Hamilton Beach FlexBrew 49983 E03 Error

I recently picked up a Hamilton Beach FlexBrew (49983) at the thrift store for $8.  Not bad for a coffee maker that still costs $90 at Kohl’s, Target, Amazon, etc.

It worked when I plugged it in at the store, but after a thorough cleaning at home (without submerging!), when I plugged it back in, the display simply read E03.  Sometimes when you get these errors with various electronics, you can plug the machine in while holding down a button or combination of buttons, and the machine will reset itself.  I tried all kinds of combinations, and while I could get the error to change to E08, I couldn’t make it go away.

I assumed the error was a result of water getting in somewhere it shouldn’t have while cleaning the coffee maker, so I waited several days for the unit to dry out.  After three days, the E03 error persisted.

There is no information regarding this error (or any error) on the Hamilton Beach website, and from what I can glean from reports from customers who have contacted Hamilton Beach directly, they won’t tell you what any of the error codes mean.  It seems like Hamilton Beach should post a list of error codes so that people (or at least technicians) can diagnose what is wrong.

Since I couldn’t find any information on the web, I tore the machine apart looking for loose wires or broken solder connections, but I found nothing.

However, while working on the machine, some strange combination of actions “released” a bunch of water from the spout on the single cup side.  The water had not come out when I simply turned the machine upside down, but when I turned the machine over and over while looking for screws to open it up, I must have turned it in a way that allowed the water to come out.

So… it would seem the E03 error has something to do with water being trapped in a reservoir or tube somewhere, and that water can’t be drained simply by turning the machine upside down.  Thus, the “fix” is to turn the machine over and over in all directions,  until water comes pouring out of the single serve side spout.

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Fixing a Samsung Ice Maker

One of the most popular posts on this blog is the “How to Defrost a Samsung Ice Maker” post.  In that post I outline how to defrost your Samsung Ice Maker using a “secret code” on your control panel.  You shouldn’t need to do that every week, but a lot of people do, because the Samsung SZAB001TA1 ice maker (which exists in refrigerators like the RF263BEAEW) had serious issues when it left the factory.

Fortunately, the issues can be remedied.  Unfortunately, Samsung is keeping the information under wraps, and it is extremely difficult to find any information on the subject.  Hopefully this post will help those of you looking for answers.

So first, here again are the steps for defrosting your Samsung Ice Maker using the control panel on the front of your fridge:

1. On the front panel display, press the Energy Saver and Refrigerator buttons at the same time for 8 seconds.  The display will switch to the Test Mode and the display will go dark (all buttons, etc., will go dark) .
2. Press any button within 15 seconds after the display has gone dark to scroll through the Test Modes as follows:
   • Manual operation 1 (FF)
   • Manual operation 2 (0F-r)
   • Manual defrost of fresh food compartments (rd)
   • Manual defrost of fresh food and freezer compartments (fd)
   • Cancel (display goes completely dark)

“fd” is the one you want.  The defrost mode will cause the refrigerator to beep the entire time it’s in effect (pretty annoying) and will shut off after five minutes (I had to do it quite a few times to thaw everything out).

When the Geek Squad Tech came to fix our ice maker, he also used a hair dryer to speed things up, but be careful if you go this route as you can actually melt the plastic housing and components and cause greater issues than you had before by deforming the plastic in your ice maker.

There are four things that need to be changed to make this ice maker work properly.

1. The water fill tube needs to be adjusted.
2. The thin gap between the refrigerator wall and the ice maker housing (bottom side of ice maker against fridge wall) needs to be sealed.
3. The ribs surrounding the ice room fan air duct need to be removed with a utility knife (they cause water to puddle in the duct).
4. Foam should be installed on to of the ice maker housing around the water fill inlet.
5. If you have an older control board, the control board should be upgraded.

These issues are covered in a service bulletin that went out to Samsung Service Techs.  I got to take a look at the four page PDF, but our tech was nervous about getting in trouble if I actually posted the document on the web, so he only let me look at the doc. on his phone.

Since then, the document has found it’s way to the web.  An anonymous user actually posted the Service Bulletin document number in the comments of my original post on this issue.  So now I have a copy of the PDF here: ASC20150717001 (if you don’t trust the link, just search the doc. title on Google). 

Looking at the service bulletin is the easiest way to address everything, but I’ll lay things out here as well (though in less detail).

So, issue #1, the fill tube.  In the back of your Samsung fridge you can see the fill tube sticking out the back of the refrigerator.  This tube has a tendencey to slip, and after that happens water starts pouring all over the ice maker instead of just into the ice tray.  Thus, the first step in fixing your ice maker is making sure this tube goes where it’s supposed to, and then making sure it stays put.  Oddly enough, the tube often slips to far in (not out) and causes water to splash all over the place, so usually you have to actually back the tube out a bit and then secure it.

Issue #2.  This is an easy fix.  Simply take a tube of silicone and seal the gap.  It seems hard to believe this would be an issue, but I guess it’s why Samsung didn’t catch the problem earlier, and it really makes a difference.

Issue #3. (see service bulletin)

Issue #4.  With the entire ice maker out of the refrigerator, cut a thin strip of foam and glue it (silicone works well) around the perimeter of the water inlet area.  See photo below.

Issue #4.  When I got fed up with Samsung “tech” (really just a bunch of people who have NO IDEA what they’re talking about reading scripts on the phone) and went to Best Buy and they put me on the phone with a Geek Squad guy in Minnesota who REALLY knew what he was doing, he listened to what I had to say, realized I had done some research and figure out what was going on, and thus just ordered every possible part that might need to be replaced to fix the issue and had them all sent directly to my house so the parts would already be there when the tech arrived.  Freaking fantastic.  One of the things that got sent was a new controller board.  The board has a lot more ports and resistors and what not.  I took a photo of the new board, but I’m having a hard time locating it.  Here is a photo of the OLD board.

For what it’s worth, Samsung “customer support” is not support at all.  I spent hours and hours going through the same process over and over again (the person on the other end insisting on reading their script and asking me irrelevant, inane questions ad nauseum).  Each time, they would tell me someone would call me back soon, and each time, after a couple of days I would call back and there would be no evidence that I had ever called and the number I had been given was linked to no information whatsoever.  It was pretty infuriating.  I had to laugh when weeks after the matter was resolved (via Geek Squad, NOT Samsung) I received a letter from Samsung asking if I would like to purchase extended warranty services from them.  Unbelievable.

Some additional photos of the ice maker problems and fixes…

How to Defrost a Samsung Ice Maker

[UPDATE 8-29-16]: The solution, sent out to all Samsung service Techs in a bulletin, is in the new post on this subject here.

If you have a Samsung refrigerator with the SZAB001TA1 ice maker, you have a problem.

We recently purchased a French door refrigerator by Samsung (RF263BEAEWW) from Best Buy (heavily discounted as scratch and dent, $1,200 instead of $2,300… plus all the extra money for the extended warranty, etc.).  As usual, I researched this major purchase for weeks, and drove around to just about every major appliance store and outlet in Denver to see what I could find on scratch-and-dent-deep-discount.

While this fridge was the best rated fridge available (currently there seems to be a dearth of decent refrigerators on the market), it’s still had it’s issues, especially in regard to the compressor being astoundingly loud for a new refrigerator.  The biggest problem we’ve encountered so far is that it started making a “churning” or “chugging” noise and I quickly realized it was the fill pump for the ice maker.  The defrost was not working correctly and an ice dam was blocking the fill flow, thus the pump just kept trying to pump in water without ever quitting.  Not only was the noise extremely annoying, but it was going to destroy the pump if left to continue.

Evidently the ice makers in these units are HORRIBLE, and the circuit board that controls them is also awful (and fails if you look at it wrong).

Calling Best Buy gets you nowhere, as they will only direct you to the manufacturer if the appliance is still under manufacturer’s warranty.  Trying to get someone to come check out an appliance via Samsung will make you feel like you live in cold war Russia (trying to talk to the right person, trying to get someone to come to your house, getting scheduled for a visit more than a month out, etc.).

Rather than wait for someone to come fix it while putting up with the awful noise and having the pump fail completely while we waited, I ended up doing it myself, and that started with figuring out how to defrost the ice maker without having to turn off the fridge (and thus empty all the contents).

Here are the steps:

1. On the front panel display, press the Energy Saver and Refrigerator buttons at the same time for 8 seconds.  The display will switch to the Test Mode and the display (all buttons, etc.) will go dark.
2. Press any button within 15 seconds after the display goes dark to scroll through the Test Modes as follows:
   • Manual operation 1 (FF)
   • Manual operation 2 (0F-r)
   • Manual defrost of fresh food compartments (rd)
   • Manual defrost of fresh food and freezer compartments (fd)
   • Cancel (display goes completely dark)

“fd” is the one you want.  The defrost mode will beep while in effect (pretty annoying) and will shut off after five minutes (I had to do it quite a few times to thaw everything out).

Once the majority of the stuck-to-the-unit ice was thawed, I used a screw driver to carefully dislodge all the ice, then completed melted any chunks I couldn’t remove by hand with a hair dryer.  Finally I blew out the ice maker with an air compressor to remove any remaining droplets/moisture so it wouldn’t build up ice crystals once the unit was back on.

I’m not happy about this issue, and I really hope it doesn’t continue to happen, as returning a refrigerator is going to be a major pain (all the doors and drawers had to be removed to fit through the front door and kitchen door, not to mention the hassle of scheduling the process and storing food in the interim).

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UPDATE 1-11-16: The ice maker is more of a problem than I had originally anticipated –more specifically, the way the ice maker is unable to defrost/thaw in an efficient manner).  There is a fairly permanent puddle in the bottom of the refrigerator, and often there is so much water it pours out of the front and onto the floor (and also into the bottom freezer, creating giant chunks of ice and icicles).  In fact, the water coming from the ice maker has ruined our floor (woke up one morning with a giant puddle on the floor that warped the floating cork, and I’m sure there is now mold under the flooring).

Here are some photos of the madness:

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UPDATE 1-17-16: The Samsung Ice Maker has failed again.  The genius who designed it decided that the defrost cycle, which happens on a regular basis, should drain directly into… the bottom of the ice maker housing.  Thus, this next time our ice maker failed (again, pouring water all over the floor and further damaging the cork flooring), the ice tray also froze completely shut, meaning I couldn’t get the ice maker drawer out without first thawing the ice maker (which meant the thawing ice had nowhere to go except all over the place).  There was nearly a full 1/2” solid sheet of ice holding the ice drawer to the bottom of the ice maker housing.  I spent around 2 hours fixing the problem tonight, and I have a feeling this is only going to get worse.  I really don’t want this refrigerator anymore.