AB2526PEKW Amana Refrigerator

Having seen this problem before in other equipment so I had an idea where to look. Problem: the automatic defrost function was not operating. Looking through openings in the back panel of the freezer compartment, you could see the evaporator coils and fins were a solid chuck of ice. There are three logical components to check. Heater ... Read more element, thermostat (located just above the evaporator) and a relay on the control board (located in the fridge control panel). Checked the heater with an ohm meter -- OK. The thermostat closes the circuit at around 20 degrees and opens at around 32 degrees. Pulled out the thermostat, wiring, fan unit. Everything unplugs, unscrews, and unclips, don't cut wires. Put the whole assembly in a friends freezer for an hour or so to see if the thermostat closes -- OK. Problem had to be with the control board. Replaced control board, reprogrammed it per included instruction. Everything is working again.

The hard part for me was figuring out which part was causing the problem. I read what others had done and followed their test methods. I checked the defroster heater for continuity and the defroster thermostat to make sure it was closing. the defroster termostat has to be cold to check it. You will need to check it while it is in ice or t ... Read more ake it out and put it in another freezer for 30 mins and then check it for continuity. Those items checked out ok so it had to be the control board. The control board is a 5 min job to replace but making sure that is your problem is the hard part. I think the control board was bad due to a power surge we had when the power went out and came back on. It might be a good idea to put a surge protector on your home to protect your fridge and all your other electronic stuff. Our refrigerator is now working like new again. Thank you for all your help, Jim

First thing to do is take two screws off where the door closes.I removed the light sheild off by pushing it to back of refrig.The most hardest part is removing the complete panel,I took a small flat blade scraper to ply down to get small access than you need to put alot of pressure to start getting the panel to start coming off there are ... Read more alot of pegs to free,the back panel has two hinges that slide towards the front.Once the panel drops remove the connectors and take entire unit out,very easy to replace the control board at this point.Installation is easy slide the two hinges on back in place and put pressure on unit to snap entire unit in place.Program unit with paperwork that came with part very easy to do.Frig is working great now.Just a note the paperwork on refrig is located in the front right corner the mf hids it ,this information will allow you to check all problems with refrig using the key pads for freezer/refrig.Good luck.