I am going on vacation and due to past water lines bursting nightmares I have been cutting off the main water supply to the house. Plumber said there was nothing extra I needed to do. Yet when I got back my ice maker (independent under counter type) was making a lot of noise and sounded like it was about to burn up. Is there something special I need to do to it?

Hi Madison...

If you have the most common type of ice maker up inside the freezer then you should only need to lift the ice maker arm into the UP position and that will stop the ice maker from making ice while you are away. Here, when you lift the arm the arm will stay up and should not drop back down. To restart the ice maker when you return just drop the arm back to the down position and it will automatically begin to make ice. Be aware that ice making will probably not start right away... usually based on a timer.

After that, proceed to shut down the water main and if you have a gas water heater set the thermostatic gas valve to the vacation or pilot setting as this will save you some money while away. If you have an electric water heater you can just shut down the breaker at the electrical panel. To restore the hot water when you return just reverse the steps, right?

Questions? Let me know, OK?

Mark

Thanks for the info, but as I said mine is an independent under the counter ice maker, next to our sink. Also thanks for the additional info on the gas water heater setting.

Sorry... missed that!

If the plug is accessible or you have an independent breaker associated with the unit I would unplug/shut it off.

Otherwise, pop over to the appliances forum and post the model and brand and see what they think over there, OK?

Happy Holiday!

Mark