RSWA228AAE Admiral Refrigerator - Instructions

Old ice maker leaking water and produced ice cubes with black inclusions. First, I removed old ice maker per video instructions. Transferred electrical cable, cover, and bail to new ice maker. First installation failed because I failed to make sure water tube correctly enter back of ice maker. No ice. Initially thought electrical cable wasn't firmly in place. Then I noticed frozen water dripping down back of freezer. A clue! Removed ice maker and reinstalled making sure water tube went through the hole in back of ice maker. Now the new ice maker works beautifully!

Remove 1 screw under ice maker. Gently pull downwards to unhook ice maker. Disconnected 4 pin wire connector. Remove and set aside the cover and wire loop you will need on new ice maker. Reverse the steps to install new maker. Once new ice maker is installed you will have to wait 2-4 hours for ice. There is a thermostat that will need to reach 10 degrees F to operate.

Turned out the defrost heater has burnt out in the freezer compartment on both heater tubes. To get to it. 1) take out all the shelves 2)remove the light bulb 3)unscrew 6 screws for back panel 4)Mine had a lot frost build up on the evaporator coils which I used a portable heater to defrost. which it took about 2 hrs to get all the frost thawed out. 5) Defrost heaters are located below each of the coils remove 2 screws on each plate there are 2 plates holding the heaters in place. 5) You may have to bend the sheet metal in order to get the heaters out and trace the wires to where it connects to towards the top or the freezer. 6) Put in the new heaters and plug in then put back together. 7) I also replaced the Defrost thermometer which it is easy to replaced while I had it apart. Now the fridge works perfect just like new.

It's self-explanatory. The procedure is obvious; it's just a little difficult. The only hard part is attaching the mounting brackets to the fan. If you can't tighten the mounting bolts, loosen them and reposition the brackets. You might end up mispositioning them at first, because they are hard to reach.

Instead of the ice maker unclipping from the wall after one 1/4" screw being removed from the bracket, I had to remove three of the 4 Phillips head screws from the ice bucket slider below the ice maker and swivel it down to allow the ice maker bracket to clear. The two 1/4" screws holding the ice maker to the wall at the top had to be removed and then the ice maker could be pulled away from the freezer wall. The rest of the instructions went according to the video and went well.

I took out 1 screw , unplugged the icemaker and lifted it out and installed the new one and had ice in no time at all. can't get much easier.

Loosen the screws on the sidewall (don't take them all the way out and drop them on the floor as I did) and remove the screw from the bottom bracket. Change out the electrical wires and the wire level sensor that does not come with the new unit. Put the new one in place and give it some time to cool down and make ice ( don't be impatient like I was and think the new unit was bad or that you replaced the wrong part)

Found a tip online that said to check the resistance of the defrost coil, when I had none I knew the coils had burned out. Before pulling the old coil out I tied on some long pieces of string as was suggested, that made things go very quick! The hardest part was reaching to the back of the narrow freezer space, but fortunately I have long arms. So far all is working well, and I have a great deal of satisfaction knowing I did the repair myself!

First I removed all the screws from the back cover.
2nd removed fan nut and fan blade
3rd removed fan bracket
4th I traced wire to the condenser and disconnected wires from wire nuts.
Installed existing fan brackets to new motor kit
then reconnected wire nuts to new motor cord
Reinstalled fan nut and blade,
reinstalled cover, plugged it in and BAM .WORKS PERF!

replaced the water valve - just precautionary with unit age.
Problem was ice tray coating was breaking down causing ice to stick during harvest cycle - refill would cause water to overflow to bin.

Removed bottom screw, loosen 2 top screws, lift ice maker up and lay over to expose wiring harness, unplugged, then reversed installation
Make sure fill tube in back of ice machine is positioned in fill trough

Recommend that on any installation use a commercial grade water filter system and change filters annually, this is the first repair because of that- unit is 18 years old

commercial refrigeration guy

I pulled the drive ring off of the icemaker and replaced it with the new part. Saved a $150 service call plus cost of part. It cost me a little over $11.00 and a repairman probably would have charged $30.

Followed the online PartSelect video instructions and it was very helpful. The ice maker has to cycle through before it starts making ice so don't be alarmed when nothing happens when you first hook it up.

Merely remove the front bottom screw that attached the ice maker to the refrigerator
Lift the ice maker gently off of the 2 top screws
Unplug the icemaker wiring harness from the back of the refrigerator, and remove
Snap off the end of the maker and remove the keeper for the wire arm
Remove the wire arm and install on new maker
Unplug the wiring harness from the old maker and plug into the new one
Plug the harness into the refrigerator, slip the new maker over the top screws, with the water feed tube inserted into the maker
Install bottom screw into the bracket that holds it in place.
This took less than 5 minutes.

Just kept working on it.

evaporator coils were frozen solid and air wasn't flowing across them

read all directions first, then consider which steps you'd like to take

in any case...
- check for blockages in the upper and lower air vents that allow air from freezer side to cool the fridge-side
- inspect that the fan in the freezer side is actually turning and not blocked


- if no blockages and air is flowing between the sides...

- unplug the unit
- remove all goods from freezer and fridge
- remove freezer side racks
- remove rear panel on freezer side using philips screwdriver (note that the ice-cube tray motor housing must be freed by removing its screws. it can be pull out a bit to get to a single screw holding the top of the rear panel in place)
- allow the evaporator coils to evaporate all ice off, checking the drain pan under the fridge frequently - accelerate the process using a hair dryer or paint stripper (heat gun)
- disconnect the white wires from the connection block located about 2/3 of the way up the rear wall and check resistance using an ohmeter (see specs on back of fridge on circuit diagram)
- if you get a very high resistance reading, the heater element is likely broken. if so...
-- remove the 2 metal shields located horizontally across the evaporator coils (behind them are the two series-connected defrost heater elements)
-- visually inspect the elements - if they are discolored green or black, remove and inspect more closely (most likely they are blown, just like a light-bulb filament that shows black on the glass)
-- if you see nothing, remove them anyway (since high reading) and check connectors
-- replace them (likely only $30 to $75, depending on type)

- if coils seem ok, or if not suspect, check the defrost thermostat WHILE IT IS STILL IN A WORKING/COLD FREEZER.
- get the defrost thermostat into a coil chamber (other freezer or bucket of ice?) and check resistance using an ohmeter. It must be WELL-BELOW 40F to test it. When it is truly immersed in cold (as it would be in a working freezer), test the resistance. it should be 0-ohms when <<40F and some much higher resistance (>200KOhms) when > 40F.
- if not, replace it

-lastly, if neither the defrost heater elements are bad nor the defrost thermostat is bad, open up the defrost timer
-- the defrost timer is located in the fridge side, likely with the fridge thermostat knobs/controller
-- it is a 5-pin part that cannot be repaired. If all else is checked, most likely the defrost element is never coming on because the timer is not turning it on