JRSD226 BQ31A Jenn-Air Refrigerator - Instructions

Found a tip online that said to check the resistance of the defrost coil, when I had none I knew the coils had burned out. Before pulling the old coil out I tied on some long pieces of string as was suggested, that made things go very quick! The hardest part was reaching to the back of the narrow freezer space, but fortunately I have long arms. So far all is working well, and I have a great deal of satisfaction knowing I did the repair myself!

Merely remove the front bottom screw that attached the ice maker to the refrigerator
Lift the ice maker gently off of the 2 top screws
Unplug the icemaker wiring harness from the back of the refrigerator, and remove
Snap off the end of the maker and remove the keeper for the wire arm
Remove the wire arm and install on new maker
Unplug the wiring harness from the old maker and plug into the new one
Plug the harness into the refrigerator, slip the new maker over the top screws, with the water feed tube inserted into the maker
Install bottom screw into the bracket that holds it in place.
This took less than 5 minutes.

I took out 1 screw , unplugged the icemaker and lifted it out and installed the new one and had ice in no time at all. can't get much easier.

Followed the online PartSelect video instructions and it was very helpful. The ice maker has to cycle through before it starts making ice so don't be alarmed when nothing happens when you first hook it up.

Old ice maker leaking water and produced ice cubes with black inclusions. First, I removed old ice maker per video instructions. Transferred electrical cable, cover, and bail to new ice maker. First installation failed because I failed to make sure water tube correctly enter back of ice maker. No ice. Initially thought electrical cable wasn't firmly in place. Then I noticed frozen water dripping down back of freezer. A clue! Removed ice maker and reinstalled making sure water tube went through the hole in back of ice maker. Now the new ice maker works beautifully!

figured out the condenser fan was kaput. Tried WD, worked for several days then gave out completely. Took off back of fridge and trained small fan on compressor while I ordered new condenser fan. The swap was easy, undid the housing bolts, stripped off the connector, reconnected and voila! works perfect.

I did not do the repair yet, there is no schematic on how to route the hose; also no description of how to do the routing/connections.

evaporator coils were frozen solid and air wasn't flowing across them

read all directions first, then consider which steps you'd like to take

in any case...
- check for blockages in the upper and lower air vents that allow air from freezer side to cool the fridge-side
- inspect that the fan in the freezer side is actually turning and not blocked


- if no blockages and air is flowing between the sides...

- unplug the unit
- remove all goods from freezer and fridge
- remove freezer side racks
- remove rear panel on freezer side using philips screwdriver (note that the ice-cube tray motor housing must be freed by removing its screws. it can be pull out a bit to get to a single screw holding the top of the rear panel in place)
- allow the evaporator coils to evaporate all ice off, checking the drain pan under the fridge frequently - accelerate the process using a hair dryer or paint stripper (heat gun)
- disconnect the white wires from the connection block located about 2/3 of the way up the rear wall and check resistance using an ohmeter (see specs on back of fridge on circuit diagram)
- if you get a very high resistance reading, the heater element is likely broken. if so...
-- remove the 2 metal shields located horizontally across the evaporator coils (behind them are the two series-connected defrost heater elements)
-- visually inspect the elements - if they are discolored green or black, remove and inspect more closely (most likely they are blown, just like a light-bulb filament that shows black on the glass)
-- if you see nothing, remove them anyway (since high reading) and check connectors
-- replace them (likely only $30 to $75, depending on type)

- if coils seem ok, or if not suspect, check the defrost thermostat WHILE IT IS STILL IN A WORKING/COLD FREEZER.
- get the defrost thermostat into a coil chamber (other freezer or bucket of ice?) and check resistance using an ohmeter. It must be WELL-BELOW 40F to test it. When it is truly immersed in cold (as it would be in a working freezer), test the resistance. it should be 0-ohms when <<40F and some much higher resistance (>200KOhms) when > 40F.
- if not, replace it

-lastly, if neither the defrost heater elements are bad nor the defrost thermostat is bad, open up the defrost timer
-- the defrost timer is located in the fridge side, likely with the fridge thermostat knobs/controller
-- it is a 5-pin part that cannot be repaired. If all else is checked, most likely the defrost element is never coming on because the timer is not turning it on

had to saw off the shaft to get the yoke off and tap the holes for the 8/32 screws. all holes should have been tapped by the factory. Other than these problems, everything else went pretty good.

Since it was an older appliance I decided to replace the whole ice maker assembly. I carefully disassembled the old one and then installed the new one. piece of cake.

When that one came and I went to install it, I found that my fridge was so old (almost 30 years) that the wire harness on the old icemaker could not be transferred to the new one. The old one was hand wired into the guts of the machine with wire nuts and other connectors. The new unit needs a plug in harness to match a plug connection on the ice maker. Also, the bent wire arm that senses ice bin levels was different, old unit hooked in with clips and such, new one pops into a socket in the new ice maker.

I called PartSelect back again, and the clerk spent a lot of time in the books (no parts in the online listings) and found new style connector and wire arm. Another 25 dollars and problem is solved.

Once those parts came, the actual installation was a breeze. Remove three screws, unplug the ice maker from the back wall of the fridge, plug new wire harness into new ice maker and the back wall of the frige, install new ice maker with the same three screws, pop the new style bent wire arm into place and pop the plastic cover from the old ice maker onto the front of the new one. Done! Took me ten minutes (plus two weeks of chasing parts, but only half an hour of actual time in those two weeks).

I let it make a couple of loads of ice that I disposed of (to capture any dust and crud that might have been on or in the new ice maker) and then turned it loose. We had a nice full bin of ice in the morning.

First had to remove baskets and door from freezer. Removed three screws; removed old ice maker; Attached new ice maker with three screws; removed arm from old ice maker and placed in the new ice maker. Replaced door and baskets

Unplug fridge, unpluged fan motor from plug socket, removed bracket screws, removed fan retainer clip from shaft. removed screws holding fan to bracket

Reattaching the kickplate clip was easy, but the tab that holds in place was broken. It would slide back when the kickplate was installed. I fashioned a replacement tab out of a piece of 3/32 aluminum bent into a U with the hammer. To hold it in place I drilled and tapped one hole and used a 6-32 machine screw.

Removed old ice maker, had to use the wire shutoff from old ice maker installed new one. Very easy repair, very nice product cheapest price on internet.