Bimetal Defrost Thermostat - 6" Leads

Did the troubleshooting with online instructions and a multimeter. Bought the new thermostat. Disassembled the freezer compartment using a nut driver to expose the evaporator, etc. The thermostat was easy to locate in the upper right hand corner. The new thermostat had one wire that didn't have the correct connector on it so I stripped the wire back and used a crimp connector and heat shrink to attach the connector from the failed thermostat. After plugging the new thermostat in I ran the refrigerator for 15 minutes to cool the thermostat and then rotated the defrost timer to the defrost position and tested the new thermostat. Reassembled the freezer compartment.

I took the cover off of the evaperator in the back of the freezer compartment and thawed the ice out with a heat gun. I then replaced the bimetal defrost timer I did have to change one connection as it would not plug into the harness.
I found the Defrost timer in the front of the refrigerator behind the filter cover at the bottom. Just one screw and a quick plug in and everything is working wonderfully. no more icing up

First of all let me say I can't believe I fixed it! And I can thank this website for it, they also had my part at my front door in less than 24 hours. I am so amazed! I am a stay at home Mom, and because my husband is always off with the military I knew the job was up to me to fix. And because times are tough we certainly couldn't afford a repairman. After reading many stories here about the same problem I had, I diagnosed what was wrong with my refrigerator. The defrost thermostat was faulty. First thing to do was turn off the refrig and then unplug it. I then emptied the bottom freezer, used a screwdriver to remove back panel wall. Lo and behold the coils were covered with ice. I defrosted the freezer using a blow dryer, also had to empty the drip pan in the back. when it got full of water. ANd because there is no way to remove the drip pan, I actually got a small air hose from my son's old fish tank(clean one) and then siphoned the water into a pot, took all of 10 minutes! I then used needle nose pliers to remove the bad defrost thermostat from the refrig's wiring.The defrost thermostat which had a bulge in it so knew I was on the right path. I looked at the new defrost thermostat and they had different ends on it then the one I just removed, and I remember reading what another member did, and that was to cut off the connecting caps, strip the wires , use electrical tape to join them and use a crimping tool to place the old caps on to the new defrost thermostat .I then inserted the thermostat to the freezer's wiring. Hope that makes sense to everyone. WEll, everything is running great! Thank-You Part Select, you saved me lots of money!

Removed the cover to the timer, 2 nut screws. Easy. Then emptied freezer, and took off back plate with nut driver. Replaced thermostat. 2 wire plugs that were easy to complete. Left back off, let thermostat normalize temperature, then switched to defrost setting. Worked like a charm.

I removed the back cover in the freezer section by removing six screws. The entire coil, the thermostat and the lines were all iced over. I used a hairdryer to defrost everything. I removed the thermostat by uncoupling the connectors and unclipping it from the coil tubing. I found the thermostat was bulging and deformed. I jumped out the thermostat using an insulated clip lead. I taped it so it would not short to anything. I plugged the unit in, turned the unit to "1" and advanced the defrost timer to defrost. I could hear the water hissing on the coil. I ordered the thermostat. It arrived in 3 days. The new one had a different terminal. I cut off the matching one from the old part and used a scotch-lok to make the connection to the new part. I slapped it in, dressed the wires and replaced the cover. I noticed that when I advanced the timer after replacing the thermostat, it did not immediately come on. The thermostat has an operating temperature window. I checked it several days later and found no frost. Everything works great.

The refrig seemed warm so I checked the temp of some liquid with a thermometer. Readings were above 60 degrees and I knew food would spoil soon. I vacuumed the dog fur off the cooling coils underneath the machine to see if that would help. Nope. I realized cold air from the freezer was not reaching the refrig. The fan was working but no cold air was coming out. I figured a blockage either in the air duct from the refrig or in the return duct to the freezer. I didn’t see any blockage in the refrig section. I took everything out of the freezer and removed the back wall. The cooling coils were completely frozen solid with frost. Being a frost free machine, I knew there were heaters that were controlled by a timer that melted this frost away periodically and that this cycle was no longer working. I found a schematic on the web, maybe your site, and educated myself on the heater circuit. The circuit consisted of a timer, thermostat near the coils, and a cal rod heater all wired in series. The timer was easy to get to and being a mechanical device I figured it must be the culprit. I ordered one online. I checked its operation and it worked fine. Realizing time was short, I hot wired the cal rod around the thermostat and rotated the timer to its heat position. The frost melted quickly and I put the freezer back together and ordered a thermostat. I canceled the timer order. When it arrived, I installed the new thermostat and it has worked fine for the past month. A little colder than usual as I don’t yet have the settings back to where they were. I have checked the operation of the old thermostat. It’s supposed to close at 30 degrees and open at 45. I have done a continuity check on it by putting it in the freezer, letting it cool down, take it out, let it warm up and it seems to work fine. So I have doubts if I really solved the problem. Wire connections were tight and not corroded. Maybe the timer was hung up on debris that I freed by cycling it. I don’t think this is the end of the story.

I have a side by side Amana fridge about 12 years old. One day I noticed everything was not cold anymore. I checked the temp with my infrared thermometer and it was about 70 in the top of the fridge, 40-50 in the bottom, and freezer was the same! So after pulling out the two baskets in the bottom of the freezer and the side rails that hold the baskets, I used a 1/4 nut driver to remove the back lower panel. After looking at the electrical schematic on the back of the fridge, I jumpered around the defrost thermostat, a little cylinder with two wires coming out of it. Bingo, the fan turned on. Well after a few days of running fine with it jumpered my new one arrived. I never really tested my old one with a meter so I did that and it tested fine, so I plugged the old one back in and it worked fine for a few days. Then one day I noticed that fan wasn't running again so I just put the new one in. I had to cut one of the connectors off as it was female instead of male and crimp cap it together, but besides that it went fine. So after connecting it I noticed the fan motor was buzzing but not spinning. I wiggled wires around and determined the connector going into the fan motor had to be a certain way to make the connection. I unplugged it, it wasn't corroded or anything but if pulled down on, it would not make connection. So pulling up on the connector proved that it would make good connection, so a ziptie keeping the wires tight in the up direction proved to be the solution. I'm pretty sure my old defrost thermostat was not the problem. So that's my story. Hope it helped.

removed bottom dust cover removed four screws that hold the 8 hour timer and disconnected the wiring harness. second I removed the ice maker and the back panel in my freezer and uncliped the defrost thermostat unpluged the two wires and replaced with the new one very simple.

remove ice maker vent and back piece. Unclip defrost thermostat and unplug. Plug new thermostat in and clip to element, reattach back piece, vent and ice maker. Is a tight fit getting icemaker out, there are 3 screws 2 on top and one on bottom.

unplug refrigerator,remove content [shelves] then remove panel screws,slide thermostat from tube and unplug both wire ends,match up both thermostat[old unit have male round connector] you'll need round connector.cut old unit wire off,cut new unit wire,strip both ends join with solder and cover with heat-shrink and reinstall,fridge is cooling now.

Started with internet searches then began with removal of wall plate at back of freezer, pulled power cord first. Found evaporator coil completely frozen over.Went back to internet and searched possible causes. It seemed to me that the auto defrost system may not be functioning properly so I considered possible causes. Defrost thermostat, defrost timer, or possibility heater itself. I chose to go with simple stuff first and thought heater would have a better relibility characteristic. Went to Parts select got part numbers and was able to find part locations on the appliance. So far so good, and knock on wood! Thanks Parts select I spent $50 bucks instead of $1000.

I was able to change the timer but I unable to change the thermostat. I dont know how to reach.

removed cover in back of freezer and observed that defrost cycle seemed to happen too often. In comparing the existing part # with the factory part, I determined that possibly the wrong part was installed previously. (it had a 6 hr cooling cycle with a 45 min defrost...spec said I should be 8 hr cool & 20 min defrost) I did research on applianceguru.com... well worth the 5 bucks! I ordered a timer & thermostat & purchased a special refrigerator brush to clean the coils on the bottom. Cleaned the coils, replaced the parts in about 15 minutes and WA-LA! the freezer started getting really cold, but the fridge wouldn't get below 55. but it FELT cold! I swapped thermometers with the freezer & found out the thermometer was faulty!!! I now have the cool control backed down to 5/7 & freezer to 6/7. temps are freeze 0 and cool 40. works better than since we bought home 5 yrs ago! research & troubleshooting took a bit of time, but by the time I ordered parts I felt very comfortable I had the right parts. All said, cost me about 40 bucks instead of probably $200 from tech... schematics from partselect.com were very helpful as well!!

1- Remove food from freezer and store in ice chest
2- Turn off refrigerator
3- Remove freezer drawers, 2 drawers, no fastener
4- Remove freezer slide out drawer front , 2 screws
5- Remove ice cube tray holder, 2 screws
6- De-ice back panel with hair dryer / blower
7- Remove back panel in freezer, 8 screws
8- Defrost refrig coil with hair dryer / blower
9- Unplug Bimetal Thermostat, 2 wires, orang / brn
10- Remove Bimetal Thermostat from coil, 1 clip
11- Install new Bimetal Thermostat
12- Re-assemble, reverse order

THIS IS EASY. REMOVE LOWER VENT IN FRONT OF FRIG TO CHANGE TIMER. UNPLUG AND PUT NEW ONE IN....10 MIN. TO CHANGE THE THERMOSTAT REMOVE FOOD, TAKE OFF BACK PANEL, DEFROST ICE WITH HAIRDRYER AND LOCATE THERMOSTAT (TO THE RIGHT ABOVE COIL) REMOVE OLD THERMOSTAT FROM CONNECTORS AND REPLACE WITH NEW. ONE CONNECTOR NEEDS TO BE SPLICED CAUSE IT DOES NOT MATCH. NO PROBLEM JUST USE OLD CONNECTOR AND SPLICE AND SEAL WITH SHRINK TUBING TO PREVENT MOISTURE FROM CONNECTION. IN JERSEY REPAIR GUY CHARGES YOU 100.00 BUCKS TO JUST WALK IN THE DOOR...FORGET THAT. WORKS FINE