelf. Shelf did not move to one side easily for removal. Removed fan cover (snaps in place), pulled off old fan and slid new fan blade onto shaft and installed clip.

Remove 1 screw under ice maker. Gently pull downwards to unhook ice maker. Disconnected 4 pin wire connector. Remove and set aside the cover and wire loop you will need on new ice maker. Reverse the steps to install new maker. Once new ice maker is installed you will have to wait 2-4 hours for ice. There is a thermostat that will need to reach 10 degrees F to operate.

Very easy to order from parts select. Took seconds to replace.

Calrod element shorted, arc left burn marks in freezer, harness was burned. Replaced icemaker and wiring harness. Shut off arm [wire frame element] replaced, new version of the wire shut off arm does NOT require the old plastic ice level sensor to be installed on the new shut off arm.

Pull refrigerator out from wall to shut off water and power. Remove ice bin, pulling front down then out. Remove screw at bottom of icemaker, then pull down to release two clips, Pull out a couple inches to get hand behind icemaker to release wiring harness connector. (squeeze top and bottom to release clips). Remove unit. Remove wiring harness and wire bail from old unit and install on new unit. Reverse steps to install new unit. Make sure ice bin is fully inserted, or unit will not function.

I removed the old ice maker and during the short disassembly noticed a burned out connection to the heater element that allows the ice to be broken free of the tray and dumped into the bin. Part Select had a new unit to me next day! I had watched their short install video, and read some of the user comments, already. Re-installing the new unit was a snap, and just as the video had described except for the mount bracket. The only thing that concerned me was that the new unit did not immediately do anything. I began to investigate and found that the flexible water "chute" connection had ice in it! I unplugged the refer, unscrewed the water filter and drained it. I disconnected the water feed on the outside back of the unit as well to make sure water could flow easily to the ice maker port. I filled the water filter with boiling hot water and replaced it, I plugged in the refer, and reprogrammed the date and time. Several hours later I checked the ice maker and it was -- making ice!

First turned off the water and unplugged the refrigerator and then removed the old ice maker by first removing the side cover plate and then next removed the ice level detector. Remove the screws that hold the ice maker in place and rotating it somewhat soas to gain access to the wires and then unplugged them. Next I had to modify the way the water comes into the new icemaker by adapting a CPVC street ell to fit into the hole on the side and then hook up the water supply. Installation is just the reverse of removal.

After checking the water valves ordered new ice maker. received the part three days after ordering! Clearing out food, removing the old one and installing the new unit took under 15 minutes. Everything went fine.

Part received was what I needed. There was one issue--the 'feed' opening to receive water and direct it into the ice tray was a side feed and what I needed was a back feed. That means I had to do some exchanging of parts to make it work. That exercise took more time that the actual installation.

Instead of the ice maker unclipping from the wall after one 1/4" screw being removed from the bracket, I had to remove three of the 4 Phillips head screws from the ice bucket slider below the ice maker and swivel it down to allow the ice maker bracket to clear. The two 1/4" screws holding the ice maker to the wall at the top had to be removed and then the ice maker could be pulled away from the freezer wall. The rest of the instructions went according to the video and went well.

I made use of instructions for other users, see 'My ice maker has been shedding.....' and they were very helpful. The one problem not covered - the instructions that came with the new icemaker said to 'remove the bearing and inlet from the old icemaker and install in the new icemaker', but gave no instructions for how to accomplish this.

The old inlet has a square opening in the back and a u-shaped knockout in the side. The new one has a round opening in the side and square knockout in the back)

After several attempts to remove them, I gave up and used the new inlet with the knockout removed. I did not attempt to cover the side opening and it worked fine that way - no leaks.