Answers · No ice at all
Can a Frozen Fill Tube Stop Ice Production?
The short answer
Yes, completely, since a fill tube plugged with ice lets no water into the mold, and Sub-Zero's first cure is a thaw of four to six hours.
Check in this order
- Switch off the ice maker before anything else.
- Move the food to another freezer and lay towels inside and on the kitchen floor.
- Turn the freezer off, or the whole unit if yours cannot disable the freezer alone, and leave the door open four to six hours.
- Keep hair dryers, heat guns and tools away from the tube and liner.
- Restart the freezer, switch the ice maker back on, and allow 24 hours before looking for cubes.
Past this line it is a technician's job Sub-Zero Repair Tacoma, (206) 472-1140
Behind the answer
Sub-Zero names four causes: swings in household water pressure, the bin removed while the ice maker runs, the water shut off while it runs, and jammed cubes.
Water enters the tube only when the freezer reaches its set point and the ice maker calls for it, so the first fill after a thaw can take hours.
Related questions
How do I know the fill tube is the problem?
Shine a flashlight at the back or side wall just over the ice maker, where the tube comes through, and look for ice filling its end. A clear tube with an empty bin means the fault is elsewhere; Sub-Zero Repair Tacoma, (206) 472-1140, tests the valve and fill.
Will it freeze up again after the thaw?
It should not if the cause was a habit, such as pulling the bin or shutting the water off with the ice maker left on. If it freezes again anyway, Sub-Zero says service is necessary, and the suspects then are the water pressure and the valve.
- Signed
- Marta Fennimore
- Role
- Refrigeration technician — ice systems and water supply
- In the trade
- 12 years
- Holds
- EPA 608 certified
- Checked
- Sep 18, 2026