Undercounter ice machines
Does a Sub-Zero undercounter ice maker need a drain pump?
A Sub-Zero undercounter ice maker can be ordered with a drain pump or without one, and the models without a pump drain by gravity. So the question is really about the house: if the waste can fall away on its own, gravity does it. Denver Sub-Zero Repair Experts reads the drain before reading the machine.
Pattern
What we usually find
- A gravity run that was never given its fall. The installation guide asks for a quarter inch of drop per foot, and a horizontal line laid flat is the commonest reason somebody starts asking about a pump.
- A drain that sits above the machine. An island or a peninsula often has no waste below floor level, and that is the case a pump model is built for.
- A pump already fitted and already tired. It has been lifting water since the kitchen was new, and it gives up quietly rather than with a noise.
- No air gap where the guide expects one. Sub-Zero's installation guide says an air gap will likely be needed between the unit and the drain, and a run without one is not what the machine was designed to drain into.
Most often first. Order comes from what the visits keep turning up, not from a count.
Choosing between them, and changing your mind later
The pump is an option the machine is ordered with, so it is not a switch anybody flips afterwards. Where a gravity run can be given its fall, that is the quieter installation and the one with less in it to fail.
Where it cannot, the pump earns its place, and the drain it lifts into becomes part of the maintenance rather than just part of the plumbing.
Before you call
Two minutes, before anyone comes out
- Look under the sink beside the run and find where the ice machine's waste actually goes.
- Listen after a harvest: a pump model makes a short motor noise that a gravity model never makes.
- Note whether the drain leaves the cabinet low and downhill, or has to climb to reach a waste pipe.
That is as far as an owner should take it. If what you find does not match this page, call Denver Sub-Zero Repair Experts on (720) 903-2603 and the water path gets measured end to end.
When it needs somebody out: Ice Maker Repair in Denver.