Resetting a Thermador Ice Maker, and Giving It Time to Work

Before the reset: the numbers that settle most of these

An ice maker that "is not working" is very often an ice maker that has not been given time. The manufacturer's own figures:

• About 24 hours from switch-on before it produces any ice at all
• Up to 72 hours to reach full production
• 70 to 120 cubes in 24 hours once the cabinet is properly cold

If yours has been switched off, moved, defrosted or newly installed inside that window, it is probably behaving correctly. Measure against the numbers before deciding anything is wrong.

The two free causes, checked first

A cube jammed in the level arm. The arm measures how full the bin is. One cube lying across it and the ice maker concludes the bin is full and stops — with a half-empty bin in front of you. Lift the bin out and release anything jammed with a blunt plastic tool. Nothing sharp: these liners crack.

The ice shovel left in the bin. Documented by the manufacturer as a cause of stopped production, because the sensor cannot read the level around it. Take it out and keep it out.

Between them these account for a striking share of the calls we would otherwise be booked for, and neither costs anything.

The reset

Switch the ice maker off at the control panel, wait a minute, and switch it back on. On most of these models that is the whole reset — there is no dedicated button, and the hidden reset buttons described online generally belong to other makes.

Then wait. A reset restarts the cycle; it does not skip the 24 hours.

After a filter change specifically

This is the single most common "it stopped working" story on this equipment, and it usually is not a failure.

1. Check the filter is fully rotated home. The lines on the cap should align with the lines on the compartment. A filter half-turned restricts flow enough to stop ice.
2. Register it. Hold LIGHT / FILTER, or SUPER COOL, together with ICE for three seconds. On many models the reminder is a counter that has to be told the filter is new — the symbol keeps flashing otherwise, and people conclude the new filter is defective.
3. Purge the line. Run several glasses through the dispenser. The first ones may be cloudy with trapped air, which is expected and clears.

The full filter and reset guide covers the odor filter and the water filter locations as well.

Then work down the chain

If it has had its time, the bin is clear and the filter is registered, the order is:

• Water arriving at all — shut-off valve fully open, no kink in the line behind the appliance
• Pressure — low house pressure gives small, hollow cubes long before it gives none
• Freezer temperature — ice is the first thing to suffer when a cabinet runs a few degrees warm, and that is a column question rather than an ice-maker one
• The fill valve or the assembly itself — which is where a repair actually lives

When to call

Water is reaching the dispenser but no ice is forming after 72 hours. Or ice forms and never releases. Or there is water in the bin rather than ice, which is its own story.

Tell us the model number, how long it has been, and what the water is doing at the dispenser — that last one splits this into two very different repairs before anyone leaves the workshop.