HMG19956A Admiral Refrigerator

I removed control knobs and a couple of screws and forced the assembly down enough to remove the old thermostat, and insert the new one. Lucky me it was a identical replacement item. Job took about an hour.

First you must unplug the refrigerator, then remove the top hinge and freezer door, then you must remove the middle hinge to remove the refrigerator door, after that there are 4 screws located in the refrigerator compartment that must be removed that are holding the plastic control knob trim in place. When you remove these screws and drop ... Read more the trim piece you can unplug the wiring on it, to completly remove it, next right above the plastic trim previously removed there is a metal trim with 3 screws holding it in place they will be removed now. Now you need to remove all of the shelving in the freezer compartment these pieces will just snap out , at the lower left and right sides of the freezer compartment there are two plastic tips that are attached to the main plastic body of this compartment they will need to be snapped out from behind the metal body of the refrigerator this can be done with a flat head screwdriver. Now pull straight out on the plastic body and it should come out , this will expose an insulating cover over the freezer coil where the defrost heater is located,if this is covered with ice you will need a heat gun which is a overgrown hair dryer basically. To melt the ice you will have to remove a insulating cover that is located behind the previously removed front metal trim it will come out by gently snapping it out of place, use caution during this step so not to break the cover in half. This will expose the front of the freezer coil and you can now use the heat gun to melt the ice, keep a check on the drain pan beneath the refrigerator as it will have to be emptied depending on the amount of ice build up. As the ice melts it should release the top cover of the coil and this will lift out of place also again use caution when removing the cover. With the coil exposed melt the remaining ice, if you look in the coil you will see the defrost heater, if the glass tube on the heater is broken please use extreme caution so you will not get cut by it , now you can unplug each wire from each side of the heater you may need a pair of pliers for this. when the wires are unplugged you can now lift out the bad heater again use caution if the glass is broken. There is a gaurd over the heater that will have to be removed by sliding it off the end wires when you have this off, slide it over the wires on the new element, now gently install the new heater back in the coil reconnect the 2 end wires and make sure they are connected good. you can now assemble all of the covers and parts in the reverse order you removed them, when assenbly is complete plug the refrigerator back in and in about three hours or so you should here the fan and compressor stop and the unit should go into a defrost cycle during this you should here the water running to the drain pan as it melts.

This was an easy fix. The old one had cracked probably from the frige being left out in cold weather. Just remove the back cover. Unscrew the water line and two plastic lines and unplug the two plugs. Then remove a single screw that holds the valve in place and put on the new one and reattach everything. Good idea to recut the ends o ... Read more f the tubing to remove old crimp.