🚀 go-pugleaf

Thank you to more than a dozen people who replied. I also did some web
searches, and learned about how the whole system works. There's even a
Haiku about this problem (see http://fixitnow.com/2003/10/mailbag-slow-flow-from-refrigerator.htm)

Fridge water flows slow.
Saddle tap or solenoid:
it's one of those two.

I am describing what I did to (mostly) fix the problem, in case
someone else faces the same issue.

1. I removed the plastic grille from the front (it requires that both
the fridge and freezer doors be fully opened). The plastic grille has
two tabs near the ends which are push fit in a grove. Thoroughly
vaccumed the underside with a shop vac!

2. There's a quick connector just under the door, behind the grille.
It looks like this: http://www.repairclinic.com/SmartSearch/SSPartDetail.aspx?PartID=563168&PPStack=1
I opened both ends of the quick connector. No water came out, and
pressing the dispenser button did not do anything. But the tubes
looked clean, no frozen water in there. Connected it back.

3. On the back of the fridge, near the bottom, partially hidden behind
a screwed-in cardboard cover, is the Dual Water Inlet Valve /
Solenoid. The best picture of this is here:
http://groups.msn.com/Appliantology/icemakers.msnw?action=ShowPhoto&PhotoID=107
The top is connected to copper tubing (coming from under the floor,
which is ultimately connected to the cold water pipe below the sink).
I already knew there was no problem with inet, so I did not open this.

4. Below, there are two plastic connectors, one for ice and one for
water. Ice one is on the left side (looking at it); water one is on
the right side, so I opened it. Some water drained out from tubing.
The power to solenoid connectors seemed a bit loose, so I pushed them
all the way in.

5. I placed a bowl under the dispense water side (right below the
solenoid), and asked my wife to active the dispenser. Success! Water
came. We tried it a few times. Then I connected the water dispenser
tubing below the solenoid.

6. Now the dispenser was working right away. We drained about 2
gallons of water, until the dispensed water was of the same temp as
from tap. All through the evening, the water dispenser worked fine.

So, problem fully solved? May be, may be not.

a. Doing some more research releaved that some people who have had
problem with this have tracked it down to the water freezing in
tubing.

b. However, I looked at the "water storage plastic coil thingy" behind
the vegetable tray -- basically, where the incoming water is chilled.
It has shape of three Us together, UUU, with the right side tilted up.
It seems that water enters on the right side, and moves on the left
side. The "bottom of the U" in the right most coil, looks gunky; the
middle U's bottom looks a bit less gunky; the left most U looks clear.
Water coming out is clear.

But I think the gunk is mineral deposits (we don't have a water
softener, we don't like the flat taste of water that has been
softened). Our local supply is not hard, so softening is not needed,
but thereis some mineral deposit.

(i) It is possible that somewhere in the tub there is gunk, or may be
not. The gunk settles at the bottom of the Us, so I think I am safe
there.

(ii) It is possible that once water dispenser is not used overnight,
or for a few days, some portion of tubing has frozen, or near frozen
water. Need to check for this.

(iii) it is possible that the solenoid / water inlet needs replaced.

At least I now understand how to fix it. I will post another update
after a week.

Bhoot Nath