The ice maker in a 2018 Samsung fridge went from frozen solid to dripping water after I swapped the door switch

Customer called me out to a rental in Austin last month, unit was making a waterfall sound every 10 minutes, and tracing it back to a bad door switch that was stuck half-open, has anyone else seen that part fail and cause the whole defrost cycle to run backwards?

2 comments

2 Comments

mark4361mo ago

...and honestly, that's the thing, even a slightly worn switch can mess with the board's logic in ways the manual doesn't cover. I've had almost the exact same thing happen on a 2017 model where the switch looked fine but the door magnet was barely holding it closed. The board would keep calling for a defrost cycle because it never registered the door being shut, and the heater would run way longer than it should, so you'd get that dripping and the weird waterfall noise at random times. Quick fix is to unplug the fridge for ten minutes to reset the board, then test the switch with a multimeter across the pins while the door's open and closed. If the resistance jumps around or stays high, just replace the switch, it's a cheap part, and that usually kills the whole issue. Also check the drain line while you're in there, because a plugged one will make that same dripping sound and people always blame the switch first.

emerym361mo ago

That door switch being stuck half-open wouldn't flip the defrost cycle into reverse, since that cycle just runs one way on a timer or heater sensor. The waterfall sound you're hearing is probably the drain pan filling up normally, or a defrost heater running longer than it should because the control board thinks the door's still cracked. Check the wiring harness around the switch first, those pins can corrode and send weird signals that mimic a timer reset.