Water dispenser lever on Frigidaire

My Frigidaire side by side is a little different from tech17's solution. It has no slots for a screwdriver to pry it off. It is a model FLSC23F6D55 manufactured 3/05. There is a semicircular spill tray in the bottom of the recessed water station. Just pry out the tray, from the bottom corner of the frame from the side and or bottom. (I did this with a knife blade.) This tray is a snap-in fit. Then you will see three phillips head screws in the bottom of the frame. Take out these three screws and remove the frame by lifting up on it and pulling out at the bottom. Then take out three more phillips mounting screws to remove the processor card and key pad. You will then see the top of the water lever mounting. The lever comes out by removing two more screws that hold the pivot shaft of the lever. (These last screws are a little more diffiucult to get to, but not anywhere near impossible.) I wish you well.

The directions from the other responders really helped me with replacing this lever!

However, I went thru two of these $70 parts before I realized the design had a basic flaw, it needs a "stopper" behind it. Just like a doorstop prevents a door from opening too far, a stopper behind the dispenser would prevent it from being pushed too far back. The water dispenser doesn't need to be pushed as far back as it can, and more importantly it shouldn't! This is compounded by the ice dispenser, which needs to be pushed all the way back to dispense the ice. Since people (kids) usually slam a cup into the ice dispenser, they are inclined to then slam it into the water dispenser too.
I fashioned a stopper out of soft rubber (black to match, of course) and expoxyed it to the back curve of dispenser shell just behind the water dispenser handle. There is about an inch between the dispenser handle and the rubber "stopper". Now when a cup is pushed into it it only goes back enough to 'click' the activator and dispense water. The rubber stopper blocks the dispenser from going any further than needed.

I detest Frigidaire and won't buy another one. We fixed our broken water lever using some of the tips here to get into the lever device. Once we had the lever apart from the mechanism - 3 screws for the outside cover, 3 screws for the inside assembly, and the final 2 screws for the tiny metal plates holding the water lever pins in their pivot place. I used superglue to set the two pieces together which broke right at the place where the black plastic met the clear plastic. I then used a 7/32" bit and a cordless drill to drill through the back of the lever that holds the LED bulbs to the back. I drilled two holes through just inside of the LED bulbs (so as not to cut through the bulbs). I used two finishing nails and pushed them through the two holes so that it looked like a splint on the back side of the lever. Then i put 5 minute epoxy on both the top of the nails and the bottom of the nails, so that the nails had lots of epoxy on them. The epoxy was on the back of the lever and is barely visible. Once the epoxy set, i just put it back together and left the LED connection from the lever disconnected (fearful of the drill causing a short). The thing is working great, and when the water is operated, the LED from the ice side is enough light to see anyhow. Frigidaire stinks, but if you take it apart, use epoxy and finishing nails and it will be better than a new part. Also, the hose was difficult to get back into the assembly, until I pulled the cover off of the bottom front of the fridge. This exposed the tube that comes up from the bottom. My wife pulled gently up from the top while i pushed the water tube up from the bottom to give us enough slack to reassemble the water system. without this slack, the re-assembly looked impossible, but once i had some slack, it went back together just fine. thanks to all of you for the help. the disassembly and reassembly tips from you people here sure helped me thru this. using epoxy and nails like a splint sure worked for me. i hope this helps someone else, but the best advice i could give anyone is buy something other than fridgidaire!!!

I am not inclined to screw in a lightbulb let alone replace a part on a frige but having Frigidaire appliances you (what a mistake buying this brand) demands you learn unless you are independently wealthy of cheap line I am. So the vaunted water lever when it breaks because of poor design. It really is easy to repair, take everything off including the panel, the white strip that attaches to the panel and the houseing unit itself. Stare at it for awhile and you will figure it out and save $175 service charge. BUT the most important thing is getting the dang water hose back into the little hole where the you press sgainst the lever. As someone on this site suggests (and I read this only after after losing 5 pounds of water wieght) and I qoute ...."the hose was difficult to get back into the assembly, until I pulled the cover off of the bottom front of the fridge. This exposed the tube that comes up from the bottom. My wife pulled gently up from the top while i pushed the water tube up from the bottom to give us enough slack to reassemble the water system. without this slack, the re-assembly looked impossible, but once i had some slack, it went back together just fine." BINGO make sure you follow this advice as well as the other tips provided herein and the mechanically challenged can make this repair.

Too many people having the same problem - our water dispenser lever broke too. Maybe complaints to Frigidaire will help us (or at leat send us a new part for free).

You can get the part at any appliance parts store just make sure you have the correct and complete mod number off the serial plate in the fridge compartment if i reamber right there are two slots at the bottom of the cover like little rectangles that a screw driver fits into and you gently pry it out then unplug any wires to the keypad set it down and can see the rest from there

I have the Frigidaire "Professional Series" PHSC239DSB5 ... nothing "Professional" about that dang'd water actuator/lever! HA! On my fridge, you can simply hook your fingernails under the bottom of the black plastic lip of the tray and pull out and up and it pops right out! Three Phillips screws are then exposed to remove the dispenser housing to gain access to the actuator/lever.

Just wondering ... does anyone think it might enhance the durability of a replacement lever to perhaps put a bead of epoxy along the backside of the lever where it breaks? Looks to me like there is plenty of clearance behind the lever.

Thanks so much for all the tips everyone! I was able to repair the water actuator lever on our Frigidaire using all this great advice, with just a few things: a phillips screwdriver, a $5.00 2-part epoxy kit good for metal and plastic, and three 1 1/2" finish nails with the heads cut off with metal shears, I used the epoxy to fuse the broken lever together. Then I bent the three nails using two needle-nosed pliers, so I didn't need to drill holes in the lever. I bent two nails in half at a right angle, and put two bends in the third nail. I attached the 2 nails with one bend each around the sides of the part on the back of the lever that sticks out. The third nail was bent with two right angles and attached with epoxy around the middle part of the back of the lever that sticks out. After the epoxy was dry, I added more reinforcing epoxy around the spot that had broken, and thoroughly covered all the nails with epoxy too. Then I let the whole thing dry overnight. The next morning it was clear this repaired lever was going to be strong and tough! I put everything back together, and it works like a charm! When I was taking everything apart initially, the ribbon cable came loose from the cover. I found it easier to re-attach by unscrewing the white rectangular piece it fits into. Taping the cover securely to the fridge doors with clear packing tape when re-assembling everything helped prevent the ribbon cable from crimping or coming loose again, and made it pretty easy to do it without any extra hands. I'm thrilled I didn't have to buy a new actuator lever, and thrilled I didn't have to pay the $250+ it would probably have cost for a repairman. If I can do this anyone can! I'm not at all mechanically-inclined, just frugally-motivated. Thanks again to all for the tips. Couldn't have done it without you! :) And, I doubt the lever will break again. The weak spot is more than twice as thick as it was before, and the three nails make it very sturdy. The epoxy hardens wonderfully well, and seems to be tougher than the original plastic. I would never have thought of reinforcing with nails, so thanks so much for that tip! Wish I'd taken a picture to share here so you could see how I did the nails, but hopefully I've described it well enough so any new folks will know it's not necessary to do any drilling to reinforce the lever with nails. So happy to find this site, and will refer to it again next time something around here breaks.

Go here:
http://www.appliancepartspros.com/partsearch/

Input your model # and parts diagram will be shown for different sections of your fridge. At least it was for my model PLHS269ZDB9.
They wanted $60 for that plastic lever; I just used super glue and then reenforced it with epoxy. Hopefully it will last a while.
There's nothing professional about these appliances. I also bought a convection oven with my fridge and after a year (warranty expired) door doesn't seal light is always on.

To fix the ice dispenser to go back to cube pull out the ice tray flip the lever at the back and reinsert tray

Steps above work great, but watch out for the green electric panel when you get in there. My left arm is still tingling form the shock. There is a warning on it, but I didn't see it and I am sure others might do the same.

If you have access to a 3D printer you can find an STL file that will let you 3D print a water dispenser lever repair part. See http://www.thingiverse.com/thing:28420 for more information and instructions on how to install this replacement part. The 3D design of this lever repair will work with some models of side by side door Frigidaire fridges.

Min dispenser lever also broke. Replacing this week. $70+ is a little rediculous for the part having to buy the whole assembly instead of being able to just replace a $5.00 lever.

I have had the ice problem with only giving crushed ice.

Fix Remove ice bin wash with warm water let dry.

put back in and make sure in the back of bin that the metal rod goes back into the slot in the freezer.

should fix it worked twice for me

I also found the most difficult part of getting the part back together was coaxing the water hose back into the hole once I was ready to reassemble. My solution was to take a machine screw of the right diameter and send it up through the plastic assembly into the water hose. I screwed it into the thick plastic water hose just enough for it to bite into the hose and to be able to pull it through the assembly when I had the processor card and keypad in place.

Hope that helps. I have fixed my arm 3 times now and it just broke again last night. I am going to try the rubber stopper on the back idea to keep the kids from breaking it by pushing too hard.

Woke up this morning and no ice or water will dispense from the unit. no lights on. just appears to be dead. however the ice maker is working; just not dispensing