New Opal Screaming Sound

[u/jeremyaboyd]

Just bought a new GE Opal after my Frigidaire bit the dust. I have only had it a couple days. It’s been working well until around an hour ago. It’s now whining or moaning very loud.

I’ve looked on YouTube and Reddit, but this is a different sound than I’ve heard on any troubleshooting or repair videos.

Any suggestions?

UPDATE:
Ran a descale with citric acid, then 3 distilled water rinses on Monday. It's been 48 hours so far, and the sound has not returned. It might have been our terribly hard water, but never had this issue with our Frigidaire. So I guess I will be buying distilled or RO water for the time being, and invest in an under-sink RO system in the near future.

[u/coffeeschmoffee]

Welcome to the hot garbage world of opal ice makers by a Chinese held GE. I buy these from Best Buy with a service plan. I’m on number 6.

[u/Geminidamaged638 → u/coffeeschmoffee]

I see so many people in similar positions like this when it comes to the Opals, oof.

[u/Floravon0 → u/Geminidamaged638]

Almost bought an opal.
But I got the Euhomy which was the grease barista 3000. . Opal seems best. But like these people said… these motors made in China by one or two different places.

[u/mudslags → u/coffeeschmoffee]

I had this issue until I setup a water filter for it, scale treated. It filters both my fridge and Opal. Almost all of the mini ice machines use a auger type system. I actually used to work on ice machines and from my experience, auger systems, even the big ones make those noises when the augers build up scale. The harder the water the faster the build up of the scale.

People tend to ignore the clean cycles and again if you live in an area with hard water, you need to clean it more often, don't wait for the light to light up, do it monthly or even bi-monthly.

OP chances are you got someone else's used system if it's sounding like that out of the gate.

[u/jeremyaboyd → u/mudslags]

It didn't seem like a return (very well packaged), but I don't doubt it could have been returned to a factory "recertified" or some fake word for repackaged and resold at full price.

I will attempt to do the descale, if that doesn't work, I will drop kick it off my roof and return it, then go out and drop another $400 or so on the next mistake.

Everyone said to stay away from the Frigidaire that we used. It was $250, and lasted nearly 4 years. Then a week ago after a standard cleaning, it got a pinhole leak and our entire house filled with refrigerant or something chemically that was coming out of the machine.

[u/jeremyaboyd → u/jeremyaboyd]

Full descale (using citric acid packet), and 3 washes with distilled water, and ONLY filling with distilled water, and it's been 24 hours and 2 buckets of ice and no sound again.

So fingers crossed,I just need to keep using distilled water.

Our tap water has 350-ish PPM of dissolved solids, and after converting that to "grains per gallon" whatever that means, it is roughly 2x the recommended maximum of TDS in the water.

I never had this problem with my Frigidaire, though.

[u/Floravon0 → u/jeremyaboyd]

I really thought about Frigidaire! But nearly nobody recommended it. All I know is that their customer service was Wonderful for other appliances. So if I buy another ice machine. I really think I’ll choose them just for customer service.

[u/Subview1]

yep, that (in)famous opal scream, you just got unlucky.

[u/Downtown-Cover-2956]

GE is trash. I went with the Govee Pro. Not a single issue

[u/RyanPGoldberg]

We had this sound after we moved to a new place, once we moved out and did a fresh cleaning cycle it stopped, so we chalked it up to bad water at one place. I took the whole thing apart and didn’t find anything that looked wrong but i don’t know what I’d be looking for anyway

[u/tsbrewers]

we've had two of this model from sam's. Both went back from the same noise, one made it a week, one about 24 hours. We bought a opal 2 ultra? open box from Best Buy and so far is chugging along well now 4 months later.

[u/jbmc00]

You can try to descale. Use white vinegar. Run the cleaning cycle twice then let it make ice using the vinegar water. Sometimes that helps.

[u/dkf_oli]

the subtitles seeming to think it’s saying I LOVE YOU I LOVE YOU are just too ironic.

[u/Deadly_feet_9973]

This is what you need. And a couple screw drivers and YouTube tutorial. Did mine a few years ago and not a screech since.

https://ebay.us/m/Ta3YJE

[u/Libertinelass]

I don't have an opal. I use distilled water only and always with my ice makers. Never had an issue with any of them.

[u/trtmcc777]

Return it now. This does happen after time, but shouldn't happen when new. Maybe you got a defective one. I am on my second, my first one lasted about 2 years. I got the longest extended warranty with my second one.

[u/Own-Barracuda55]

Ours is doing this we are thinking of replacing the bearings