36348042896 Kenmore Refrigerator - Instructions

This is the third time the defrost heater has failed, the part was shipped prompt, and the replacement was upgraded to a dual coil. The repair was quick and more cost effective than having a repair guy come out .

we took off the old one and replaced it.

turn breaker off first then use thin blade screwdriver and plastic pry bar to remove light socket and switch there was plenty of wire so work was easy to install at both ends

Determined that the defrost heater was bad (didn't test the thermostat or sensor) and attempted to replace it first.

Got the part in one day (super fast shipping).

1) Removed back panel on the inside of the freezer compartment using a nut driver.
2) Removed the ground wire clip from the metal panel
3) Used a screw driver to remove the two philips head screws that hold the heater assembly in place.
4) carefully pulled off the wires attached to the assembly.
5) attached the wires to the new heater
6)attached the new heater and screwed the new heater in place
7) attached the inside panel
8) fridge is now working great.

It just unpluged and the new one plugged in. Simple. The part was reasonable and arrived very quickly. It sure is nice to have a light in the frig again.

The most difficult part of the repair was the melting of the ice and preparation. I did change a single element heater for a dual element heater, which required a little manual flexing of the sub-frame, but it assembled with little issue. I was lucky, I did not have to splice the extended harness connection. Rerouting my existing gave sufficent length.
Not sure if the single elements were changed for dual, but it did have the same PN as the unit I replaced.

This is such an easy fix!
1-Unplugging the fridge and emptyi it. Remove all shelves.
2-remove the 2 screws at the top of the back panel with a 1/4 inch nutdriver. You'll have to tilt ithis panel forward and sideways to get it out.
3- DO NOT CHIP AT THR ICE COVERING THE COOLING COILS? Replace one shelf and rest a hair dryer on low heat on the shelf.. Plug the drain hole at the bottom with a rag so all the melted ice water doesn't flood the floor under the fridge. Soak up the water with a rag and bucket- this should take 20-30 minutes.
4-Remove the red and blue power cables from the element. Only 2 philips head screws hold the defrosting element in place. Once it's out you can tell it's burned out because it looks black like a burned out lightbulb.
4-Plug in the red and blue power cables to the new unit. You will need to reroute the blue power cable because the new unit has both power connections on the same end.
5-Replace the cover panel by sliding it in at an angle and replace the 1/4 inch screws.
6-Replace the shelves and plug in the fridge.
That's it!

installed 3 of 4 shipped parts. ended up with 2 upper right hand slide rails, even though ones package said upper left.

The refrigerator was no longer cooling and it was suggested by my father that it could be our defrost timer as he has owned many Hotpoint refrigerators in his lifetime and he said the defrost timer was always the problem he had with them when they were not cooling properly. I removed the cover and unplugged the defrost timer, ordered a new timer through this website and installed it by plugging it where the old timer was, replaced the cover and plugged the refrigerator back in. The refrigerator is now cooling again and just in time for Christmas.

I took the glass plate off the top of the drawer, then removed the draw. I then removed the two screws holding the slide rail. I put the new slide rail in place, put the screws back in it, slide the drawer back in place and replaced the glass top. nothing to it.

I watched the video online, followed the instructions and within minutes had the part installed. The frig light was working once again! I will say the original switch was very snug and I had to do some very minor scraping of the plastic to get the new part to slide in.

Turned off the breaker to the fridge because I couldn't reach the power plug to unplug it . Use small flat head screwdriver to pop out the piece, disconnected the rubber prong connectors, inserted the new piece into the rubber prongs snapped it back into place. Flipped the breaker back on and prayed it worked. It did and I saved myself $120 service call.

i unplugged the fridge, first i removed the racks, then unhooked the grounding clip. the i tool off two 1/4 nut screws holding the backplate. then i used my wifes hair dryer to thaw out the ice. after it thawed out i unscrewed the element bracket which is secured by two philips screw. after taking the screws off, its just unplug one end at a time and plug it to the new one to avoid confusion. then reverse install to put back together.

Removed cover in freezer over evaporator,unbolted element ,plugged ,and replaced, very simple. Should be first thing checked when theres a problem.

I knew that the compressor was cooling because the freezer was half-working. The back wall was frozen-up and found that the iced-up coils where blocking the air circulation. So even if the fan was running, there was no air circulation. Hence the deforst cycle was not working.