Maytag ice maker not making ice

Water first, temperature second

Check the freezer temperature before anything else — an ice maker in a compartment above five degrees will make small, cloudy or hollow cubes and there is nothing wrong with the ice maker at all. Then check the shut-off arm or the on switch, which is easy to knock into the off position while loading the freezer and stops production without any indication. If your refrigerator also dispenses water, fill a glass and time it; a slow or weak stream tells you the fill problem is upstream of the ice maker. And check when the water filter was last changed, because a filter well past its interval restricts flow steadily and small cubes are the first sign.

What it usually means, by the kind of machine

One complaint, several machines. This maker still sells a top-load washer with an agitator alongside one without, a front-loader, and a stacked pair, and it sells the same oven as a range and as a wall unit in gas and in electric. The behavior you can describe is identical on all of them; the first hour of the repair is not. A front-load washer has a drain filter the owner can open and a top-loader has nothing to reach from the front, and that single difference decides how the same afternoon goes.

• Side by side — The ice maker sits in the freezer half with the water line running up behind. This is the layout where a slow fill shows up first as small cubes.
• French door bottom freezer — Some of these make ice in the fresh food compartment rather than the freezer, which changes the temperature question entirely. Say which yours is when you book.
• Stand-alone or under-counter ice maker — A different machine with its own drain and its own cleaning schedule, and it needs both. Scale from this water is the leading cause of a slow one.

Ice that clumps rather than ice that stops

A bin of ice frozen into one solid mass is a different finding from an empty bin, and it usually means the ice is melting slightly and refreezing — a door left ajar, a freezer running marginal, or ice sitting for weeks without being used. It is worth mentioning when you book because it points at temperature and door seal rather than at the ice maker mechanism, and those are two different visits.

The water here

This water carries enough mineral that filters load faster than the six-month interval on the box, and stand-alone ice machines need cleaning on a schedule rather than when something goes wrong. A refrigerator that made beautiful ice for four years and now makes small cloudy cubes has very often just told you the filter is overdue.