Defrost Heater and Bracket Assembly

Called a friend that lead me down the right path so i did a search for the part's and found this site. The trouble shooting that outher's had done was the same as mine, I descovered that the coil's in the freezer had frozen up complety. They are located behind a plasic cover in the freezer area, it had frozen up due to the Defrost heater element being defective, when i took it out it was black and burnt looking,It is located at the bottom edge of the coils,2 bolt's and a plug in on each side. That is probally the only part i needed but i went ahead and replaced the sensor and timer also.The sensor wires in the freezer( located on the very top of the coils) had to be cut and the new ones spliced in, only 2 wires and easy access. I also put shrink wrap on the splices to protect them from mosisture. The timer was located in the fridge area by the temp. control knobs. 2 small bolts and a plug in was all on it. It's been 5 day's and so far so good. The worst part was defrosting the frozen coils. This was done with the wife's hair dryer and a couple towel's to soak up the water. Don't just let the water go down the drain hole because the tray that catches it will not hold all the water from the frozen coil's. Just a reminder, don't forget to unplug the unit when working on it. Hope this help's and was very easy install, Cost about $125 in part's and a couple hours of labor(did a good cleaning while it was eampty for the repair) Good luck.

1st symptom, water dispenser not working.
2nd symptom, carrots freezing in fridge lower drawer.
3rd symptom, 3 days later, freezer getting warmer and warmer, fan always running, back of inside wall of freezer building up with ice.
Originally changed water valve for dispenser thinking it was the only problem.
After noticing the freezer getting warmer and doing some reading, I decided the best guesstimate would be the defrost thermostat or heater behind the inside freezer wall. Defrosting all that ice to get behind the wall is the time consuming part of this job. Not wishing to defrost and troubleshoot to determine which component failed, they are cheap enough to just buy both the heater and t-stat and replace both and be done with it. It turned out to be the heater, an element encased in glass, the glass turns black on the ends when it is toasted. This is a very easy fix. If you do not have crimpers for the butt connectors for the 2 wires for the t-stat, you can use a wire nut to twist them together and seal it with silicone/rtv. The heater just plugs in on both ends. Remember it is glass and very delicate, take your time. Start to finish this could be a 3 hour job, but most of that time is melting the ice, cleaning up and putting everything back in the freezer.

First unplug then remove all food and the ice cubes from the freezer only..Then removed the traysand then the 2 panel screws. Defrosted the coils with a hair dryer,removed the 2 screws holding the heater and then unplugged the wires from each side.Installed the new heater and now has been fine for 12 days now..The sensor- I just spliced it in the exact way the old sensor was wired.All seems fine so far. Was alot cheaper to buy the parts and install myself than to pay for 1 service call..

Emptied the fridge and freezer. Unplugged it and in so do doing defrosted the freezer coils. Replace the listed parts, for they were right there easy to get at and replace. Between the three of them we had an 80% chance of getting what was wrong. The freezer and the refridgerator are both working just fine. No more warm milk.

Repair was very easy. First, be sure to turn the appliance off. I removed the 5 screws holding the panel in the back of the freezer. I used a hair dryer to thaw the condenser coils so I could access the heater and related wiring. I removed the 2 screws holding the heater in place and unplugged the heater. Plugged in the new heater and replaced everything in reverse order. I then cut the 2 wires to the defrost thermostat and removed it. I attached the new thermostat to the wires with wire nuts. Then replaced the cover in the freezer and turned everything back on. It is important to use the hair dryer to remove the ice from the condenser coils.

-Disconnect the power supply wire& turn temp control inside refrigerator to 0!
-15 mins spent on remove (5 screws) the back panel inside freezer, melt ice then replace the heater (2 screws) on the bottom! Black wire on left & pink wire on the right! Make sure both end has good connection to the heater!

-30 mins to drain all water from the bottom (back side) of the refrigerator, suck & clean all dust & dirt from the front & back side!

-Set both temp control knots to 5 & put back all the food!

-If no ice build up on the panel after 10 days & then the repair is good!

First, removed shelves and items in freezer.
Then, removed back panel using socket set and philips screwdriver which exposed iced over coils, then defrosted coils using hair dryer set on hot-high. This was the most time consuming part of repair-30 minutes. removed heater and bra's 2 screws and pulled electrical leads from both ends. Reconnected the two leads to new heater and bra, then reattached using 2 screws back onto coil frame. Cut thermostats 2 lead wires-one pink the other orange, reconnected leads from new thermostat with wire nuts, applied silicone to protect connections, then reattached onto coil frame. reattached back panel using socket set and philips screwdriver to re-attach bolts and philips screws, then cleaned any remaining water from the defrosting with dry towel. Attached freezer shelves, items and plugged in refrigerator freezer. Appliance works like it's brand new again.

Removed shelves from freezer section and removed protective cover using a screwdriver and nutdriver. 5 screws.
Upon removal of the cover, I noticed the coils totally cover with ice. At this point I noticed that the defrost heater was burnt out. I removed the heater using screwdriver and pliers and tested the heater according to instructions from Parts Select website.
Since the coil was exposed, I also tested the defrost thermostat according to Parts select instructions and found it to be working properly. i also tested the defrost timer and found it OK.
I replaced the heater, closed the protective cover, replaced the shelves and plugged the unit on.
It has been working just fine since then..
In addition to saving money, i saved myself the agravation of looking for a repairman and having to wait for THEIR convenience to to the work.

i turned off the fridge and unpluged it , took out all the shelfs in the freezer and took off the back panel to get to the heater , the heater is only held in with 2 screws and unhook the 2 wires and replace the heater , and then thermostate is on top of the coils , i just cut the 2 color coded wires and replace the theromstate , was easyer then i thought ,

Replacing the heater is very easy. Remove the wire racks and the two lower rack bracket screws. Remove the two screws to the back panel, unclip the ground wire and remove the panel. Two screws hold he heater on and two wires for the connection.
However, this did not solve my problem. The story is this. The fridge was getting warm because the coils were freezing over. I called the local repair guys "poncho and lefty" and they came out and replace the themostat and charged me $150. It still froze over a week later. They came back and said it must be the circuit board and charged me just for the $125 part. Nope, it still froze over in a week. So I thought I would take things into my own hands and tell poncho and left to hit the trail. I then ordered a new heater because the old one looked bad even though it checked out okay with an ohm meter. Unfortunately, that didn't solve the problem either. The last thing is to replace are the temp sensors. But before I ordered anything I submitted my problem to a "fix it" forum and someone suggested to check the part number of the themostat that was put in. This turned out to be a brilliant observation. It seems poncho and lefty replace the thermostate with one that is used with a timer. This fridge has the timer built into the circuit board and has a very different temp range than the one they replace it with. Their first clue should have been that the wires were a different color than the one they were replacing and that the part number was totally different than the one they took out. So I ordered a new thermostat and the three temp sensors and replace all of this and the unit works as good as new. The forum also told me that the bullet shaped temp sensor were faulty and should all be replaced, which I did.
Now I have all new parts, so it should be good to go until the compressor takes a nose dive. Hopefully, that will not be for 5 or 6 more years.