Scotsman CME256

[barecycles]

Greetings all! My first post here (I'm kinda new at this).

I've been asked to look at our church's ice machine (a Scotsman CME256). I pretty much a novice at this but feel obligated to look into it. Here's what i was told.
1. The water diagnostic light is flashing twice
2. The unit can be reset and it will produce one batch of ice but after that, nothing.

I checked the inlet water valve flow and it took about a minute to fill up a small styrofoam cup (8 oz?). It seems to have just a trickle. I check the inlet screen and it's clear. I do not see any other restriction in the line.

My question: Does it sound like the valve is the culprit? Not being an expert on these things it seems to me there is maybe enough water in the reservoir for one batch of ice but after that the flow is so slow it is not filling up. If anybody can comment on this please do.
Thanks!

[atozsvc]

Check the level eyes and clean it with Q tips and ice maker solution

[rayr]

Go here.

http://www.scotsman-ice.com/docs/upl...l/1-2PLTAW.pdf

[barecycles]

Thanks atoz, I will take you up on that.

Also, I did check the link rayr suggested an it indicates the inlet water valve should fill an 8oz cup in 3-4 seconds. The water flow coming out of our valve is nowhere close to that.

One other thing I forgot to mention. I've been told the solenoid at the valve is making a horrific buzzing sound. I personally have not heard it. I guess I'm gonna have to spend more time on this.

Thanks!

[the mojo]

The inlet H20 valve should between 20 with no more than 80 psig through the valve. Do you know incoming water pressure at your church ? The next thing to to check for residue or small solids that can get by the 80 mesh screen and lodge above the seat and collect in the spring assembly closing off water flow. There are 3 screws to remove after you pull the valve out. If its clean and you have proper power to the solenoid, then replace the valve.

[KB Cool]

If equipped with water filters when was the last time they changed them?

[DoctorIce]

Is it the water or the refrigeration light that is blinking? Two blinks of the water light means the reservoir didn't fill fast enough. The refrigeration light blinking twice is no ice sensed during harvest. From your post I suspect it is the water light so check water flow at the inlet to the solenoid valve. If there is good pressure then it will be either the water valve, the fill sensor, or the control board.

[barecycles]

I'll need to ask on the water filter...not even sure if there is one.

They tell me light was the water light and it was blinking twice, that's what led me to suspect the valve. I was not sure how fast these things are supose to fill up...the water exiting the valve is just a small trickle.

I'm going up there tomorrow and check out everybody's suggestions. Also, I see that I can retrieve the last 2 codes so I guess I'll do that as well and see if it is indeed the water light that is flashing.

thanks again!

[jonbailey19808]

I used to work on ALOT of scotsman's. Basically its going to be 1 of 2 things.

No water pressure (blocked water filter) or faulty water solenoid inlet valve.

If you cant check water pressure take the water line off back of machine (after closing the water valve!) and try draining it into a bucket. It should flow very quickly into the bucket.

[d_griff]

there SHOULD be filter,if there is and there are scotsman or generic equivilent,you can pull the filter out and there is two o-rings on the top of the fiter cartridge,you want to remove the second,smaller o-ring and re-insert the filter,it will bypass the filter and you can tell if that is the problem or not...you cannot have less then 20psi on a scotsman on fillup,it will never fill quick enough,yes rayr is correct,you shold fill an 8oz cup in 3-4 seconds,that comes from scotsman tech support themselves..

[tbk]

Dont get sucked in like I did!, When working on this machine and running it with the lid off you can produce a second (false) problem of no harvest, meaning the harvest light wont blink enough and it will shut down after the second batch!
The bin lights are light sensitive!!!!!!!!! had one factory tech support had me order and replace the eyes to find out nothing was wrong, second guy jumped right on the issue and got me going!
And all the other guys seem to be right on the problem with the water! also scotsman tech support is 24 / 7 now!!!!

[barecycles]

Well, problem solved.

Before replacing the water valve I checked the actual flow before entering the unit. Surprise!!! almost no flow. Appears there was a lot of crud in a couple of places upstream. Blew that out and had a strong flow of water. Ran machine with the old water valve and it was better but still not filling a cup in 3-4 seconds. Went ahead and put on the new water valve and got the flow I was looking for. We're making ice now.

I appreciate all the good advice and suggestions from the forum. This was good experience and as fun as ice machines are, I think I'll stick with working on motorcycles for a living.

Thanks!

[barecycles]

Well, hold on there cowboy...I just thought it as fixed. Last night before I left i sat thru 2 batches of ice. I thought all was well. Today someone at church said there was no ice and the off light was on and now the refrigeration light was blinking twice. Seems this is a harvest error. Can anyone provide me with some additional insight?

Thanks!

[KB Cool]

Well, hold on there cowboy...I just thought it as fixed. Last night before I left i sat thru 2 batches of ice. I thought all was well. Today someone at church said there was no ice and the off light was on and now the refrigeration light was blinking twice. Seems this is a harvest error. Can anyone provide me with some additional insight?

Thanks!

Call in a tech.

[barecycles]

Well, here's what I found. I went back and ran it through it's cycles. It ran 2 harvest cycles and threw a refrigeration error...flashing twice. The freeze cycle lasts about 25 minutes and the harvest cycles lasts exactly 10 minutes. From the documentation it seems the first harvest cycle is always 10 minutes but during that first cycle the system notes how long the ice falls and uses that as a baseline time (maybe I'm interpreting that wrong).

I thought I might have the same condition tdk mentioned earlier so I cleaned the eyes (I used Windex as I don't have any ice machine cleaner in my cycle shop :0...but again after the second harvest cycle the same double flashing refrigeration light.

Maybe I do need to call a tech (

[tbk]

you could still have a water problem!!! if the float is not set right it wont make ice thick enough and the bin eyes wont sense harvest! Think your prob at the end of your abilities now, might be time to call a IM tech!

[Diceman]

Check and see if the water shuts off after it goes into freeze.
The crud in the water line maybe stuck in the solenoid valve and water keeps going in.
That will keep bringing in warmer water and the freeze cycle will take forever and as a result, give you that error code.
It is an issue that is related to the initial problem.
If that's the case, change the solenoid valve.

[craig1]

watch to see if the "bin full" light blinks as ice falls during harvest. the light blinks as the eyes see ice fall. if the machine doesn't see any ice fall, it assumes no ice was made and locks out on a refrigeration error.

if the light doen't blink when the ice falls, clean the bin eyes with ice machine cleaner. if it still doesn't work, replace BOTH eyes

[barecycles]

Well gentlemen...here's the deal. I noticed one eye on the right hand side was slightly discolored and I could not get it any cleaner. I went ahead and replaced both sides and viola! Ice abounds now.

Again, thanks so much for all the input. This is a very helpful site.

[sdwebguy]

Hi everyone -- I found this thread via Google. Im not a technician, so please bear with me. I own a small cafe and we inherited a Scotsman cme256. This week, ice production fell sharply. It makes ice, but only a very small amount. We popped off the front panel, and the "bin full" light is rapidly flashing. We called a HVAC tech and he said the bin eyes were bad and needed to be replaced. (I wasnt there at the time to see where all he looked.) When I found the manuals on the Scotsman website, the diagrams dont even show where these are, so I dont know if I could just clean them myself. Anyhow, the tech said it would cost 600 dollars to replace them. Is this amount really correct? The machine fell out of warranty in 2004 and we have replaced the water and air filters to try to extend its life as much as possible.

Thanks,
Tim