Dometic Icemaker winterization

[jbrosecity]

Greetings... We have a Dometic 4 door refrigerator RM1350. It has an icemaker. We will NEVER use the icemaker as we do not drink the water in this RV Park and we are here more or less permanently, using it as our summer headquarters. So I want to winterize the whole coach and need to do the icemaker as well. The compartment on the outside behind the fridge has a red tag which says to use compressed air and "remove inlet fitting to icemaker solenoid valve and drain the supply line. Then remove the plastic nut and water line from the outlet side of water solenoid valve." The whole red tag is pictured below.

Trouble is I cannot locate this !@#$%& valve. Below are two photos of the bottom bay behind the fridge. There's also an upper bay but there is nothing there but a few lines. Every photo and video I have seen shows a blue plastic solenoid valve with plastic water lines connected to it. As you can see from my photos there is no such thing back there! Anyone able to help?

Also videos I have watched on "running the harvest cycle" manually by turning the gears. The instructions always talk about removing the white plastic cap. I attached a photo of the icemaker inside the freezer. I presume this "white cap" with the gears inside MUST be that white square cap - any tips or how to pop it off?

Thanks in advance








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[newRVer]

There are several options on how to do this but this is the method I use.

1. Remove the 4 screws and securing the ice maker and power connection and store the ice maker on the inside left of the refrigerator. (see pic)
2. Remove the AC power connections from the water pump (see pic) and attach a power cord made from an old lamp cord. I'll post pic of lamp cord later.
3. Attach air compressor to outside water line, turn on to 35 PSI
4. Plug in lamp cord to frig outlet to activate water pump. Compressed air will now blow water from ice maker line into ice maker bucket.
5. Unplug water pump power cord and remove air compressor.
6. Attach coach water pump outlet to marine antifreeze container and turn on water pump. Turn on coach water faucets and drains until all water sources have antifreeze coming out of them.
7. Plug in ice maker water line pump into AC power again. Make sure this is the last step in your winterization line process after step 6. Antifreeze should pump through the ice maker water line into the ice maker bucket. Once this has been done for a minute or so, the process is complete.

This method avoids the step of having to manually activate the ice maker by removing the cover and moving the gears and possibly damaging ice maker. Also by unscrewing the ice maker to the wall you don't have to worry about cleaning out antifreeze out of the ice tray next season.

[jbrosecity]

Thanks for the step by step... but a couple things.... first of all there is no sign of those white/clear plastic lines in the outside bay behind my fridge. I don't know why these damn photos did not post but I'll add them as links. Also my post was incomplete when I wrote "We will NEVER use the icemaker as we do not drink the water in this RV Park and we are here more or less permanently, using it as our summer headquarters." I should have said that I want to disconnect the icemaker completely, and implement a bypass, more or less. So there is no point in putting antifreeze in there. I just want to blow it out and disconnect the solenoid (not visible in my outside bay), so water never runs thru it again while we own it.

Here are my links to the photos which did not appear with my post for some reason.

http://www.wind-seeker.com/temp/compartment1.jpg

http://www.winthe solenoid entirely (not visible in my bay)seeker.com/temp/compartment2.jpg

http://www.wind-seeker.com/temp/instructions.jpg

http://www.wind-seeker.com/temp/solenoid2.jpg

http://www.wind-seeker.com/temp/icemaker.jpg

[newRVer]

What year is your RV? Mine is a 2016 and has a push/pull water shutoff valve under the sink which cuts off the water before the water pump. If you don't ever want to use the ice maker then remove the ice maker for more room in the freezer, blow out the water in the line using compressed air and then turn the valve off. That should work in the short term. In the long term I would try and install a valve on the water line where it connects into the main line so that if you winterize with antifreeze, the antifreeze will not enter the frig water line at all and contaminate your water next season and also prevent a possible water line freeze rupture between the main line and the water cutoff valve.

PS. I believe the solenoid for the water pump is visible in your pictures. It should be orange with two wires going to it and it also has a water line connected to it.

[Sunseeker16]

I've never turned my ice maker on so I don't winterize it. Never opened the water valve to it.

[bubbles]

Forget the solenoid color thing. Some of your type fridges have not only an ice maker but also a through the door water dispenser and there will be 2 solenoids but from your photo you only have the one solenoid so no water dispenser. just disconnect the lines (whether plastic or not) from your one solenoid, follow instructions and disconnect the power leads from that solenoid.

[jbrosecity]

Darn it... having a tough time with these photos. I can no longer edit the previous post so I'll repost those links again. To answer newRVer's question, this is a 2018 5th wheel. It's not a Forest River, but the Vanleigh forums are worthless and I have great respect for this forum which I visit all the time on behalf of my FR Forester. If you look at the 1st and 2nd photo links, you can see there are no visible water lines in that back compartment, unless that stainless braided line is one... but I doubt it... and it's only one, there should be inlet and outlet, from what I have read. I am indeed thinking of removing the icemaker altogether, but I still need to do something about connecting the water lines in and out together to complete the circuit and make it so I can blow them out. There is no valve connection under the sink which is in the island well away from the fridge. All help appreciated.

http://www.wind-seeker.com/temp/compartment1.jpg

http://www.wind-seeker.com/temp/compartment2.jpg

http://www.wind-seeker.com/temp/instructions.jpg

http://www.wind-seeker.com/temp/solenoid2.jpg

http://www.wind-seeker.com/temp/icemaker.jpg

[nomad297]

I see a stainless steel braided supply line in the second picture.

Bruce

[nomad297]

I think your solenoid is covered with that silver tape.

Bruce

[newRVer]

Attached is a power cord I made from an old lamp cord that connects to water pump solenoid and plugs into 120V AC outlet. Energizing the solenoid powers up the ice maker water pump to perform winterization and spring sanitization.

[jbrosecity]

Originally Posted by nomad297

I think your solenoid is covered with that silver tape. Bruce

Thanks Bruce... I presume by the silver tape you mean that indicated with the yellow arrow in this link below... and those two leads connected to the orange terminal above would be power to the solenoid. I'll check this when I back at the RV this next week.

http://www.wind-seeker.com/temp/compartment2a.jpg

I see where nomad297 suggests that braided stainless hose right above the silver tape would likely be the water line. I guess I'll disconnect it and see. Then I need to find the supply line to it and disconnect it. That may be over behind the plumbing bay. I had a tech over in there before when my washing machine was not getting water and he found the icemaker line turned off, he told me... but that was also the supply line for the washing machine, so when he turned it back on the washing machine worked but then apparently water flowed to the icemaker also. So I'll need to study that and figure out how to disconnect from the icemaker but leave the washing machine connected.