Ice maker with water quantity sensing

An ice maker comprising:

• a refrigeration system for cooling an ice forming surface below the freezing temperature of water,
• a water supply inlet,
• a water supply inlet valve arranged to admit water from the water supply inlet when in an open position and to prevent admission of water from the water supply inlet when in a closed position,
• a water collecting device connected to receive a supply of water directly from the water supply inlet and without the water first contacting the ice forming surface and arranged to separately receive a flow of water from the ice forming surface,
• a level sensor associated with the water collecting device to determine a level of water in the water collecting device,
• a recirculating pump having an inlet connected to the water collecting device and an outlet,
• a recirculating passage connected at a first end to the outlet of the recirculating pump and arranged to direct water toward the ice forming surface,
• a discharge pump having an inlet connected to the water collecting device and an outlet directed towards a drain, the recirculating pump and the discharge pump being one and the same,
• a control arranged to selectively operate the discharge pump based upon input from the level sensor indicating that a level of water in the water collecting device has been reduced to a predetermined value,
• a user interface associated with the control to permit a user to select different volumes of water to be admitted to the water collecting device through the inlet valve, and
• a valve on a downstream side of the pump, operated by the control, to selectively direct water from the pump to the ice forming surface when the level sensor indicates that a level of water in the water collecting device has been increased to a level conforming with the volume selected by the user or to a drain when the level sensor indicates that a level of water in the water collecting device has been reduced to a predetermined value.

An ice maker comprising:

• a refrigeration system for cooling an ice forming surface below the freezing temperature of water,
• a water supply inlet,
• a water collecting device connected to receive a supply of water directly from the water supply inlet and without the water first contacting the ice forming surface and arranged to separately receive a flow of water from the ice forming surface,
• a level sensor associated with the water collecting device to determine a level of water in the water collecting device,
• a recirculating pump having an inlet connected to the water collecting device and an outlet,
• a recirculating passage connected at a first end to the outlet of the recirculating pump and arranged to direct water toward the ice forming surface,
• a discharge pump having an inlet connected to the water collecting device and an outlet directed towards a drain, and
• a control arranged to selectively operate the discharge pump based upon input from the level sensor when the level sensor indicates that a level of water in the water collecting device has been reduced to a predetermined value, wherein the control includes a counter arranged to be incremented when a time within ice freezing routines is outside of a predetermined time range.

An ice maker comprising:

• a refrigeration system for cooling an ice forming surface below the freezing temperature of water,
• a water supply inlet,
• a water supply inlet valve arranged to admit water from the water supply inlet when in an open position and to prevent admission of water from the water supply inlet when in a closed position,
• a sensor arranged to determine a volume of water admitted through the water supply inlet,
• a control arranged to control a position of the water supply inlet valve based upon input from the sensor,
• a user interface associated with the control to permit a user to select different volumes of water to be admitted to a water collecting device through the inlet valve as sensed by the sensor,
• the water collecting device connected to receive a supply of water from the water supply inlet directly through the water supply inlet valve and without the water first contacting the ice forming surface and arranged to separately receive a flow of water from the ice forming surface,
• a level sensor associated with the water collecting device to determine a level of water in the water collecting device and communicating with the control,
• a recirculating pump having an inlet connected to the water collecting device and an outlet,
• a recirculating passage connected at a first end to the outlet of the recirculating pump and arranged to direct water toward the ice forming surface,
• a drain outlet in the water collecting device,
• a drain flow control device communicating with the drain outlet and operated by the control to selectively discharge water from the water collecting device through the drain flow control device when the level sensor indicates that a level of water in the water collecting device has been reduced to a predetermined value.