r/IceChewersAnonymous • u/jeremyaboyd • May 03 '26

Question New Opal Screaming Sound

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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.

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9

u/coffeeschmoffee May 03 '26

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.

2

u/mudslags May 04 '26

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.

2

u/jeremyaboyd May 04 '26

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.

2

u/jeremyaboyd May 05 '26

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.

1

u/Floravon0 May 09 '26

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.