Ice-O-Matic GEM & MFI Ice Machine Bearing Diagnostics & Replacement

A customer calls for a broken ice machine and you have to figure out the cause and possibly swap out a part. If you aren’t sure what to inspect or how to even go about changing the component, you’ve come to the right place. We’re going over the steps for Ice-O-Matic GEM and MFI ice machine bearing diagnostics and replacement so you can figure out what’s wrong and how to fix it. 

Diagnostics

When trying to determine if there’s an issue with the ice machine’s bearing, consider the following:

• Inspect the lithium grease to verify an adequate amount is present. 
• Check both the bearing itself and the breaker it resides in for damages. 
• Inspect the auger if you’re determined the bearing has failed. Rubbing could be occurring that can lead to damages there as well. If this has occurred, scoring will be present on the auger. 

Replacement

• Step 1. Remove accessories – In order to gain access to the bearings, there’s a few things you need to remove. Start by removing and setting aside the hose. Then take off the clamp so you can remove the top cover. Then twist off the ice sweep and remove other surrounding accessories. 
• Step 2. Uncover the bearing – Use channel locks to remove the top cover from the bearing on the evaporator assembly. 
• Step 3. Remove the breaker – You typically will replace the breaker and bearing together. So you don’t have to remove it from the breaker itself. To remove the breaker, you can either take off the top nut or the 4 screws with an allen wrench. The latter option will take the auger out with the breaker. 
• Step 4. Install the new breaker – Install the new breaker and bearing assembly. The OEM part should come as one piece. Reinstall by either securing the top nut or 4 screws depending on how you removed it. 
• Step 5. Button up the unit – To finish installing the new part, be sure to reinstall all  components in the reverse order they were removed.