Many people use home ice makers in the summer, and I do too — but cleaning has always been my biggest concern. I regularly wipe down visible areas including the water tank and run cleaning cycles, but black particles kept coming out no matter how much I cleaned, so I decided to disassemble it for a deep clean.

Why I Decided to Disassemble My Ice Maker

Black particles kept appearing in my ice maker even after I cleaned the visible areas and ran cleaning cycles. I decided to disassemble this unit to inspect areas I could not reach during routine cleaning. This experience does not establish that every small ice maker has the same structure or needs periodic disassembly by its user.

How to Disassemble and Clean the Ice Maker

Here’s how I disassembled and cleaned the ice maker. The steps below record what I did with my own unit. I have not verified that the same disassembly process applies to other brands or models.

First, to clean all the way to where the ice freezes, you need to disassemble the lid including the top control panel. On my ice maker, it’s held by two screws on top. I worked on the lid of this unit after removing the screws. This does not establish how the lid is fastened on other models. When you remove the lid, be careful — the wire connected to the control panel runs inside the ice maker. If it’s connected with a connector, disconnect it; otherwise, rest the lid slightly to the side so the wire isn’t strained.

Now that the top lid is separated, you can clean every corner all the way to the ice-making part. This area also gets dirty easily since hands don’t reach it much before disassembly, so I scrubbed it thoroughly with dish soap and a brush. Next, I removed the cover to clean the hose, which is the most important part. The cover comes off by loosening the screws at the bottom of the ice maker. One caution: since the compressor is inside, do not flip the ice maker over.

Opening the cover and looking inside, there’s a water hose connected at the back right of the product. Dark spots are already visible from here, which doesn’t bode well. I detached the hose from the water outlet side.

The other end of the hose is connected to the motor at the bottom on the opposite side. I detached the hose from the motor on this side too. It comes off easily with a slight pull.

I pulled the hose out for washing. There was a lot of black material inside the hose. Its appearance alone does not establish whether it was mold or identify its composition. I focused the cleaning on this area, but I did not verify that the hose was the only source of the particles. I wanted to disassemble and clean the motor too, but it’s fixed too deep inside, requiring more disassembly steps, and I’d have to take the motor itself apart to clean everything inside — so I decided not to clean the motor.

So What About the Motor?

I did not disassemble or clean the motor, so I have not inspected its interior. I mentioned citric acid as a possible next step, but I have not verified that it is suitable for this model or that it cleans or disinfects the motor. The follow-up below records the result after reassembly and running the unit again. It does not document whether citric acid was used or provide a separate test of cleaning or disinfection effects.

Follow-Up: Running It Again After the Deep Clean

After reassembling the unit and running it again (verified October 21, 2026), the black particles that used to keep appearing are no longer coming out, and the ice maker is working normally. The disassembly deep clean did solve the black-particle problem in my case.