Samsung RSG257AARS/XAA Icemaker not releasing ice to be dumped into the ice bucket

[steve42]

When our ice maker stopped working, I used a hairdryer to attempt defrosting the rotating fingers to see if they would dispense.  Eventually, it dumped that rather sickly batch of ice into the bucket but it never repeated the cycle after I manually reset the ice maker and filled it with water.

I then removed the ice maker, ice bucket and auger assembly, took them outside and allowed them to completely defrost and dry out. I replaced the parts and reset the motor (it never chimes when I do that).  The fingers began rotating freely but the white plastic arm that indicates the bucket is full did not lower. 

When I closed the freezer and turned the ice maker on (via the front panel), I heard the water dispense into the ice maker.  A few minutes later the front panel chimed twice. I checked and it did not say the ice was off again so I let it run.

A hour or so later, I returned and there was no ice in the bucket.  The water was frozen in the ice maker, the fingers were not turning and the white arm did not appear to have moved.

I was ready to order a replacement ice maker, in fact I attempted it but the Amazon seller cancelled it do to being out of stock.  When looking at options, I saw a statement that you had to retain the white cover for the heating element on some of them and it caused me to think about that element. 

I found a write up that said that if the ice is not being released, the element might not be heating up, and that could be the element or it could be the Control Board is not sending the signal to the element.

Since the ice maker and the PCB are both around $150, I'd like to attempt to isolate the issue before I begin swapping (nonrefundable) parts.

I have a digital volt meter and am a fairly experienced DIYer, but I'm not sure where to begin on this one. Any assistance would be appreciated.

Steve

[Vance R]

You can check the heater resistance at icemaker plug pin10 red wire and pin9 white wire with blue tracer. At the same place you can check for 120 vac during harvest. The fast track doesn't give a ohm value for the heater.

[Metro Appliances]

Hey steve42. What did you end up doing? Did you fix the issue?