insignia fridge, winterize

[BOBnSUE]

First res fridge i've owned. Need to winterize soon, and need advice. How do I winterize the ice maker? Is there a filter behind the fridge? Can I get the ice maker to cycle on demand, to bring anti freeze in?

[jd4010]

Our Insignia fridge does not have it's own filter.

As for winterizing, after I blow out the lines with air and I pull pink antifreeze thru all the pipes/lines using the pump and bypass. Lastly while the lines are pressurized with the pump and the pink antifreeze, I then turn on the fridge and let it produce a couple dumps of pink ice

[mooseherd]

FWIW:

I actually contacted Insginia and they told me there is no way to do that. My question is then why do they sell them for RVs!? Anyway, there may or may not be a switch and there may or may not be a couple points you can short to make it run. I have not dug in any further than finding that dubious information from various non-Insignia sources. This past winter (our first year with it), we left the pink stuff in the lines and it did run one or two cycles and we got a few pinkish ice cubes. Called it good and it was this spring. I will look for the short circuit option this fall (coming up fast) and see if I can get that to work, though.

[ScottBrownstein]

If you have time...and can locate the shutoff, put 20# of compressed air on the water system, blow the water out of the faucets and leave the air on overnight. The reefer will cycle the water out on its own time. Then close the shutoff and put pink stuff in the rest of the system. Works for me...

[Steve-W]

If the refer uses the typical icemaker that many refers use you can jump two test points on the module to activate the water valve. Use a short piece of insulated (120 VAC will be present on the jumper) 14 gauge solid wire. Jump the L (line) to V (valve) test points to activate the water valve. Don't leave the valve activated too long as it can get hot. I typically open it for 20-30 seconds with a equivalent off time between activations.

I used a similar process on my Dometic 1200 directly to the valve with a power cord and momentary switch. Much quicker than waiting for a few cycles to complete.

Edit:
The icemaker shown on the Insginia website appears from the picture to be the same as most. Once you pull the square cover off the front of it you should see a gear (do not try to turn manually) and the test points.

[SacRV]

I have the same fridge in our ‘21 Cottage. There is a filter in the refrigerator compartment. However, you don’t need to winterize the fridge. Just don’t use the water until to dewinterize and flush the system.

[ScottBrownstein]

Originally Posted by SacRV

I have the same fridge in our ‘21 Cottage. There is a filter in the refrigerator compartment. However, you don’t need to winterize the fridge. Just don’t use the water until to dewinterize and flush the system.

How does the solenoid valve and line get cleared of fresh water...

[CHICKDOE]

i do not know your insignia refrigerator. and how you winterize it will depend on whether you have power available where you store the refrigerator. if you have power the easiest is to leave the ice maker running while supplying antifreeze to it just let it run until it is making pink ice.

double check to make determine whether your refrigerator has an internal filter or not. make sure you take the internal filter out before running antifreeze through it as it will filter out the pink color and make make it hard to determine when you are making pink ice. you may have to install a dummy filter cartridge or bypass plug in place of the internal filter cartridge in order to allow water to flow through.

on our refrigerator i found a set of diagnostic procedures on the internet. there allow you to perform various functions on the refrigerator. one of those is to open the ice maker solenoid. so when i am pumping antifreeze into the system i can manually open the ice maker solenoid a few times which lets the antifreeze flow through the ice maker. i do this in 5 minutes. as other have said many ice makers have a couple of jumper points that you can short across that will manually invoke maker cycle which includes opening the solenoid. do this until you get pink antifreeze out. there are several you tube videos on how to do this.

using any of these approaches it's really not all that complicated. just do it enough times until the ice maker is dispensing pink antifreeze out. if you have an indoor water dispenser just depress it until you get antifreeze out.

[mooseherd]

For the Norcold which is also used, the points are T & H according to some documentation I found on the net. It varies on type. I haven't been able to find the name of the icemaker on mine, so another option.

[BOBnSUE]

Appreciate all the responses, lets hope I do it correctly this year.