In a topic right here at Appliantology, a tech encountered a perplexing issue with an ice maker that wouldn't make ice. His diagnostics were as follows, in his words:

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The valve that supplies water to the mold passes the fill test. The ice bin sensor shows that the bin is empty. The rake motor passes that test. I am getting an E5 code which is for the ice thermistor.

The E5 error code does implicate the ice maker thermistor, according to the tech sheet. So, our tech proceeded with the following repair:

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I replaced the ice maker it came with the thermistor as long as that was the correct thermistor for the E5 code.

Got a callback.

And so he was left for a bit of a loss -- that is, until some helpful techs pointed him in the right direction on Appliantology.

In particular, Daniel A gave him some great insights:

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The E5 code more often points toward temperature issues, rather than a thermistor failure. One of the reasons it will present that code is if the control is seeing a wide difference in temperature between the ice bin thermistor and the ice maker thermistor.

So is this a temperature issue in the ice compartment or freezer that our tech missed? And why would E5 potentially indicate a temperature issue?

Let's look at the description of the E5 code from the tech sheet to untangle this.

What this error code is really saying is that there is a discrepancy between the ice maker thermistor and the thermistor for the ice room. That could mean an actual temperature issue, or it could also mean that the ice box thermistor is out of spec, not the ice maker thermistor.

A control board has no frame of reference for determining if a thermistor is out of other than another thermistor. So whenever you see an error code like this that claims it can positively identify an out of spec thermistor, alarm bells should go off. All that E5 really tells us is that one of those two thermistors is out of spec, or that there is a temperature issue in the ice room.

If you look at the top and the bottom of this clip from the schematic, you'll see the two different thermistors we're talking about: the ice maker sensor at the top, and the ice box sensor at the bottom.

And as it turns out, an ice box sensor is exactly what the issue was in this case. Here was the conclusion to our tech's forum topic.

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Hello everyone. Yesterday replaced the ice room thermistor on this unit and today she sends me a beautiful picture of a full ice bucket.

Another happy ending thanks to a team effort of sharp Appliantology techs!

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