Answers · Tacoma and South Sound water
Is Well Water Across the Narrows Hard on an Ice Maker?
The short answer
It can be: pressure first, since Sub-Zero links ice that keeps stopping on well water to pressure and suggests a booster or regulator, then minerals.
Check in this order
- Note whether the ice stops when the house draws a lot of water at once.
- Change the sediment or whole-house filter on the well system if it is due.
- Replace the refrigerator's water filter if its indicator is lit, and discard the next batch of cubes.
- Freeze a tray from the kitchen tap and compare its cubes with the ice maker's.
- Book a well test, asking about iron and manganese, which the health department links to stains and discolored water.
Past this line it is a technician's job Sub-Zero Repair Tacoma, (206) 472-1140
Behind the answer
Across the Narrows, from Gig Harbor to Fox Island, some houses draw from a well rather than a city main, and well pressure sags while the pump rests and climbs when it starts.
Sub-Zero also blames swings in water pressure at home for fill tubes that freeze over.
Minerals are the slower problem. The Designer installation guide requires an in-line filter on drawer ice makers where sediment runs high, and near the shore the health department warns that over-pumping can draw saltwater into a well.
Related questions
Should the ice maker have its own pressure booster?
Sub-Zero's advice when ice keeps stopping on a well is a pressure booster or regulator, worked out with a plumber. That is work on the house plumbing, not inside the refrigerator. For the ice maker side of the fault, call Sub-Zero Repair Tacoma on (206) 472-1140.
How often should a private well be tested here?
The Tacoma-Pierce County Health Department advises testing a single-family well for bacteria every year and for nitrate every three years. It also lists arsenic, lead, iron, copper and manganese as chemicals worth knowing about, since they can discolor water, stain fixtures or affect health.
- Signed
- Marta Fennimore
- Role
- Refrigeration technician — ice systems and water supply
- In the trade
- 12 years
- Holds
- EPA 608 certified
- Checked
- Sep 18, 2026