Welcome to the Grok Shop! In this video I'll be doing a repair on an LG
refrigerator model LFX25973ST.
Specifically, I'll be making a repair to the ice &water dispenser area, where the ice
dispenser flap gets stuck in the open position.
For this project I did reference the LG Owner's Manual & LG Service Manuals
They weren't all that useful for this particular project,
but for other projects they might be more useful. I'll provide links to these
below. OK, to get started we want to switch off the indoor ice maker and
remove the indoor ice bin. Now for most refrigerator repairs you want to unplug
the refrigerator before starting the service. In this case I'm leaving it
plugged in because I need power in order to test out the mechanism. Also since the
flap is stuck in the open position, I took a towel and stuffed it down the
chute to keep some of the cold air from escaping. Probably the most challenging
part of this project is removing that front dispenser panel assembly very
carefully and without breakage this is a quote I found on the appliantology
website where they're saying LG said it's okay if some plastic tabs break off
in this process so, you take that for what it's worth but I'll link this below so
you can see for yourself here's the applicable bit from the LG service
manual it's me it looks like they switched up two photos here but they
recommend start pulling from the right side of the dispenser that didn't work
for me after removing the drain I found it helpful to take a paint scraper and
put some tape on the end slip that into the seams at the bottom and then just
start tugging at the bottom until you hear kind of a pop and then I worked my
way around towards the right and the top by using this approach I didn't lose any
tabs although a couple of them look like they had been stressed a bit but overall
it's pretty disappointing LG didn't design the refrigerator to afford better
access to service this dispenser area
a final piece of the puzzle the dispenser flapper when it's open will
interfere with the removal of the panel so you actually have to stick your
fingers up through the chute and get that flapper out of the way in order to
get it all the way open I didn't want to disconnect any of the assembly controls
so I just propped the assembly up to the side so I could still access those
controls in order to do the Diagnostics although this fridge is only about 5
years old there's a lot of mold and mildew all of this should be cleaned up
as part of the repair process straight away after removing the dispenser
assembly I can see there's a problem with a screw post and this appeared to
be directly connected to the flapper control arm assembly so with that post
broken the screw had actually shifted off to one side and I just slipped it
back over into the right position and what do you know right away the flapper
closes so it looks like that'll be the first order of business to make that
repair but before starting the repair I think it's a good time to do the clean
out your hard plastic surfaces are going to be very easy to clean
however the rubber material of the flap itself is very difficult to clean I
ended up soaking it in Bleach overnight and that seemed to do the trick for me
also I did find a little bit of mold and mildew around this clear plastic chute
on the inside of the dispenser assembly so I went ahead and cleaned this too so
by observing the motor action pinning the screw down with my finger and using
a screwdriver to simulate the motor it quickly became obvious this was in fact
the root cause of the flap issue so next I just wanted to get the old screw and
the broken post piece out so looking carefully at the base of this broken
post I noticed there's still a pretty good bit of material left to work with
there now there's a few different ways you can deal with these broken posts but
since there's a lot of material at the base I figure a longer screw is going to
be the easiest option to use the longer screw method you really want to match
the threads if at all possible because if you try to use bigger threads you
could end up breaking the plastic I had another screw that was a little bit
longer with the same threads but it wasn't really quite long enough I want
to make sure I've got enough to grab hold off there so I went ahead and got a
new bag of number four screws had to buy 22 of them but it was only like a buck
50 in order to get better access to this broken post area I decided to remove
this metal retaining clip which holds that upper rod in place which is sort of
the pivot rod for the whole assembly this allows you to move that rod sort of
up and out of the way so we can get access to the area as needed because of
the way it fits together I still need that little broken piece and so what I
decided to do was to just drill it out and make it into kind of a standoff and
I just chose the bit that was just big enough so this
with the right threads which slide easily right through there without
making it any bigger in case you're wondering I was using crimpers to hold
it because when I tried to use the vise it was putting a little too much
pressure on it and kind of oval izing the hole and I didn't want that I want
to keep the hole perfectly round for the screw when putting the standoff back on
I want to line up the base with the broken piece just as they were where
they broke off so it fits nice and flush and I started to use super glue but I
decided not to because I didn't want the superglue bonding the screw with the
base part in case it ever needed to come out I thought it could break it or
something so I just screwed it straight in with no glue at all
now I'm screwing in the retainer flange and then I'm just going to test it out
manually make sure that everything moves correctly and then I'll test it out
using the control from the dispenser panel okay with the flap controller now
operational I'll go ahead and reassemble the flap itself the flap consists of
three pieces a piece of styrofoam which goes into this hard plastic shell and
then the rubber surround so now I'll just reattach the flap to the flap
control arm and then test it all out using the dispenser control panel
next I did a first cut trying to reinstall the dispenser assembly and
then ran it to a problem and wouldn't go in eventually I figured out the plastic
chute here the clear one that I removed and clean had some interference it just
wasn't quite seated in there just right and it's not super obvious but there's a
couple tabs right above where the screws go in those tabs have to be seated
properly or you'll just have like one or two millimeters of interference but
that's enough to keep it from going in there okay so now with that clear chute
properly aligning the dispenser assembly should go in with relative ease the one
thing to watch out for is all the wiring there's a couple big wire bundles back
there and some additional wiring you want to make sure it doesn't also
interfere and it doesn't get pinched when you push the assembly back in there
that being said it's just a matter of applying even pressure all the way
around until you hear those lock tabs lock into position
okay next I'm going to go ahead and reinstall the drain then after this I'll
reinstall that upper ice bin and turn that icemaker back on also since this
unit has dual ice makers I took some ice from the lower ice maker and put it in
the upper bin so that I could test everything out so that's it for this
video I hope you found it helpful be sure to
stay tuned for more appliance repair videos but as far as repairing this
model LG refrigerator with the ice flap stuck open due to a broken screw post
that's how it's done