85081 Amana Refrigerator - Instructions

Pretty simple really after reading online some other owners' experiences. This is a bottom freezer unit. Remove the ice maker, the tray slides, and the back cover of the freezer box. In my case I had to thaw it out with a hair dryer as the cover was frozen in place. I checked the old 'stat and found it was bad; I temporarily wired the leads together until the new 'stat arrived. It does allow the refrigerator to warm up during a defrost cycle but it beats de-icing it twice.The defrost 'stat is clipped over the refrigerant line in the upper right corner of the box. Resistance was 65k ohms and wouldn't close on low temp (tested by clipping it to an exposed refrigerant line in another upright freezer) but there was no obvious damage. The one lead on the replacement 'stat has the wrong connector so you have to cut off the original lead from the old unit and splice it on the wrong lead on the new one. I used an epoxy sealed heat shrink type butt splice. Reassemble and let it run. One word of warning: be careful tightening any screws as they will strip easily

removed old ice maker by taking out a couple of screws in the back of freezer,when new ice maker arrived i saw that it didn't have the same hose apparatus as old one so I easily took apart old one then took apart new one and switched them out-very-- easily done for a 61 yr old lady I might add-- also had to reinstall ice maker arm off old ice maker as new one does not come with one Then installed new ice maker in freezer I am very very pleased,sure saved a lot of money doing it my self

This was the third icemaker replaced since January 1999. Improvement need to be made in the design of the icemaker so that more than 2-3 years of life is available.
The most difficult part was disconnecting the power plug in the back of the icemaker. You must squeeze the upper and lower tabs together and pull out at the same time to disconnect. Once this is done, take out one nut head screw, lift up on the icemaker and remove from the hanger. Be careful that you don't break the plastic tabs on the hangers. Replace new icemaker in reverse, feed water supply where it must go in the back, resnap onto hangers, replace the nut head screw and snap in the power plug. It took about 2 hours before the icemaker began making ice. It has been working fine ever since. PS. I saved about $200.00 over having a repairman come in and replace the unit.

Removed pin holding the wheel along with leveling screw. Put new wheel in place, replace pin and screw. Done...very easy.

Removed the 3 screws that hold the ice maker in place and remove the cover and level wire. Put the cover and wire on new part and install the 3 screws. Had ice within 1 hour. A very easy job for the do it yourselfer. Suspect the heat coil that melts the cubes was not working in the old unit and cubes stayed in the tray.

Repair went well,took about five to ten minutes to disconnect the power from the fridge removed the defective switch installed the new one ,reconnected the power,,,and Let there be light and there was light!

The parts were very easy to replace, however I am still without ice and cannot figure out why. I have ohm tested the contol unit and everything works fine, I am able to jump it and turn on the motor and water fill valve. Any suggestions?...

Remove 1 screw under ice maker. Gently pull downwards to unhook ice maker. Disconnected 4 pin wire connector. Remove and set aside the cover and wire loop you will need on new ice maker. Reverse the steps to install new maker. Once new ice maker is installed you will have to wait 2-4 hours for ice. There is a thermostat that will need to reach 10 degrees F to operate.

Referencing the info/schematics you have on your website, I unscrewed/unattached top-front panel (carefully), from behind the panel you have to detach the wires (2) from the switch, pushed "in" the switch to remove, put in new switch and attach wires to test BEFORE remounting panel. Tada!! Thank you PartSelect! You saved me at least $80...would have been at least $100 to have a repair person come to the house!

first thing i thought was the condenser was plugged so pulled out and cleaned with shop vacum backwards so it became a blower not a vacum cleaned it good and put together. wife noticed cracking noise inside freezer. took all freezer food and shelfs out. took 1/4 inch hex nut screws out and found complete condenser solid ice. did some research on internet and found parts select stories. i buy passed thermostate and hooked heating coils direct which then thawed condenser. checked timer by turning of and it worked fine until i got part and installed.

Part received was what I needed. There was one issue--the 'feed' opening to receive water and direct it into the ice tray was a side feed and what I needed was a back feed. That means I had to do some exchanging of parts to make it work. That exercise took more time that the actual installation.

replaced the entire ice make - 3 screws and a squeeze -off connector and it's out. Reverse to re-install... except that the fill tube had iced up. To thaw the fill tube: unload freezer section (leave food in fridge, but keep door closed), remove ice maker. Boil water, dip drill bit (dull end) into hot water, swirl around, insert (dull end) into to fill tube. Depending on how hot you got it, maybe a tablespoon of ice will melt. Repeat many times - fill tube is about 14" long! Do not use anything sharp - you will nick the tube and ice will form causing you to repeat this procedure. Do not try to break the ice - let the heat work. It took me about 30 minutes to thaw the whole thing - it made a nive gasping noise when the final plug opened up. Re-install ice maker.

After unplugging the appliance I needed to thaw a large ice buildup off the evaporator cover panel before I could even remove the panel. The freezer being on the lower part of the appliance has the evaporator mounted vertically and it was 100% encapsulated in rock hard ice. It took over an hour to thaw the ice and collect all the water with a shop vacuum, since the condensate pan began to overflow.
One thawed, I checked all wiring for good connection, checked heater, defrost thermostat, timer unit with multimeter. The defrost thermostat checked out fine after putting it into another freezer for a 15 minute cooldown, but I noticed a crack in the seal and suspected internal moisture and decided to replace that part. A simple plug in of two leads to the new part after clipping it to the evaporator, replacement of the panel, and the appliance was up and running problem free.
A workbench disection of the old part confirmed my assessment, it had internal rust and water and had failed causing the defrost cycle failure.

The refrig seemed warm so I checked the temp of some liquid with a thermometer. Readings were above 60 degrees and I knew food would spoil soon. I vacuumed the dog fur off the cooling coils underneath the machine to see if that would help. Nope. I realized cold air from the freezer was not reaching the refrig. The fan was working but no cold air was coming out. I figured a blockage either in the air duct from the refrig or in the return duct to the freezer. I didn’t see any blockage in the refrig section. I took everything out of the freezer and removed the back wall. The cooling coils were completely frozen solid with frost. Being a frost free machine, I knew there were heaters that were controlled by a timer that melted this frost away periodically and that this cycle was no longer working. I found a schematic on the web, maybe your site, and educated myself on the heater circuit. The circuit consisted of a timer, thermostat near the coils, and a cal rod heater all wired in series. The timer was easy to get to and being a mechanical device I figured it must be the culprit. I ordered one online. I checked its operation and it worked fine. Realizing time was short, I hot wired the cal rod around the thermostat and rotated the timer to its heat position. The frost melted quickly and I put the freezer back together and ordered a thermostat. I canceled the timer order. When it arrived, I installed the new thermostat and it has worked fine for the past month. A little colder than usual as I don’t yet have the settings back to where they were. I have checked the operation of the old thermostat. It’s supposed to close at 30 degrees and open at 45. I have done a continuity check on it by putting it in the freezer, letting it cool down, take it out, let it warm up and it seems to work fine. So I have doubts if I really solved the problem. Wire connections were tight and not corroded. Maybe the timer was hung up on debris that I freed by cycling it. I don’t think this is the end of the story.

I took a chance and ordered a switch that is next to the top of the door. looked for how to remove it easily done in ten minutes works fine last long time.