Wasn't sure if it was the derost timer or the heating element. Since the timer was much cheaper, I bought it and crossed my fingers. My story is like the others. Unplug the refrigerator, snip the old wires, strip back the wire insulation, use the supplied connectors to attach the new defrost timer to the existing wiring. Success! My coils no longer freeze up. Only difficulty is I am a large guy, and fitting my upper body into the freezer was challenging.
Freezer was getting a build up of frost on the condenser and wasn't cooling.
First I remove the back panel which had 4 screws. Then I removed the ice maker. The icemaker is held in place by the 2 screws that requires backing the screws out just a litter, than lift up and remove the electrical connector. Used a volt ohm meter to check the resisitant in the heater element and the defrost timing switch. Both tested good and that left only the thermostat. Removed and replaced the thermastat swich. I cut the ends of the old switch and crimp the ends of wire with the crimps that came with the swict i purchased from parts select. My refrigerator is working properly and making ice like normal.
After the refrigerator stopped cooling, we determined that the problem was in the compressor area. we used a screwdriver to get the cover off and then vice grips to get the actual pieces out (start relay & overload)--they broke, but they were already broken). We went to the Home Depot site to purchase the parts, but found PartSelect to be much less expensive. Put the parts in when they came a few days later and it worked! thank you PartSelect!
tested defrost timer and heater. And then tested defrost timer with ohm test($6 at hard ware store) Closed and would not open replace and tested freezer take 30mins to get switch cold and retest.
A screw driver was used to remove two screws that held the old fan in place the new fan ws installed exactly where the old one came out and presto the job was complete. No major deal.
Freezer would not run ... replace the compressor start relay which fixed the problem
Pulled out the freezer. Unplugged. No freezer back cover was there. The compressor start relay was in a plastic encasement attached to the compressor - wires led me to it. Removed the solid metal spring with a screwdriver and removed the plastic cover. Tried to pull out the defective relay but the freezer was so old I needed a pliers to remove it. When I put pressure on the old relay with the pliers the relay broke and came off in pieces. I then removed the wires from the broken parts and put them on the new relay. I pushed the new relay onto the 2 pins then replaced the cover and spring. After plugging the freezer in the problem was fixed.
I didn’t do the repair because the new motor had a female pigtail connector while the original motor has male connection. It came with wire clamps but didn’t want to cut wires to make repair. The pictures online show a male connection. Put the old motor back in and now it works fine.
Discovered the coil was covered with 1/2 inch of ice because defrost cycle had not been working. Replacing the defrost timer and melting ice with hair dryer fixed problem. Hooray!
Seal was old and cracking allowing condesate to rust the door
I should have read everyone else's experiences before attempting. I did view a youtube video and thought I had it set. However, if I had it to do over, the door would have been removed. The door shelf (inner door) taken off and cleaned before attempting to put the gasket on. I did it while the door was still attached and probably lost a good 45mns along with my fingers cramping, knee's flat spotting, and lower back catching fire. TAKE THE DOOR OFF if at all possible, you wont regret it.
There was no work to do. I just slipped the new drawer in. I'm writing because PartSelect was amazing. A rep on the phone helped me identify the part I needed--which was a substitute b/c the actual part isn't made anymore. The next day, the part arrived. I was blown away and want to acknowledge the great service.
