KBRS22KGBL2 KitchenAid Refrigerator - Instructions

This is a bottom freezer refrigerator. First I unplugged the refrigerator. I then removed the wire shelf and wire tray from the freezer. I then removed the ice maker be removing the three screws that hold it in place. I then disconnected the icemaker electrical connector. I then removed the 7 screws that hold the panel at the back of the freezer revealing the evaporator and heat exchanger. I then unclipped the icemaker wiring harness from the panel. The whole evaporator/heat exchanger was buried in ice. I defrosted it with a hairdryer. This took about half an hour. The bi-metal thermostat is attached to the heat exchanger by a clip. Be sure to wear latex gloves to prevent cutting your fingers on the aluminum fins. I disconnected the electrical connectors and then carefully unclipped the thermostat. I discovered that the new thermostat had spade connectors where as the original had one spade connector and a bullet connector on the brown wire. I reused the original bullet connector by cutting it off the old thermostat and splicing it onto the new thermostat. I reversed the process for reassembly. There is no longer any ice build up and the refrigerator is working normally.

I could hear a noisy rattling sound coming from the freezer section of the refrigerator. It sounded like a bad fan or loose part. I noticed the sound would go away if I turned the freezer section of the fridge OFF.

I opened up the freezer section and put the frozen food in a cooler and turned OFF the freezer. The back wall has several hex head screws that I was able to remove by using the small nutdriver portion of a "Husky" brand 6-in-1 screwdriver. I had to first remove the icemaker and disconnect the quick release power connector to remove the back panel.

After removing the back panel and fan vent, it was easy to access the fan. It was very apparent that the bearings in the fan were worn out. Removing two more screws released the entire fan and housing.

The replacement part from PartSelect.com arrived quickly. PartSelect.com had the lowest price that I could find on the Internet, and it was not available from Sears. Go figure!

The part number matched the Sears part number and was a direct replacement both mechanically and electrically in size and power requirements.

All I had to do was remove the wired spade connectors from the old fan and insert the new fan assembly. The connectors were an exact match and the whole process of replacement took about 15 minutes. More time was spent moving the frozen food and ice maker. I used pliers to help remove the spade connectors and nylon wire clips as they were on pretty tight.

Be careful not to damage the delicate fins of the condenser.

After replacing the fan assembly, I installed the back panel, ice maker, frozen food, and turned the freezer back on. The whole process took less than an hour. The refrigerator now runs quietly like it is supposed to.

I have to say, this is the second part that I have ordered from PartSelect.com (the first part was to replace a water pump for a wash machine) and it has been a very good process. I wish working with Sears was this easy.

The ordering was easy, however the installing was very difficult. Screws all around door had to not only be loosened but most had to be removed in order to get gasket behind the lip. We (my 17 yr old daughter and I )unscrewed the top and half way down the the sides and did half and half. The job took us approx 4 hrs. In all fairness neither one of us has every done anything like this and we were very proud of ourselves for accomplishing the task. When the gasket was in place we used the blow drying to smooth the gasket. Probably not anything I would attempt again because of the time committment, however, I was trying to save some money.

Someone suggested removing the door, however, I couldn't figure out how to do that. On the up side, it did give me the confidence to replace a screen door myself. You tube helped me with that. ( I couldn't find a "how to" on how to install this gasket at least not for this type of appliance.

There is already a lot of good advice on this web site and others on how to diagnose and do this repair. I'll add a few additional comments that might be helpful.

I wanted to confirm that my old thermostat was in fact bad. I did this by disconnecting the two connectors and connecting them to each other to bypass the thermostat. This is like having the thermostat always closed. With the back panel still open so I could see the frozen coils I plugged the fridge back in and turned the defrost timer knob with a screwdriver to get to a defrost cycle. I could then see the heater element slowly melting the ice. This is of course not a safe way to operate the fridge. Over time this would get too hot and damage the food or worse. I only did this for a few minutes to see the system operating. I did not melt all the ice at that time. Also, it is of course dangerous to plug the fridge in with the panel open, so a great deal of caution is advised.

When I got my new thermostat I wanted to confirm that it worked before going through the install procedure. To do this I cooled it down and then used an ohm-meter to see that the circuit was closed. The important thing I found out is that ice-water, even 2 parts ice, one part cold water, was not cold enough to do this. Only when I put the thermostat into a cold freezer for a while did it get cold enough to close the circuit. I did this side by side with my old thermostat and saw that it was in face bad -it never closed the circuit.

This part from Part Select was an exact match for this freezer-on-bottom Whirlpool refrigerator. The connectors were identical so I did not have to solder wires together as others have need to do.

Some people get the ice off of the coils with a hair dryer. For me this could take half an hour. What worked better and much faster was spraying warm water on the ice with an old spray bottle. This adds extra water to the mix, but it did not overflow the drain pan. Even if it did, it would be easily mopped up if you can roll the fridge out.

One last thing. I suspect this thermostat broke in the winter, but with the dry air the fridge worked for a long time. Once summer hit and the house got humid, the coils iced up quickly.

Good Luck!

I removed all the food items from the door. I removed the old gasket by loosening up the screws at the top of the door. The rest of the old gasket pulled out easily from the rest of the door. While the gasket was off, I took the time to clean up the door. I startede at the top of the door, loosening up the screws but not removing them. I then replaced each side of the door seperately. I found it helpful to have a flat blade to help poke the gasket into place. Because I was in the kitchen, I used a metal spatula. The corners were the trickiest. Using a hand held hair dryer helped to soften the gasket when it became cold. The freezer and fridge have good seals now and the refrigerator is good as new.

The fridge is in great shape but the seals/gaskets were shot. Between me, the wife and the kids the fridge door seemed like it was in constant motion.

Measue the seals, NOT THE DOOR. I measued from the straightest part of the seal at the edges and came within an quarter of an inch of what was offered here.

You have to take the seal off in stages, if you loosen all of the screws, the door will fall apart. Pick an edge (I started at the top) undo all of the screws and pull the old gasket off.

Then put the new gasket on the top (loosen a couple of screws on the sides if you can't get it to fit) and use a putty knife or a dull butter knife to sit it in place.

Once the top is in, screw the top screws back in and then take out the screws on the next side that you will work on. Go around the rest of the door the same way.

This is not a hard job, but it does have a pain in the rear factor. You have to move quick, especially on the freezer, but once you get the hang of it , it gets easy. But until you get the hang of it, you will be using some four letter words:)

I hope it extends the life of my fridge by another five years, so it is worth the money if the fridge is expensive. It will probably cost $100 or so for 2 seals (in my case a fride and a freezer seal), so if your fridge isn't worth the cost, you would probably be better off replacing the entire fridge.

Last night, I replaced the gasket of the bottom freezer drawer on my Amana refrigerator. It took me about 2 hours.

When I took my new gasket out of the package that it was mailed in, it had been folded and was all twisted. There were wrinkles in the area where the actual magnetic seal occurs. I tried to use a hair dryer to smooth out the wrinkles but the hair dryer just wasn't getting hot enough. I decided to install the gasket anyway hoping that the wrinkles would just get stretched out.

First I had to remove the drawer which is explained in the Amana manual. I had to remove two screws on the side the the drawer slides and then lift out the hanger for the door. Pulling out the old gasket was really easy but when I tried to push the new gasket it just wouldn't go in under the lip and I was afraid that it would get torn if I pushed it in with a screwdriver.

So I had to remove all 20 or so screws that hold the white plastic retaining liner in and hold the lip of the gasket. Then I had to slide a flat head screw driver in to lift up the liner and break the gluing effect of the expanding foam insulation used during manufacturing. Once I could freely lift up the liner about 1/4 inch, I was able to push the new liner in. The wrinkles were still there, which would have prevented a good seal. Fortunately I had a heat gun which I tested first on the old gasket. This worked wonderfully after the gasket was fully installed and did not melt the white plastic liner.

Once the gasket was installed and all 20 screws were tightened, I discovered that the door had been twisted a little and the left side of the drawer would hit first leaving a gap on the right side. By pushing on the right side some time it would stay but often it wouldn't. So I loosened the screws that hold the door on to the metal hangers that attached to the glides and then twisted the door while I tightened those screws.

The final fix was to tighten the leveling screws so that the top of the fridge leans back. This is recommended in Amana's instructions but had not been done for our fridge. This causes gravity to pull the drawer closed.

I don't mean to scare anyone away from doing this repair but it ended up being harder than I thought.

First I had to determine what was wrong. Obviously the compressor was working since the freezer was cold. Digging for awhile revealed that the evaporator coils for the freezer had frozen up into a solid block of ice. Then I had to figure out why. Tested the defrost heater in place--small resistance (~3 ohms), OK. Removed and tested the timer--unsure. Removed and tested the defrost thermostat--did not turn on when plunged in ice water or frozen with canned air (turn the can upside down--be careful!, you can instantly freeze-burn your skin), bad. Chose to purchase and replace both the timer and the thermostat. Took the opportunity to THOROUGHLY clean everything, front, back, and underneath. Found the drip tray transition piping cracked at the junction and replaced it with a cut-off funnel "glued" into place and to the underside piping with the RTV Silicone. When parts arrived, tested them and confirmed that the original timer was OK and the thermostat was bad. Installed the new thermostat (and went ahead and installed the new timer). NOTE: one connector on the thermostat was not identical to the orginal equipment. Rather than cut the refrig wiring, I chose to build a jumper with the original connector on one end and a new one for the new thermostat on the other. Buttoned everything back up, re-leveled it, and let it run for 24 hours at the manufacturer's recommended "first" settings (4 and 4) without being disturbed. Seemed fine, loaded it with food, everything is great including non-frozen veggies! (I suspect the ice was forming frequently and blocking the return from the refrig compartment, which is right next to the veggie drawer.)

Had to remove screws inside back of freezer panel, took off old thermostat. This one had a different plug on the end that wasn't compatible, so had to cut that off and wire it to the old plug end. Piece of cake. Put back panel back on and back in business. Hardest thing was getting the screws out!

tested bulb good ,replaced door switch first(least expensive)then ordered light socket and circuitboard.If clicking sound is heard replace circuitboard first to save on return shipping because the switch and socket where ok

First unload the doors, and remove each door from the fridge and freezer. I placed the doors on the counter island and removed all the screws from around the perimiter with the battery drill. Lots of screws. The freezer door had some Ice accumulated in the insulation inside the door. I salvaged as much of the dry fiberglass and tossed the wet stuff. I cut some strips of fiberglass from a roll of 3.5" I had to replace the tossed insulation. The door seal installation went smoothly and the door rehanging was easy also.

Very easily removed the nuts holding the gasket to the door. Previously took new gasket from packaging and used a hair dryer to smooth the wrinkles from it, about 5 minutes. Installed the new gasket and adjusted the seating of the actual freezer door, for a proper fit. Now there is no snow in my freezer and the poor compressor only kicks on maybe ten times a day, as opposed to most of the day. Not to mention what the savings in electricity may be and extended life for my Amana. Should have done this two months ago. Service and shipping from Parts Select is second to none, with a website interface that makes sense- try most of the other online retailers and you will know what I mean.

I hired someone to do this, but after watching him do it, this is an easy job. Amana made a smart refrigerator and it's easy to do your self. I saved a LOT of money buying the parts here and I should have attempted it myself. The trick is heating up the gasket once it was mounted and then when you had a tight seal to the door, tape the door shut and LEAVE it as many hours as you can (minimum of 4, but overnight better).

I removed the Icemaker then the backpanel in the freezer. The fan motor removal required only to hex screws and three wires to dismount. The biggest problem I had was the replacement motor had the connecting pins for the wire harness on the reverse side. I thought I could unbolt the motor and flip it but this did not work. I remounted the new motor and was able to get the wires connected. The thermostat clipped in place but one of the wires had a different connector than the new unit. I used a wiring snap connector to complete the connection. The defroster timer was under the refridgerator and after taking two screws off the cover plate was just an unplug and plug in the new unit. When I first turn the unit back on nothing happend. I soon realized I had to advance the timer until the unit kick on. It has worked fine since and solve both the noise problem and defrost issue.

First I removed all the screws with the exception of the top row, these I just loosend.I made sure how the old one was installed before I removed it.I then used a hair dryer on the new one briefly to take out the shipping kinks.I removed the old one and put the new one in with a little adjusting as i went. I then put all the screws back in,adjusted it a little more and finished by snuging up all the screws.It was very easy and works like new.