Common fault
Why has my ice maker stopped making ice?
Short answer
The shape of the cubes decides this one, so look at them before anyone quotes a part.
The reasoning behind that
Small, hollow or half-formed means the mold is not being filled, and on a high floor the usual reason is water: an overdue filter, or static pressure at the inlet valve sitting at the bottom of what the machine needs after the building riser and the pressure regulator have taken their share. No ice at all, in a freezer that is otherwise cold, is the opposite problem and a different repair, on the harvest side, meaning the module, its thermostat or its motor. Fitting a new module to a starved water line produces the same hollow cubes as the one it replaced.
How the diagnosis goes
We measure static pressure at the valve first, then check the age of the filter, then look for ice in the fill tube. On an undercounter clear-ice machine there is a fourth check before any of that: whether the condenser can breathe at all, because these get built into closed bar cabinetry and a machine that cannot reject heat halves its own output without ever showing a fault code.
Ice that is present but tastes wrong is a separate call and worth making. In a condo where the machine runs hard for one week and then sits for a month, old ice absorbs whatever is in the freezer, the mold scales up, and the first batch of a busy weekend is the batch everyone notices. Dumping the bin, changing the filter and letting the machine make a fresh run solves more of these than any part does.
If that matches what yours is doing, say so when you call — it decides which parts come on the van.
Refrigerator drawers under the bar stopped holding and the rails had seized. I gave the building and the floor when I rang, and the freight elevator was squared away with the front desk before he arrived. One trip, finished.
Called about the Wolf oven, which had been running cool for months while I quietly overbaked everything to compensate. He measured the cavity against the temperature I had asked for and changed a sensor. While he was there he sorted a door on the old Viking beside it that had stopped closing square.
We are only down here part of the year and came back to a box that had clearly been at full duty the whole time. Fast, tidy, explained what he was doing at the coil. No drama.
Appliance down in Downtown San Diego?
Tell us the brand and what it is doing — we can usually name the likely repair before we arrive.
Questions
Answers before you call
Do you only handle Sub-Zero, or the rest of the kitchen as well?
Sub-Zero refrigeration is the bulk of it, and the rest of the built-in kitchen comes with it: Wolf ranges, rangetops, wall ovens and cooktops, Viking ranges and refrigeration, Thermador ovens, induction cooktops and refrigeration columns, and Cove dishwashers. Downtown they are specified together by one builder, which is why a warm wine column call often ends at a cooktop igniter clicking for a month.
Can you work inside my building, or does the HOA make that complicated?
Towers are most of our week, so the building is part of the plan, not a surprise at the curb. Give us the address, floor and unit number at booking, whether the front desk needs your name, and whether the freight elevator or loading dock has to be reserved. Mention vendor paperwork if your management office keeps it.