20872B Admiral Refrigerator - Instructions

Remove freezer contents, shelving, baskets, shelf brackets, basket rails. Then, remove the icemaker including the ice basket, the cube freezer and the motor assembly. Remove the back liner of the freezer compartment. Remove and replace the defrost heater assembly, using the old mounting brackets and connecting the wires to the same terminals. Reassemble. Discard excess screws :).

After going to manufacturer's web site and customer service phone, was unable to locate the correct switch in the dispenser area on the door. Your web site had the picture of the switch and it was right on and in stock. Shipping was quick and inexpensive. Repair went quick and all is well.

Removed ice maker bin,removed screws on back panel cover. Pulled out panel cover,thawed accumulated ice, unscrewed bracket holding defrost heater set, unplugged busted defroster, plugged in new defroster set,installed it back, installed back panel cover, ice maker and powered it on.More than a week after installation,I don't see any signs of ice accumulation on back panel cover.

took nut driver and removed screw holding valve to refrigerator removed valve. Swapped water lines from old valve to new valve,plugged in selonoid wire harness to new valve reattached the water valve to referigerator and turned water on and forgot it. No leaks,ice and water in 24 hrs.

Pop off six mounting screws and the ground screw. Remove the fan blade and reattach. Reinstall. Save yourself big bucks.

Frist pulled everything out of freezer put in refridge then took out ice maker box then removed ice maker motor removed back panel took hair drier defrosted the coil then removed bracket screws that hold heaters in place removed bad heater, the hardest part of the job was getting the wirers back around the coils when done just reversed the process.I have a side by side so there was not a whole lot of room to work with. I only weigh 160 lbs it was a tight fit for me. But all in all it went well.
Thanks

The can drinks in refrigerator were not as cold as usual. I opened the freezer and touched the back panel and noticed there was a frost buildup. Since I have had this problem before, I knew that the defrost heater must be bad. I removed all the shelves and the tracks. The back panel is held in by 8 small sheet metal screws. I removed the screws and pulled the back panel up and out. The refrigerator is in garage, so I put a fan in front of it and the fan melted the ice off the coils. I disconnected the wires and checked the the heaters (both wired together) with an ohm meter. The meter showed the heaters to be open. (bad). Actually only 1 of the 2 heaters were bad, but I replaced both of them since they are wired together as a set.

Removed power, removed the ice maker being held with three screws. Replaced with old unit. This box was so old that I robbed parts from the old and placed them on the new unit. Mkes ice very good.

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.

Very slowly, had no clue what I was doing. Instructions were great, and even I got the job done.

I did not do the repair yet, there is no schematic on how to route the hose; also no description of how to do the routing/connections.

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

had to saw off the shaft to get the yoke off and tap the holes for the 8/32 screws. all holes should have been tapped by the factory. Other than these problems, everything else went pretty good.

figured out the condenser fan was kaput. Tried WD, worked for several days then gave out completely. Took off back of fridge and trained small fan on compressor while I ordered new condenser fan. The swap was easy, undid the housing bolts, stripped off the connector, reconnected and voila! works perfect.

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.