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Refrigerator was freezing up and not cooling fresh food compartment
The repair was easy, I removed the cover on the top front of the fresh food compartment. It housed the defrost timer which was easy to identify and replace. Just removed a screw, unplugged the wires and replaced with the new part. Unfortunately, that wasn't the only problem. I also had to replace the defrost element that the timer sent power to. While I was at it, I replaced the defroster thermostat. The entire repair took under an hour, diagnosing the problem took the most time and effort.
The bent hinge caused a bad seal which let in air into the freezer, so there was a ton of frost build up. I ordered the parts, and they came in 2 days! I figured what tools I needed, got my wife to help hold things, and in 20 minutes it was like new.
Freezer made lots of Ice and Refrigerator didn't cool
The Defrost Timer is located in Refrigerator section (not the freezer) where your temperture guages are. Move panel and replace the non working Defrost Timer with the new one. It took my husband about 30-40 mins to fix. This was about 2 weeks ago and my Freezer and Refrigerator are working like new. I bought this Kenmore Reftigerator brand new in 1996 and I lost the manuel to it. Thanks to my daughter who found the Defrost Timer on the Internet, I thought I was going to have to buy a new one. This was real easy to fix. The instructions that came with the part was easy to understand and very self explanatory. It also had very good diagrams to follow.
After searching online to diagnose the issue with my refrigerator being warm and the freezer being cold and not shutting off to defrost I decided to get the defrost timer kit. The kit arrived within 2 day. With the directions included, after unplugging the appliance for safety, I installed it relatively quickly with only a screwdriver . I then plugged it back in and it immediately went to defrost. I thought, wow I have it fixed. Well unbeknownst to me it still didn't cool in the fridge area. After doing more internet research I found a suggestion to unplug the fridge for 24 hours to unthaw ice that may be lodged between the freezer and fridge that is blocking the distribution of cold air into the fridge. After doing this, it now works like a charm.
I pulled the socket out and unplugged the wires. I replaced the light socket by plugging in the wires and snapping the light socket into place. A very simple fix.
Wife did the replacement of the the plastic part very easy to do. I was very impressed with the speed in which the part was delivered to my home after it was ordered. Thank you very much. Lamar.
Our refrigerator was no longer emitting cold air and clicking every 5 minutes in what sounded like a "starter" click and then a few minutes later an ending/"shutoff" click. Nothing else would happen between the clicks and we could still hear the freezer fan running in the freezer.
Frequent clicks meant that the starter relay was broken and that the condenser was not failing to start thus failing to cool.
I found very useful videos showing this process on Youtube but here are instructions:
Unplug the refrigerator and open up the back panel on the bottom. The condenser is a black round metal sphere in the center. To the right is the condenser coil which is a flat coil. Attached on the left side of the condenser is a plastic casing with wires coming out from the bottom, that is the relay housing.
Pull the plastic casing off, it is held by a metal clamp. Underneath the plastic casing is the relay. it is attached to the condenser with a straight long pin.
Pull the relay straight out, away from the condenser. You may use a flathead for leverage but I used some elbow grease and slowly wiggled it out.
Look at the relay. For my Admiral, the relay has a little headpiece that sits on the relay and connects to the pin. Otherwise you will have pulled out the relay piece and there will be wires connecting to terminals on the relay.
Remove the wires connecting to the terminals, noting which wires connect to which terminals. Take a picture on your phone if you need to. You may want to use pliers to maintain the terminal connectors on the wires and it may take some elbow grease.
Once all the wires are disconnected from the old relay, discard the old relay. You will know if it's faulty if you shake it and it sounds like it's full of broken glass. A new relay will not make that sound.
Connect the wire connectors to the new relay in the correct terminals.
Reconnect the new relay to the condenser by pushing it back onto the pin all the way.
Replace the plastic cover with the metal clamp.
Clean the dust off the condenser coils while you have the chance.
Replace the back panel and plug in the refrigerator. You should not hear any more clicking and you should feel the air from the freezer become cooler pretty quickly.
Freezer was working but fridge was barely cooling. Look further into how to test thermostat.
I just replaced my defrost thermostat after using the place-in-ice-water method, and I think it may not have been necessary. My timeline: my fridge was not getting cold enough. I realized it the day before going on a trip. I vacuumed the (very dusty) coils at the bottom, and the next morning the fridge seemed colder, but I thought I should order parts just in case. I ordered a heater and a thermostat. The fridge seemed to be operating normally when I returned from my trip, but I had the parts, so I thought I'd go ahead and dismantle the freezer and test the existing parts. My intention was to return both parts if the old ones passed the tests. I opened up the back of the freezer and there was no ice on the fins. I thought, great, the existing heater works! I cut out the thermostat, placed it in ice water, and didn't get continuity. So I decided to go ahead and put in the new thermostat. Because I'm not experienced with using a multimeter, I thought I'd test the new thermostat to see how the test should work. To my surprise, the new thermostat also failed the test! Stumped, I thought I might as well install the new thermostat, since I had opened the package and couldn't return it. Further internet research suggests the place-in-ice-water method of testing is not adequate. One YouTube video by Parts Dr says to place the part in a working freezer. I froze my old thermostat and tested it; still no continuity. This thermostat may not be typical, though. The video discussed the temperature ratings on thermostats. The temperature rating on both (old and new) thermostats is L8.9-16.7C. That converts to 48-63 degrees fahrenheit, which obviously are not freezing temperatures. I'm not convinced I needed a new thermostat, but I trusted the videos I consulted earlier. I cleaned the fridge thoroughly, so at least now I have a nice clean fridge to show for my efforts.
