36348042897 Kenmore Refrigerator - Instructions

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.

First I removed the two screws that hold the element in place. I then pulled the element out about 3 inches and disconnected the two wires..

Parts select sugested checking the freezer side on the side by side if there was frost on the back panel. I took the back panel off on the freezer side inside the freezer. I found that the freezer coils were full of ice.Had to use a hair dryer to melt all the ice. The heater element was bad on the bottom of the freezer. I ordered a new defrost element an installed in 40 minutes and is running fine.You can still use the refrigerator until the new part comes in if you melt off the coils.It will last about 2 weeks.

First I placed a 2x4 under the frig door to keep it in place while I removed the hinge on the bottom of the door. I removed two screws holding the hinge and one screw holding the washer in place. I also loosened a screw adjacent to the washer so that I could more easily remove and replace the washer. The parts went in easily. The repair took much less time than I anticipated.

Fortunately while my refirgerator was still under warrant I had this same problem and watched the repairman fix it. To confrm my suspicions I cleaned out the freezer compartment, removed the back panel (2 screws), and used a hair dryer to defrost it. I suggest plugging the drain hole or laying a towel in the bottom of the compartment to catch the run off or your drain pan could over low. Once defrosted I was able to verify that the element on the defrost heater was burnt. Since it was Sunday I re-assembled and cranked it back up until I could get the part. I did a goggle search on Monday, found the part instantly using only the model number from the refrigerator at PartsSelect.com. The part arrived Wednesday as promised, I repeated the process from Sunday, removed the defective part (2 screws & 2 plug in type wire connections) and she works like a charm now. I do think the manufacture of the part should consider a new design since this is the second one my unit has needed in less than 5 years. At only $27.50 ea. I should have purchased a spare to have for the next time!

I removed food, then removed shelves.
The light bulb and shade had to be taken out.
removed two screws from interior back panel.
defrosted cooling coils
removed two screws from defrost heater
took off two wires ...done
reversed procedure to finish installation

I removed the door from the bottom hinge assembly by removing the top hinge assembly.
1. Installed the cam to the bottom of the door.
2. Installed hinge and bottom pin & cam to the refrigerator.
3. Reinstalled door and adjusted front roller height to make door close better.

I cleaned out the door and removed the top hinge. Lifted the door and layed it on the floor. Removed bottom hinge from refridgerator installed new hinge. Replaced plastic stop on door. Used broke hinge to align it and tighten. Lifted door onto new hinge and installed top hinge. Instead of buying $35 dollar hinge buy 2 plastic stops. You'll have to drill out a rivet on bottom hinge but it will save over $30.00.

Emptied refrigerator door shelves. Supported door with 4x4 blocks. Removed old door hinge and replaced with new door hinge and cams. Pleased with end result and dealing with PartSelect.

At first the part appeared to be too large because of the change from one heater to two heaters in the replacement part. It was necessary to push a copper refrigerant line back out ot the way about an inch or so before the part would fit properly. This might take a little courage from the do-it-yourselfer, but it moved easily and seems no worse for the move. Currently the fridge is working well(two weeks) with no buildup of any frost on freezer panel as previouly noted. Overall experience was just fine. Makes d-i-y guy look good!

After reading posts on this website, I determined I needed to replace the defrost heater. Removed heater to take a closer look and after testing with a voltmeter determined it needed replacing. Ordered part online and could not believe how quickly it arrived. Blue wire that travels down the left side of the freezer coils had some damage on the end of the plastic connector so was pleased to find that I was able to splice the extension wire provided in the defrost heater kit onto the blue wire and dispose of the damaged end. It's been about 10 days and I do believe my problem has been solved!

This is a repair INSIDE the freezer. Turned off unit.. Unplugged. Removed shelving on freezer side. Removed freezer draw rails (4 screws total.) Removed 2 screws that hold rear panel in place at rear of freezer side (this is inside the freezer). Carefully removed metal panel by pulling from the left (side that does not have shelving clips. As noted on this website and other users, the freezer coils were incased in ice. Thawed with a hair dryer (put towels in bottom of freezer-ice was pretty heavy in mine). When thawed, remove heater element by removing 2 screws that hold it to the aluminum bracket. Then remove wires on each end. Simply install the new emelment by attaching wires back on heater and screw new unit in place. (My original heating element was a single element-you could very easily see where the heating coil inside the glass tube had shorted out. My replacement heater was a 2 element unit. This did not pose any problem at all-installs in the same manner-good directions are provided.). Replace all parts in reverse order. It's that simple. Saved probably $150. This site is wonderful! Fast shipping and the users install tips/notes are fantastic!! Will shop here again if I have to (have a Maytag washer that isn't draining and going into spin-bet the fix is on here somewhere!

My right door (food door on side-by-side) stopped closing - I found pieces of the plastic washer (cam riser) on the floor. After reading the stories on the web I decided to order the new part - and YES there are many universal parts that work for Kenmore/GE. The part comes with two parts (hinge and cam riser) - you should install both to insure a good fit. I took 3 blocks of wood and a shim and supported the bottom center of the door, unscrewed the hinge off and dropped it out (3 minutes). The "only" tough part was unscrewing the cam riser from the bottom of the door - it required a very small socket and you will only have about 6-8 inches of work space. Be sure you have a socket that fits before you take the hinge off. The entire repair took less than 30 minutes and contrary to some of the posts, you DO NOT need to take the door off. Good as new again!

The repair itself is super easy. The heater harness comes with instructions that is easy to follow. The only issue I encountered is that my refrigerator had 1 heating element and you will get one with 2 heating elements. Because of this, the new connectors are on 1 side. Since my old heater had 1 connector on each end, 1 wire is too short if you route both wires the same way as before. The kit comes with an extra wire and directs you to splice the short wire and attach the extra wire with the included connector. I figured a refrigerator with a spliced wire is not a good combination so I rerouted the short wire to the other side along with the other wire. This allowed me to connect both wires without using the extra wire.

First I removed the two screws that hold the element in place. I then pulled the element out about 3 inches and disconnected the two wires.Threw away the old defroster. Put the new one in. I had to reroute the blue wire over to the right hand side and plugged it in.Put the back on. put the shelves in and I was done! We had this done just about 3 years ago and it cost us about $175. The cost of this repair was only $38.05 with shipping and all! What a great deal! Thanks so much PartSelect!