Defrost Thermostat

Overload relay accessible from back, by compressor unit. Very easy to change out. Diagram from your site placed defrost thermostat in same area.It wasn't. Found another diagram, showed it in refrigerator light area, took that apart, not there. Yet another diagram showed it in the duct work area at back of refrigerator cabinet. Not there. Finally removed back of freezer compartment, found thermistor and thermostat with the fins. Clipped wires, wired in parts, quick fix. Longest amount of time was spent finding the old parts to replace them. Actual replacement took less than 15 minutes. Refrigerator holding at 35 degrees set on 2 now, better than ever. Total cost, less than $120, doing iy ourselves....priceless.

Start by removing the freezer door and inner baskets so you have some space. Next, take out the ice maker by removing the 3 screws that attach it to the side and unplug it from the harness. Then the cover for the thermistor and the fan vent should be popped off carefully leaving the back cover only. The back cover is held on by 4 screws, one in each corner. Remove all 4 screws and carefully loosen the back cover by pulling the top forward and laying it level to pull it out. Behind the cover are the coils and other components. If the coils are covered with ice they should be defrosted by using a blow dryer. Once the ice is clear, the thermostat is located towards the top left clamped onto a copper pipe that circles up and around. Carefully pull it off the pipe and cut the wires making sure you leave enough to reattach the new ones with a butt connector. Strip about 1/4 inch of insulation off the wires and crimp both ends into the butt connector making sure they are tight. Heat shrink is highly recommended. Clamp the new thermostat to the copper pipe where the old one used to be and your almost done. Replace the back cover the opposite of the way it was pulled out by putting it in flat with the bottom part in front. Once it is all the way to where it needs to be, push the top upwards while sliding the bottom downwards, then push it in flat against the back. It can be bent slightly if needed. Put the screws back in that hold it on and replace the plastic covers. Then reinstall the ice maker being sure the hose for the water is correctly positioned so that the water goes into the ice maker. Turn it back on and put the baskets and door back on and you're done.

Info on your site allowed me to determine the most likely cause of the problem, defrost thermostat, and that fixed it. Good installation instructions on the site too. Part was super easy to install. Hardest part was removing the snap-in/screwed-in plastic parts that held the sliding baskets and back panel in place. Didn't break any.....Thank You!

The vents at the back of the freezer were constantly getting packed with ice. A repairman failed to spot the problem. I used Partselect's web site to do my own analysis and determined that it was the defrost thermostat.
I followed the web site's instructions, which were exceptionally good. Behind the rear wall of the freezer was a lot of ice on the cooling fins and heavily encrusted over the old thermostat. (It was not really difficult, but I am in my 70s and no longer do things like this on my own.)
After replacing the part, I checked the ohms of the old part and found it to be faulty. Since then, the refrigerator has been working great. I wish I had started here. The repairman I had hired replaced the "control board" at significant expense. I doubt very much that anything was wrong with the old control board.
Many thanks to Partselect for an exceptionally helpful web site.

First, turned off the circuit breaker. Then: 1. Removed all food, , wire sliding baskets, and the ice bin.
2. Removed ice maker by removing the electrical connector from the socket in the rear panel, removed the single bottom screw with a 1/4” nut driver, loosened the 2 top screws with a 1/4” nut driver, and lifting the unit up and off the 2 loosened screws.
3. Removed the freezer door by loosening the 4 screws( 2 on each side) with a 1/4” nut driver and then lifting the door face off the loosened screws.
4. The next task is to remove the panel at the rear of the freezer compartment: use a flat blade screw driver to compress the side clips that hold the ice maker electrical socket, pushing it into the space behind the rear panel, then removing the rear plastic cover in the center of the rear panel, and finally removing the thermistor cover on the right rear upper corner of the rear panel( separate the thermistor from this piece, threading it through the slot in the top of the plastic cover.
Now, the rear panel can be removed by removing the 4 1/4”” hex head screws with the nut driver and gently easing the panel from its position.
5. Now comes the hard part: the defrost thermostat and most of the surrounding “plumbing” was encased in ice. I used a hair dryer to melt the ice, which created an overflow of water drawing into the collection pan; get ready to mop up this water.
6. With ALL the ice melted( this took over an hour), I simply cut the 2 wires, stripped the feed ends, removed the defective unit, clipped the new thermostat to the copper tube where the old unit was clipped, cut excess wire/stripped the new wires and used 2 orange wire nuts to connect each wire.
Now all the parts and pieces can be reinstalled in the reverse order

CHECK DEFROST THERMOSTAT WITH VOLT OHM METER AND FOUND THERMOSTAT BAD ALSO OHMED OUT HEATER AND HEATER CHECKED OK INSTALLED HEAT SRINK CONNECTORS ON NEW DEFROST THERMOSTAT PUT SYSTEM BACK INTO O
PRATION ALSO CHANGED WATER FILTER ON REFERGRATOR
SYSTEM WORKING OK AND NO ICING OF COILS THANKS WADE BOYLES

Unplugged unit. Allowed to melt ice and drain overnight. Removed ice maker. Removed back panel to freezer/coil section. Cut wires to defrost thermostat and removed. Installed new defrost thermostat and wire nutted two wires. Reinstalled back panel and ice maker. Plugged unit back in. (I unplugged defrost heater and used ohm meter to verify that the defrost heater had continuity, and did not have to be replaced).

Repair not done. The next repair person said it was the compressor. Cost to fix $1,000.00. So we spent between parts and service calls 600.00 and it’s not fixable.Had to purchase a new onefor2,200.00. Have been without a refrigator for 2 weeks.