Undercounter ice machines
What should happen to an outdoor ice maker in a Denver winter?
Sub-Zero builds an outdoor-rated version of its undercounter ice maker, and outdoors it has to be on a ground fault circuit interrupter. What winter reaches first is not the machine but the water in it: the supply, the trap and the drain. Denver Sub-Zero Repair Experts treats the shutdown as plumbing work that happens before the first hard freeze.
Pattern
What we usually find
- A supply line left charged. A quarter-inch line full of standing water is the easiest thing on the patio to freeze, and it splits where it is least accessible.
- A drain and trap nobody drained. Sub-Zero's installation guide accepts a stand pipe with a trap below it, and a trap is a cup of water waiting for a cold night.
- An indoor machine installed outside. The outdoor model is the one rated for it; an indoor unit under a counter on a deck is a different appliance in a place it was not built for.
- A bin left full over the winter. Ice sitting in an unrefrigerated bin for months melts, refreezes and locks, and what comes out in spring is a solid block rather than cubes.
Most often first. Order comes from what the visits keep turning up, not from a count.
What the guide covers, and what it leaves to a plumber
Sub-Zero’s own paperwork for this class of unit tells you how it is installed and how it is cleaned; the seasonal shutdown for a particular outdoor machine belongs in that unit’s own use and care guide, and it is worth reading before a first Denver winter rather than after one.
The water side is not ours. Isolating the supply, clearing the run and protecting a trap outdoors is plumbing, and it is the part that costs money when it is skipped.
Before you call
Two minutes, before anyone comes out
- Shut the water off to the machine at the valve the plumber fitted, before the cold arrives.
- Empty the bin completely, wash it, dry it and leave it empty.
- Turn the unit off at its control panel rather than leaving it running on an empty supply.
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.