When I purchased a new fridge, I specifically looked for a model without an ice maker, as I was worried about this exact scenario.
The only problem – Sunshine doesn’t like filling the ice trays. A few months later, my neighbor gave me this countertop ice maker. It was broken, but he knows I like to tinker with stuff and try to fix things. Well I fixed it and now Sunshine has her ice cubes (during the summer)
Maybe this would be a viable option for you when the Bosch quits on you.
A plastic gear, yikes.
FWIW, the independent appliance repair tech who helps us does favor Bosch, though he’s not a fan of built-in fridge ice makers of any kind.
Bought one yesterday. It’s sitting upright for 24 hours per instructions before first use. Was well under $100 new, so I’m not expecting it to last long.
My only advice would be to attempt to keep it clean and change the water from time to time.
It appears the common “failure point” on these little ice makers is this small pump in them, they are about $10-$15 and easy to replace.
Sunshine likes the small ice cubes this thing makes, so I make up a big batch, put them in a container and into the freezer, then I empty and clean the thing. When she gets low on ice, I make up another big batch.
As far as refrigerators, I am convinced none of them last – so I’m going to purchase the cheapest one I can, get the 5 year (full coverage) warranty and throw it away when it dies on year 6. The manufacturers are building these things as disposable, so I’ll treat them as such.
We chose not to go with automatic ice makers in our fridge/freezers we’ve bought.
We had the old fashioned ice trays for years, then bought an ice maker similar to the one you have.
It makes ice in like, 7 minutes! It sits, covered, on the counter in our laundry room. Very convenient and we control the water (Brita filtered) that goes in.
My extended warranty is up in March 2027.
I hope it last longer than that, but I’m convinced they build these refrigerators with a 6-7 year life.
I do not believe there are hard and fast rules as to which refrigerators last longer, but our GE is in its late teens, and the one in the garage, also GE, is in its mid twenties. They are neither the most Spartan nor the fanciest. The ice maker, a bin in a bottom drawer type freezer, is still working.
Then my next refrigerator is going to be a GE!!
We have that type of GE. It’s only 3+ years old but we hope it’ll last a while.
I think 5.
My GE fridge is now going on 13 (knock wood). Has an ice-maker that I turn off, since I don’t use much, but otherwise not fancy. I’ve had good luck with the GE appliances I bought that year for a kitchen reno.
Thank you for the information – going forward (when my present fridge dies); I’ll try a GE.
Update: technician replaced the ice maker today under my extended warranty; I just checked to se if it would eject any ice - it did I, but I’m getting an E2 error code on the panel again. I will call them tomorrow.
When my last (way too expensive $$$$ to die so soon) fridge died about a year ago, I got a cheap 29 cu. ft. LG for about $1K. I hate it like hell (because I really liked my old French door style, but that’s beside the point), but it has an ice maker but not dispenser.
So you have to drag the bucket out to gets the ices. The Dogs Hear The Sound and come running. So any time I want ice, I recant the line, “So Thus Do I Summoth The Canines!”, and they do so come running.
I had a cat who would come running when he heard the sound of the ice maker. Rumble rumble and he would appear out of nowhere. And he didn’t really have any interest in the ice. Just the noise. Never could figure that one out.
Update again on the E2 error that persisted after the icemaker was replaced. For some reason Bosch has this info on its website but not in the manual: To try to clear an error,“reboot” by turning the fridge off at the breaker box for 5 minutes. I called the appliance company who sold/repaired the unit, and asked them what to do - the girl hesitated,and said, we try it for 15 or 20 minutes. Do you still have the warranty provider’s phone number so we can schedule you for Monday? The circuit board may need to be replaced. Yes, I still have the number, but let me try the breaker first.
I found the breaker, shut it off, made sure it was the correct breaker by looking at the refrigerator, whose external light was now off, and waited nervously for 15 minutes away from the kitchen. I flipped the breaker back on. I waited 5 minutes more (don’t know why) and opened the fridge door. No error message. How many times in my life have I rebooted a computer or phone or iPad? Why was I so worried? Because appliances are born these days to fail, and cause me and everyone else anguish as a bonus feature. But so far, so good.
And it’s still making ice.
Rebooting the washer is a monthly thing around here; I have to climb up on the washer to reach behind
it to unplug the machine fir 5 minutes or so. The dealer told me that trick and our appliance mechanic taught me how to force a ‘drain’ action on the washer and the dishwasher. Not in the manuals. 'Brains ’ have to be rebooted.
