--- title: "U-Line: Three lamps on the ice machine flicker twice, over and over" description: "U-Line: Three lamps on the ice machine flicker twice, over and over: u-Line — an indicator rather than a code. The machine is asking to be cleaned." url: "https://ulinemiami.support/error-codes/signal-cleaning-signal-three-lamps/" date_modified: "2026-08-30" Appliance type: "Ice machines, Ice makers" --- # U-Line: Three lamps on the ice machine flicker twice, over and over ### What the appliance is actually doing The machine is asking to be cleaned. The maker’s own description: after a cumulative six months of ice making, the ice, no water and drain lamps each flicker twice sequentially, and the flickering continues until the cleaning function is performed. It is a service reminder on a timer, not a failure — but ignoring it for long enough turns into one, because scale is what stops these machines. ### Quoted rather than interpreted > After cumulative 6 months of ice making, the machine will signal that is time to run a cleaning cycle. On the display, the ice, no water, and drain lamps each flicker twice sequentially. The flickering lights continue until the machine's cleaning function is performed. From Cleaning Signal, in a User Guide & Service Manual downloaded from U-Line’s own site. Nothing on this page is decoded beyond what that sentence says. ### What to do about it - Count the lamps. Three, flickering twice each in turn, is the cleaning signal and nothing else on this machine looks like it. - Run the cleaning cycle with the maker’s own ice machine cleaner. The manual is explicit that other cleaners can damage the machine, and this is one of the places where that warning is worth taking literally — the wrong chemical in a nugget machine reaches the auger and the evaporator. - The cycle is about ten minutes of automatic cleaning, draining and refilling, and then a rinse. Plan on the machine being out of use for the afternoon. - In Miami the six-month interval is optimistic if the machine is on hard water. A machine that scales visibly between cycles wants a filter as well as a cleaning. ### Where this goes next The job this usually becomes is [ice machine cleaning and descaling](/services/ice-machine-cleaning-and-descaling/), and every one of those pages carries a starting figure and the reasons that move it. If it turns out to be nothing — and on this make a real share of these are modes rather than problems — the visit ends there and you pay the diagnostic and nothing else, or call [(305) 851-2207](tel:+13058512207) and describe what the display is doing before booking anything. People searching **u line nugget ice maker error code 11** and its neighbors are often looking at this instead — lamps flickering rather than a number. Nugget ice machines What the machine is telling you What the appliance is actually doing The machine is asking to be cleaned. The maker’s own description: after a cumulative six months of ice making, the ice, no water and drain lamps each flicker twice sequentially, and the flickering continues until the cleaning function is performed. It is a service reminder on a timer, not a failure — but ignoring it for long enough turns into one, because scale is what stops these machines. Quoted rather than interpreted After cumulative 6 months of ice making, the machine will signal that is time to run a cleaning cycle. On the display, the ice, no water, and drain lamps each flicker twice sequentially. The flickering lights continue until the machine's cleaning function is performed. From Cleaning Signal, in a User Guide & Service Manual downloaded from U-Line’s own site. Nothing on this page is decoded beyond what that sentence says. What to do about it Count the lamps. Three, flickering twice each in turn, is the cleaning signal and nothing else on this machine looks like it. Run the cleaning cycle with the maker’s own ice machine cleaner. The manual is explicit that other cleaners can damage the machine, and this is one of the places where that warning is worth taking literally — the wrong chemical in a nugget machine reaches the auger and the evaporator. The cycle is about ten minutes of automatic cleaning, draining and refilling, and then a rinse. Plan on the machine being out of use for the afternoon. In Miami the six-month interval is optimistic if the machine is on hard water. A machine that scales visibly between cycles wants a filter as well as a cleaning. Where this goes next The job this usually becomes is ice machine cleaning and descaling, and every one of those pages carries a starting figure and the reasons that move it. If it turns out to be nothing — and on this make a real share of these are modes rather than problems — the visit ends there and you pay the diagnostic and nothing else, or call [(305) 851-2207](tel:+13058512207) and describe what the display is doing before booking anything. People searching u line nugget ice maker error code 11 and its neighbors are often looking at this instead — lamps flickering rather than a number. --- **[Read full article: U-Line: Three lamps on the ice machine flicker twice, over and over](https://ulinemiami.support/error-codes/signal-cleaning-signal-three-lamps/)**