Defrost Heater and Thermostat Assembly

Okay all you ladies out there, listen up. Yep, I am a girl and had never worked on a refrigerator before. I googled the model of frig and the problem. Finding that one of two things were probably wrong, I went to parts select and ordered both parts. Two days later they arrived. I replaced the coil and thermostat and waited one day -- the food side still did not cool down. I replaced the frost board and immediately the unit started to cool. I had called a repairman on Saturday and was told that they couldn't make an appointment until the following Friday because of a tremendous work load. I had the refrigerator running by Thursday, the day before anyone could even take a look at my refrigerator. Even though I spent $30 on a part I didn't need, I saved a bundle, the house call would of been more than $30.

I removed the screws on the covers and remove them, then taken the screws from the timer, the temperature control just set in there, then pulled out a lttle ways and disconnected the wires and then removed. Installed the new ones. I taken the back panel off and removed the clip and pulled the defrost heater out a ways and removed the wires and removed the defrost heater. Installed the new defrost heater and clip and the covers.

Removed all parts and replaced defrost heater/thermostat and new clip then replaces Defrost board (new ones just snap in) and replaced all parts back and seems to be back to normal.
Thank you Parts Select

After removing all shelves, I removed the 2 screws holding the 2 panels in front of the evaporator and heater. The heater is located at the bottom of the evaporator coils and is held on by a simple wire clip. After removing the heater and thermostat, is very easy to replace the new unit and reconnect the wire harness.

Removed control section and found ice build up in transfer tunnel from the freezer section to the fridge section. freezer fan was running, compressor running - no air coming into fridge section. Possible and cheapest problem - no defrost cycle taken place. Replaced defrost heater/t-stat in freezer and defrost controller in fridge. Seams to work (for now).

Simple parts replacement. The temp control was a bit tricky as it involved replicating the bends of the tiny tubing for the sensor coil, but everything is so modular that it was not that difficult.

Freezer defrosted while doing the control repairs, it had a lot of ice stuck in the evaporator because the defrost function was not working.

The worst part of all this was moving the food and making sure it did not spoil.

I removed the back lower panel within the freezer compartment. The cooling fan which draws cold air from the evaporator unit was functioning fine. I then unplugged the unit.
The evaporator unit was frozen in a block of ice. I removed all food contents from both the freezer and the refrigerator, moving them to a back-up refrigerator. I then allowed the radiator to thaw completely overnight. Upon restarting the unit it became cold within an hour thus I new the compressor was fine. I surmised it must be a defrost issue. I then unconnected the defrost heater and thermostat assembly. The device was easy to remove. I then routed the wire of the new assembly on the side of the evaporator unit and clipped the thermostat back onto the cooper feed, plugged the unit into the connection. Next I turned my attention to replacing the adaptive defrost timer. In the top of the refrigerator compartment, I removed the plastic shroud, by sliding back and pushing the plastic clips in. I took out 4 screws holding the unit to the ceiling of the refrigerator. Slowly lowering this, I could see the adaptive defrost timer in the right rear corner. I simply unplugged the unit and replaced with a new unit. I replaced both items although I am unsure which was not working. Refrigerator is working fine now.

This was very easy. I removed all the shelves in the freezer compartment. I removed two nutscrews to remove the back wall. Then I removed the little radiator looking part by removing two more nutscrews. I unplugged the old thermostat assembly and installed the new one exactly like I removed it, then I reversed the procedure to put it all back together. Very easy my wife could have done it. ThANKS!! to Parts Select for the help of all the blogs I read before doing the job.

These so called factory trained techs, at least the ones that looked at my fridge don't know jack. I explained my problem, they replaced T-Stat refridge side, onother time they replaced door gasket, still not cold enough, found your website,
got all the answers. Ordered and installed,defrost
heater and T stat assy and adaptive defrost control. Remove shelves freezer side, remove evaporator cover 1/4" nutdriver ,defrost with hair
drier, unsnap elec. connector and relaced part.
The ADC, removed screws mounted on roofside
was able to lower plastic panel enough to unplug
the ADC, it just laid there, removed and replaced.
Don't know which part was bad, but I do know that
they are interconnected, at this point I din't care to defrost manually which I did for the last 7 months.
Thanks for your guidance. USMC Ross

My husband first replaced the Defrost heater and the fridge still didn't stay cold. We had to defrost the freezer once a week and the fridge would stay cold for a few days, but after we replaced the Thermostat Assembly it worked GREAT! Thank you all for your comments and suggestions it saved us hundreds of dollars having to replace an, otherwise, perfectly fine fridge. Good luck to you if you have this problem, it was sooo fast and easy to replace these parts and totally worth the money.