CST20KABGAD Hotpoint Refrigerator - Instructions

Poped out with screwdriver the old swithch and unplugged the two wires. Plugged in the wires to the new swithch and pushed it back in the hole where the old switch was before.

Got part overnight. Unscrewed cover plate at top of regerator compartment, disconnected old part, connected new part. Screwed back plate. Voila!

I saved a bunch of money!

The comments from customers experiences gave me the confidence that the defrost timer was the problem since the compressor was still working and it went just as they all said, four 1/4' hex head screws and I had access to the old timer, unplugged the old ,plugged in the new and put the four screws back in. Nothing happened so after a while I looked a bit harder at the accessable part of the timer after intallation and saw what looked like a dial. I turned the dialclockwise and immediatly the compressor turned on. I have not found any information as to how much or little to turn this dial which obviously is an adjustable cycle setting so I just turned it all the way, so far everything is working alright.

Turned off the refridgerator. Took everything out of the freezer compartment & put into ice chest with pleanty of ice on top. Removed 2 screws holding the ice maker in place & placed ice maker aside. Removed shelf. Removed one screw on back plate, pushed up on the holding tabs at the top of the back plate & removed the back plate. Removed 3 screws holding the motor bracket in place along with the 3 wires. Installed new motor & used the wire extensions provided due to the electrical connections on the new motor being on the opposite side. Had to bend one wire tab down to clear the motor bracket. Turned refridgerator back on to ensure correct rotation on the fan. Reinstalled back plate & ice maker & shelf. Waited 30 minutes before putting food items back in freezer compartment.

While the switch did last for 9 years, the design is poor due to the failure mode. The failure should be to fail off or not able to turn on the lights which would be inconvenient but would not warm the refrigerator contents. Arcing at the contacts eventually caused the switch to "weld" closed. It is not obvious that this is occurring so it took some time to recognize why the temp inside the ref was high while the freezer was OK. Replacing the switch was easy once it was recognized as the problem. All that was required to replace the switch was to remove the screws holding a fiber cover and then pulling off the aluminum cap which covered the switches. Unplug the switch an squeeze the keeper on the switch to release it and pull down. Pop the replacement switch in place and plug the wires harness back in. All in all it took much less time to replace than it has to write this up. T Pope

After mopping up the floor - the whole freezer that was iced up melted - that's how I found out about the problem...

Disconnected the power, emptied the freezer, removed the shelves. Under the ice maker was the light cover - I removed that first, then the two screws holding the back panel in place - The light panel was covering the top screw.

With the screws removed, I pulled out the back panel - which needs to be jiggled around a bit to get it past the shelf brackets.

With the cover off, I could see the mostly de-iced coil at the back of the unit. The defrost heater was visible at the bottom of the coil frame. To remove the bracket/heater, I removed the two cross head screws (one on each side) holding the bracket to the coil frame. I then twisted the side tabs of the bracket assembly and pulled the entire bracket/heater/wiring from the coil frame.

With better access tot he bracket/heater I was able to disconnect the wires. I grabbed the new bracket/heater, reattached the wires and pushed the bracket/heater back onto the coil frame and closed the side tabs firmly attaching the bracket to the frame. I then screwed the tabs back onto the frame.

Replaced the back panel, screwed it in place. Put back the light cover and then the shelves. Turned the appliance back on and left it for a few hours - before checking to see if there was any drop in temperature. There was, so after 24 hours or so I reloaded all the food...

NOTE: I was certain that the heater had failed! When I pulled the OLD one out it was obviously burned out - the glass tube was blackened and pieces of the element could be seen in the bottom of the tube.

Simple job, empty the door shelves, remove top hinge, lift door off bottom hinge, remove bottom hing. The reassembly is the reverse, with a little cleaning along the way and a little white lithium grease on the hinge pins and cams.

The existing light switch was very hard to remove. I ended up having to grab it with a pair of pliers and pull it out. Once it was out, it was very easy to put in the replacement and it seems to be working fine.

After figuring out how to remove the old broken clip, replacement was easy. Had to use a small putty knife to open the release on the bottom underside of the clip(between the clip & the refrig) . By looking at the replacement piece it was easy to figure out.

After a little research I realized my problem could be one or possibly two components of three that caused the problem. Instead of changing one at a time, I took another approach. I just bought and changed all three to save time and prevent having to do the job all over again. Each time I would have to melt the ice off of the cooling coils and this is time consuming and annoying having to melt the ice repeatedly. I put a very accurate thermometer in the fridge and have been monitoring it since I changed the components. After one week it seems to be working fine keeping the fridge at 34-38 degree F.

I used the same steps as described in other descriptions listed here. Since I was changing the hinge assembly on the freezer side the difference I discovered was that there was a nylon water hose inside the hinge assembly that I did not at first know how to remove. I finally called a repairman I happened to know and following his instruction simply snapped the hose loose where there was a connector and placed a cloth under it to catch the moisture that drained. Having done that, the rest of the assembly went just the same way as the other instructions listed here said that it would. Door now functions like new.

Removed cowling unpluged timer and pluged in new one.
Great Service, got part in one day

Take the back panel off inside of freezer side. Cut the wires off old Defrost Thermostat and strip the ends. Attach the wires of the new one and tighten with wire nuts. Put back panel back on.

Disconnected power. Removed evaporator cover in freezer. Removed the bad defrost heater. It is a glass tube about 10" long. The tube was black since the internal heater wire burned out. Use a hair dryer to melt ice in evaporator. Since there was excessive water coming from melt ice, I removed the back panel and took out the white plastic drain tube and collected water from the tube in a bucket. I put everything back and used the refrigerator for three days without problem, before the new heater arrived. Then I put on the new tube and everything was fine so far.

I had to call for a appointment for repair with GE Appliance because I thought then it . .was something electrical. The technician came out & checked everything out, turned out it was not electrical, The technician went out to his truck got a light bulb from his truck, put it in & it worked. It cost me $121.00 for trip charge from GE appliance for a light bulb that worked, your light bulbs were defective twice. Very disappointed with your products, cost me alot of money for a good light bulb thru GE appliance