Adaptive Defrost Board

Maytag wide by side refrigerators tend to eat these parts about once a year, and this is my third assy so the replacement went very fast. When we used the Maytag warranty they replaced this part about 6 times, after they exchanged the refrigerator. No major disassembly is required, drop the plastic after removing a few screws, plug in the assy, and you are good to go, no more frozen food in the refer. The only tricky part is getting the clips to release so you can slide the plastic cover forward, but after a while they break off and it is easier to remove.

Simple parts replacement. The temp control was a bit tricky as it involved replicating the bends of the tiny tubing for the sensor coil, but everything is so modular that it was not that difficult.

Freezer defrosted while doing the control repairs, it had a lot of ice stuck in the evaporator because the defrost function was not working.

The worst part of all this was moving the food and making sure it did not spoil.

Had a little trouble getting the plastic cover removed. Trick is to reach all the way to the back, put finger in hole behind the tab, and pull down and forward so it clears the little plastic locking nub behind the tab on the right.

Took out all shelves and racks. Pulled out plastic cover. Removed screws holding control unit. Removed unit and accresses defrost circuit board. Replacement is in a cover. One screw would not engage so did not put it back in. Reefer was cold within hour of start and is now 1 week after. Unit would start out cold and then warm up before replacement.
Other parts were snap in furnishings that had become damaged with use.

Release tabs at right and left rear of cover and pull cover forward. Remove all hex-head screws. Release housing assym from screws in middle of assym. Defrost assym is at the back right. Unplug wire connector. Plug in new defrost assym, and set into place. Hook housing assym back onto screws. Replace all hex screws. Slide cover back into place. Done!

This was the second part we replaced. The first part was the Temperature Control Assy; which had been replaced several weeks earlier by a repairman, seemed to fix the problem for a few weeks and then the problem returned. Thinking the part might be bad we replaced it again with no luck. Based on the information from other repair stories with similar problems we tried the Defrost Assy, Adpative. We hadn't put all the covering parts back so replacing this part was relatively easy. At first we didn't think this part fixed the problem either, but after a few days of monitoring the temps in the refrigerator & freezer it seems to have corrected the problem. It has been several weeks and the temps are holding.
The most difficult part of the repair is removing the cover plate to gain access to the parts. There are clips that have to be released, and thanks to another repair story we were able to get that done. Also, we accessed the data on our refrigerator from this site (from the parts lists and obtained the drawings) so we were able to identify each part. Otherwise the repairs were removing one part and replacing it with the new parts (screws and connectors).
Since this site (unlike some of the others) had listed the Defrost Assy with additional model information we ordered our part from PartSelect as we didn't want to receive a part that wouldn't fit. The part was perfect and we have a working refrigerator FINALLY!

Found a similar problem listed on your website and did the exact same procedure. Replaced the board with the new module just as described.

Waiting to see if it works. Won't know for a while since it takes a month or so to ice up. Will inspect the coils then to see if auto defrost is working.

Old board had a chattering sound from the relay. Haven't heard that with the new one as of yet.

I feel pretty confidant it's OK now.

Unplugged the refrigerator. Removed top plastic cover from inside the fridge.Removed 5 little screws with phillips screwdriver and nutdriver . Unplugged the old defrost assembly and plugged in new one.replaced screws and snapped cover back on. It took about 15 minutes and the fridge works fine.

Bought it used. Worked fine for 32 days, past the warranty, then started getting too warm. Called a tech who didn't find anything. Checked here and saw 3 parts that might be at fault: refrig. temp control, freezer temp control, defrost timer. The time was most expensive so I started with refrig. temp control. Didn't help. Bought freezer temp control. Didn't help. Discovered that condenser fan motor was sticking. Replaced it but didn't solve problem. Finally bought defrost timer. That fixed it. Works fine now. Replacing parts was easy, requiring only simple tools.

Called a repair man and he explained that someone had failed to properly close the freezer door, which caused the coil to freeze up...Charged me 75.00 for a service call, thawed out the coil and left... The next 2 times this occurred, I thawed out the coil and then determined that there must be something else. Did a web search and determined that it must be the defrost timer. Ordered the part, watched the excellent installation video and cured the problem.... The whole deal was terrific... Thanks.

I followed the excellent video instructions to replace the defrost timer. It went faster and easier than I would have expected. In just less than a half-hour the job was done. I saved a ton of money doing it myself.

Repair is very simple however the design of the cover that you have to remove is not very user friendly, have to push in the tabs in the back and pull the cover at the same time, then remove 4 screws. Connecting the timer is a bit tricky, it helps to remember how it looks like before you disconnect the old one. It has been one week and the frige is working fine.

Repair went well.

First I unplugged the refrigerator.
Then removed the outer plastic cover inside the refrigerator compartment...it just snaps in & out.
Used a nutdriver to remove screws from the inner cover & let that just hang down.
Located the Adaptive Defrost Timer & unplugged the wiring harness.
Removed the old Adaptive Defrost Timer & replaced it with the new one.
Reassembled everything in reverse order as stated above.
Then I plugged the refrigerator back in & set the control setting to the coldest settings.
The freezer side was cooling down much quicker than the refrigerator compartment, but after a couple of hours, everything was working very well.
Note: The freezer compartment needs to be totally defrosted
sometime before or after this repair is made, which can take a whole day or better!

removed 7 screws, unpluged themodule then reassembled the unit