TFJ22JADAAA General Electric Refrigerator - Instructions

Removed cover in freezer over evaporator,unbolted element ,plugged ,and replaced, very simple. Should be first thing checked when theres a problem.

By the time this failure (failed defroster heating element) is evident (top of freezer starts thawing), the entire freezer coil is encased in a block of ice & frost is visble on the back freezer panel.
Empty the freezer & unplug (or turn circuit breaker off) then remove all racks and the light bulb then remove the two lower drawer guides using a phillips srewdriver (2 scrwes each). Use a 1/4" nutdriver to remove the two panel screws on either side of the light bulb socket and pull the panel out, unclip the green grounging wire and set panel aside. this exposes the freezer evaporator coil which is probably encased in ice. If so, use a heat gun or hair dryer to melt the ice away. This takes a half hour of heat application and a bowl or other catchpan should be placed under the coil to remove some of the resulting melting runoff so the evap. pan under the fridg/freezer unit won't be overwhelmed with the excess water.
Replacing the defrost heater & bracket assembly itself is just a matter of removing two phillips screws on either side of the bracket assembly, pulling the bracket free and then uncliping the two electrical terminals. Clip in the new unit to the eletrical terminals & replace the screws, reinstall the rear panel (don't forget to reconnect the ground wire), install the drawer backets, light bulb, shelves and drawer & reapply power. Replacing the bracket itself w/o the defrost proceedure takes about 15 minutes.

Note: If this symptom occurs and is diagnosed (the heater tube will be black and electrically read as "open" using an ohmmeter) and you cannot get the heater assembly & bracket assembly immediately, you can use the heat gun (hairdryer) manual defrost proceedure noted above to get the the unit running while you await the parts arrival. I used the manual defrost procedure and there was just some moderate frost on the coils after five days when I was able to install the replacement part.

i unplugged the fridge, first i removed the racks, then unhooked the grounding clip. the i tool off two 1/4 nut screws holding the backplate. then i used my wifes hair dryer to thaw out the ice. after it thawed out i unscrewed the element bracket which is secured by two philips screw. after taking the screws off, its just unplug one end at a time and plug it to the new one to avoid confusion. then reverse install to put back together.

Turned off the breaker to the fridge because I couldn't reach the power plug to unplug it . Use small flat head screwdriver to pop out the piece, disconnected the rubber prong connectors, inserted the new piece into the rubber prongs snapped it back into place. Flipped the breaker back on and prayed it worked. It did and I saved myself $120 service call.

The most difficult part of the repair was the melting of the ice and preparation. I did change a single element heater for a dual element heater, which required a little manual flexing of the sub-frame, but it assembled with little issue. I was lucky, I did not have to splice the extended harness connection. Rerouting my existing gave sufficent length.
Not sure if the single elements were changed for dual, but it did have the same PN as the unit I replaced.

I watched the video online, followed the instructions and within minutes had the part installed. The frig light was working once again! I will say the original switch was very snug and I had to do some very minor scraping of the plastic to get the new part to slide in.

First I pulled the door up to the top hinge and propped it up with phone books. Secondly I used a nutdriver with an 8mm attachment and removed the bottom hinge. Thirdly, I removed one screw from the bottom of the door with a socket and 8mm attachment and removed the broken cam riser. Being careful as to take note of how the cam was positioned. I then attached the new cam riser to the bottom of the door, attached the bottom hinge to the refrigerator, making sure the pieces (cam riser and plastic on bottom hinge) matched up and after everything was tight, removed the phone books. Remember to first remove the vent on the bottom of the refrigerator and it is much easier to maneuver the door if you empty the contents on the inside. Very easy, I am not very mechanically inclined and this is the first job that I finished in the amount of time as stated. Also, do not chance just the riser as both pieces will be worn. Hinge assembly comes with all you will need.

When the part first arrived I thought that I had ordered the wrong one. It was a dual element heater while the one in the freezer was a single. After reading the instructions it gave specific info on how to replace a single element with the dual. It was VERY easy to replace. i had manually defrosted the coils a couple of days before but they were already covered in frost. I know that I should have manually defrosted them again but I installed the new element anyway and it started working instantly (must have caught it on the 'on' cycle or when I repowered the fridge it started the 'on' cycle). The coils were defrosted within a few minutes. Amazing. Very easy to follow instructions.

Extremely easy repair, the hardest part was getting the old switch out. I used a pair of needle nose pliers to squeeze the tabs in and it came right out.

put the gratefruit knife behind the old switch pooped it out pluged the new one in piece of cake 5min.even vacumed the dust off the coil

Removed panel, then removed single coil unit and replaced it with double coil unit that was sent to me. Refrigerator now working fine.

This fridge had this same problem 4 other times, each time about 1 yr apart. Being as I considered myself ''mechanically challenged'' my wife always contacted her favorite appliance repair man. However, he was unavailable, so wife was gearing up to go ahead, bite the bullet, and buy a new fridge. We really didn't want another bill to worry with so she suggested I try the repair myself. She'd watched the repairman do it the last couple of times and ensured me it would be ''a piece of cake'' plus save us some bucks and put off an added expense at least a little longer. Ordering the part from this site was simple. The fridge did have the old 1 bulb element and the new one was the 2 bulb element so I was afraid I'd have to do some splicing, but lucked out and the wire was easily redirected and reached without any stress or problems to plug into the new part. She watched the install video and was able to talk me through it without any problems. We saved at least $125 install bill, plus put off making a big item purchase a while longer. I hope the new 2 element defroster does a better job and we might just get 10 more years out of 'old faithful'!

Followed the video describing the repain and the written directions. The Video is excellent and made the job easy to follow

First I removed the two screws that hold the element in place. I then pulled the element out about 3 inches and disconnected the two wires.Threw away the old defroster. Put the new one in. I had to reroute the blue wire over to the right hand side and plugged it in.Put the back on. put the shelves in and I was done! We had this done just about 3 years ago and it cost us about $175. The cost of this repair was only $38.05 with shipping and all! What a great deal! Thanks so much PartSelect!

Parts select sugested checking the freezer side on the side by side if there was frost on the back panel. I took the back panel off on the freezer side inside the freezer. I found that the freezer coils were full of ice.Had to use a hair dryer to melt all the ice. The heater element was bad on the bottom of the freezer. I ordered a new defrost element an installed in 40 minutes and is running fine.You can still use the refrigerator until the new part comes in if you melt off the coils.It will last about 2 weeks.