Samsung DA97-07365G Ice Maker Review: a straightforward fix for dead Samsung fridges

I’ll be honest: I only learned the part number DA97-07365G because my Samsung fridge suddenly decided it was done making ice. Water dispenser worked, freezer was fine, but the ice bin stayed empty for days. Classic Samsung story from what I’ve read. Instead of calling a repair guy for a crazy bill, I tried the DIY route with this OEM ice maker assembly.

My fridge is one of the supported models in the long RF/RFG list (mine is RF4287HARS). The old ice maker had the classic symptoms: ice stuck in the tray, no harvest cycle, and eventually it just gave up. After some YouTube digging, this exact part number kept coming up as the go-to replacement, so I ordered it and blocked off 30 minutes thinking it might be a headache.

In practice, the swap was a lot less scary than I expected. A couple of screws, a connector, slide the old one out, slide the new one in. I’m not a technician, just reasonably handy, and it still felt manageable. No special tools beyond a screwdriver. I didn’t have to disassemble half the fridge, which I appreciated.

Once installed, it took around half a day before I started hearing ice drop again. I tossed the first couple of bins just to be safe, then we were back to normal use. So this review is basically my honest take after using the new ice maker for a while: how it works day to day, what’s good about it, what’s annoying, and whether it’s worth the money compared to trying to patch the old unit with a cheap thermal fuse.

On value, you basically have three options when your Samsung ice maker dies: 1) pay a repair tech, 2) buy this OEM part and DIY, or 3) try to fix the old one with a cheap thermal fuse. I skipped the repair tech route after seeing the typical service call prices. One visit can easily cost as much or more than this whole OEM assembly, and they’ll probably just install the same part anyway.

Buying this DA97-07365G and doing it myself felt like a decent middle ground. The price isn’t low, but considering it brought my fridge back to full functionality, I can live with it. The Amazon ratings around 4.5/5 and people saying it installs in about 5 minutes match what I saw. If you’re even a little handy and can follow a video, paying someone else to do this particular job feels like wasting money.

Now, if you’re really trying to save every dollar, that thermal fuse fix the one reviewer mentions is a legit option. The fuse itself costs a fraction of this assembly, but you have to open the unit, solder or crimp the new fuse, and be comfortable poking around inside. For most people, that’s more hassle than it’s worth. I went with the full replacement because I wanted a plug-and-play solution and to minimize the chance of messing something up.

So in terms of value for money, I’d call it “good but not a bargain”. You’re paying a fair price for an OEM part that fits perfectly and restores your fridge, not scoring some cheap upgrade. If your alternative is buying a new fridge or paying a tech, it suddenly looks like a pretty sensible expense.

Design-wise, this thing is basically a clone of the original unit that came with the fridge. Same white plastic housing, same style of metal ice tray, same general layout. If you’re hoping for a redesigned version that fixes all the long-term issues Samsung had with these ice makers, don’t expect miracles. It’s more of a like-for-like swap than a new generation product.

The good part of the design is the fit. The mounting points line up, the harness connector is exactly the same, and the unit slides into place cleanly. No forcing, no trimming plastic, no messing with wires. The little tab to remove the ice tray is in the same spot, and the whole assembly is shaped to work with the existing housing and ducting in the freezer. That makes replacement pretty straightforward if you follow a guide or a YouTube video.

On the downside, the known design flaw some users mention is still there. There’s a thermal fuse inside that can fail, and when it goes, the tray may still have ice in it but the ejector won’t cycle. That’s exactly what happened to my old one. One Amazon reviewer even explains how to swap just that fuse instead of buying the whole assembly. So you’re basically buying the same design that might fail the same way after a bunch of years, not some reinvented version.

In practice, I see it this way: the design is functional but not brilliant. It fits perfectly, it doesn’t rattle, and it looks like it belongs. But it’s also not the most robust design for the long haul. If you’re okay with that tradeoff and just want to get the fridge working again without tearing into electronics, it’s acceptable. Just don’t expect long-term engineering perfection.

Durability is the tricky part with this product. My original ice maker lasted close to 10–12 years before it died, which is fair but not impressive for a refrigerator component. From what I’ve read and from that detailed Amazon review, the main weak spot is the thermal fuse inside the unit. When that fails, your tray can still have ice, but the ejector stops and things just sit there.

This replacement unit seems to use the same internal design, so I’m not expecting some miracle lifespan. I’m treating it as a part that will probably need to be replaced again someday, or repaired with a cheap fuse if I want to bother. The good news is that now that I know how to remove it, it’s about a 5–15 minute job instead of a mystery. I’d feel comfortable opening it up and swapping the fuse next time if it fails the same way.

Physically, the build quality looks fine. The housing plastic isn’t brittle, the moving parts feel tight, and the connector is solid. I didn’t see any loose screws or sloppy molding. It doesn’t feel premium, but it doesn’t feel like a toy either. For a one-pound assembly that sits inside a cold compartment and just cycles all day, it’s acceptable. The fact that Samsung hasn’t discontinued it and it’s still sold as an OEM part says something: it’s at least reliable enough for them to keep pushing it.

Overall, I’d rate durability as “pretty solid but with a known failure point”. If you expect it to last forever, you’ll be disappointed. If you see it as a consumable part that might need replacing every several years, it’s fine. And since the installation is simple, the annoyance factor is more about the cost than the hassle of swapping it.

On performance, I looked at three things: how fast it makes ice, how loud it is, and how stable it is over a few weeks. From a cold start after installation, I started getting usable ice in about 10–12 hours. That’s pretty standard for these Samsung units. Once it’s in a steady rhythm, the bin fills up over the course of a day and then just cycles to maintain the level.

Noise-wise, you still get the usual ice maker sounds: the water fill, the crackling when the cubes release, and the clunk when the cubes drop into the bin. It’s not silent, but it’s no worse than the original. If your kitchen is open to a living room, you’ll hear it, but it’s background noise, not something that wakes you up at night. There’s no grinding or weird mechanical squeal on mine, which is what I was listening for.

In terms of stability, I haven’t had any strange cycles, partial fills, or frozen-over messes. I’ve left the freezer door open longer a couple of times while organizing food, and the unit went back to normal after things cooled down. No massive frost build-up in the ice area so far. That said, I still follow the basic rules: decent door seals, not blocking the vents, and not cranking the freezer temperature too high.

Realistically, the performance is “good enough” rather than impressive. It’s not faster than other brands I’ve used, but it’s not slower either. The big win is that it behaves predictably. If your old unit was stopping randomly or dropping half-melted chunks, you’ll notice the difference right away. It just quietly does its cycles in the background and keeps the bin stocked.

This is not some fancy gadget. The DA97-07365G is just the full ice maker assembly you find sitting in the top-left of the Samsung French-door freezer compartment (or in the ice box in the fridge section, depending on model). It comes as one piece: the ice tray, the motor mechanism, the housing, and the wiring plug. No extra accessories, no instructions in my box, just the part in protective packaging.

It’s an OEM Samsung part, not a generic clone. That matters mostly for fit and for not having to improvise with brackets or connectors. The rating on Amazon is around 4.5/5 with a couple thousand reviews, which lines up with my experience so far: it works, but the design itself isn’t perfect and has a history of failures. You’re basically buying a direct replacement for a known weak spot on these fridges.

Specs-wise, it runs on 120V and pulls about 145 watts, but you never really see that in day-to-day use. Capacity-wise, it makes standard crescent ice cubes, 9 at a time. It’s meant for a list of Samsung RF/RFG models, and that list is long. If your model is in that list, the plug and mounting points should line up exactly. In my case, it clicked in without any weird gaps or bending.

So in short: you’re not buying a new feature, you’re buying your old fridge back to normal. No added smart functions, no app, no extra settings. It’s a simple mechanical/electrical replacement that either fits and makes ice, or it doesn’t. That’s actually what I wanted: something that just does the job without extra hassle.

This is where it matters: does it make ice consistently? In my case, yes. After installation, I gave the fridge a few hours to stabilize. Sometime overnight, I started hearing the familiar cracking and dropping noises. By the next day, the bin was filling up at a normal pace. The cubes are the standard crescent shape, same size as before, and the dispenser works like it did when the fridge was new.

Output-wise, it’s not crazy fast, but that’s normal for these fridges. For a family of four using ice throughout the day, it keeps up fine as long as you’re not constantly filling coolers. After a couple of weeks of daily use, I haven’t had any jams or half-frozen cubes. The water fill cycle and the harvest cycle both seem timed correctly, and I haven’t had leaking or water running down into the freezer.

Compared to the dead original, obviously it’s night and day. Compared to a brand-new fridge with a modern ice system, it’s just solid, nothing special. The key is that it’s reliable enough so far. No random resets, no mysterious clunking, and I’m not having to hit the test button all the time. I just hear it drop a batch every so often and the bin stays topped up.

If I have one concern, it’s the long-term track record of this design. My original made it nearly a decade before dying, which is not great but not horrible either. I’d be happy if this one gives me another 5–7 years. For now, in terms of pure effectiveness, it does exactly what I wanted: restore automatic ice without me babysitting it or refreezing trays manually.