36348047896 Kenmore Refrigerator - Instructions

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.

This is such an easy fix!
1-Unplugging the fridge and emptyi it. Remove all shelves.
2-remove the 2 screws at the top of the back panel with a 1/4 inch nutdriver. You'll have to tilt ithis panel forward and sideways to get it out.
3- DO NOT CHIP AT THR ICE COVERING THE COOLING COILS? Replace one shelf and rest a hair dryer on low heat on the shelf.. Plug the drain hole at the bottom with a rag so all the melted ice water doesn't flood the floor under the fridge. Soak up the water with a rag and bucket- this should take 20-30 minutes.
4-Remove the red and blue power cables from the element. Only 2 philips head screws hold the defrosting element in place. Once it's out you can tell it's burned out because it looks black like a burned out lightbulb.
4-Plug in the red and blue power cables to the new unit. You will need to reroute the blue power cable because the new unit has both power connections on the same end.
5-Replace the cover panel by sliding it in at an angle and replace the 1/4 inch screws.
6-Replace the shelves and plug in the fridge.
That's it!

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.

At first the part appeared to be too large because of the change from one heater to two heaters in the replacement part. It was necessary to push a copper refrigerant line back out ot the way about an inch or so before the part would fit properly. This might take a little courage from the do-it-yourselfer, but it moved easily and seems no worse for the move. Currently the fridge is working well(two weeks) with no buildup of any frost on freezer panel as previouly noted. Overall experience was just fine. Makes d-i-y guy look good!

After reading posts on this website, I determined I needed to replace the defrost heater. Removed heater to take a closer look and after testing with a voltmeter determined it needed replacing. Ordered part online and could not believe how quickly it arrived. Blue wire that travels down the left side of the freezer coils had some damage on the end of the plastic connector so was pleased to find that I was able to splice the extension wire provided in the defrost heater kit onto the blue wire and dispose of the damaged end. It's been about 10 days and I do believe my problem has been solved!

I removed food, then removed shelves.
The light bulb and shade had to be taken out.
removed two screws from interior back panel.
defrosted cooling coils
removed two screws from defrost heater
took off two wires ...done
reversed procedure to finish installation

I removed the door from the bottom hinge assembly by removing the top hinge assembly.
1. Installed the cam to the bottom of the door.
2. Installed hinge and bottom pin & cam to the refrigerator.
3. Reinstalled door and adjusted front roller height to make door close better.

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!

My right door (food door on side-by-side) stopped closing - I found pieces of the plastic washer (cam riser) on the floor. After reading the stories on the web I decided to order the new part - and YES there are many universal parts that work for Kenmore/GE. The part comes with two parts (hinge and cam riser) - you should install both to insure a good fit. I took 3 blocks of wood and a shim and supported the bottom center of the door, unscrewed the hinge off and dropped it out (3 minutes). The "only" tough part was unscrewing the cam riser from the bottom of the door - it required a very small socket and you will only have about 6-8 inches of work space. Be sure you have a socket that fits before you take the hinge off. The entire repair took less than 30 minutes and contrary to some of the posts, you DO NOT need to take the door off. Good as new again!

This is a repair INSIDE the freezer. Turned off unit.. Unplugged. Removed shelving on freezer side. Removed freezer draw rails (4 screws total.) Removed 2 screws that hold rear panel in place at rear of freezer side (this is inside the freezer). Carefully removed metal panel by pulling from the left (side that does not have shelving clips. As noted on this website and other users, the freezer coils were incased in ice. Thawed with a hair dryer (put towels in bottom of freezer-ice was pretty heavy in mine). When thawed, remove heater element by removing 2 screws that hold it to the aluminum bracket. Then remove wires on each end. Simply install the new emelment by attaching wires back on heater and screw new unit in place. (My original heating element was a single element-you could very easily see where the heating coil inside the glass tube had shorted out. My replacement heater was a 2 element unit. This did not pose any problem at all-installs in the same manner-good directions are provided.). Replace all parts in reverse order. It's that simple. Saved probably $150. This site is wonderful! Fast shipping and the users install tips/notes are fantastic!! Will shop here again if I have to (have a Maytag washer that isn't draining and going into spin-bet the fix is on here somewhere!

Fortunately while my refirgerator was still under warrant I had this same problem and watched the repairman fix it. To confrm my suspicions I cleaned out the freezer compartment, removed the back panel (2 screws), and used a hair dryer to defrost it. I suggest plugging the drain hole or laying a towel in the bottom of the compartment to catch the run off or your drain pan could over low. Once defrosted I was able to verify that the element on the defrost heater was burnt. Since it was Sunday I re-assembled and cranked it back up until I could get the part. I did a goggle search on Monday, found the part instantly using only the model number from the refrigerator at PartsSelect.com. The part arrived Wednesday as promised, I repeated the process from Sunday, removed the defective part (2 screws & 2 plug in type wire connections) and she works like a charm now. I do think the manufacture of the part should consider a new design since this is the second one my unit has needed in less than 5 years. At only $27.50 ea. I should have purchased a spare to have for the next time!

The repair itself is super easy. The heater harness comes with instructions that is easy to follow. The only issue I encountered is that my refrigerator had 1 heating element and you will get one with 2 heating elements. Because of this, the new connectors are on 1 side. Since my old heater had 1 connector on each end, 1 wire is too short if you route both wires the same way as before. The kit comes with an extra wire and directs you to splice the short wire and attach the extra wire with the included connector. I figured a refrigerator with a spliced wire is not a good combination so I rerouted the short wire to the other side along with the other wire. This allowed me to connect both wires without using the extra wire.

Unplugged the refrigerator then used the cordless drill to remove the 6 screws on the access panel on the back of the fridge to be able to get to the fan. Was able to pull the fan off by hand and push the new fan on by hand. Plugged the refrigerator by in and watched the fan run for a few minutes then replaced the access panel. Really quick and easy repair.

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'!

Considering that I am a woman who knows nothing about repairing or let alone anything about refridgerator parts etc.... It was very easy.

First I went on line to see if I could even figure out what may be the problem with my refridgerator. After hearing similar stories on this site I thought I would try to order a new heating element since it wasn't that expensive and hopefully save me lots in $$$ have a repair man come out.
I removed the shelves in the freezer portion and then removed the back panel. I had to wait for the freezer to defrost, then I removed the burned out heating element which is about 10 inches long and replaced it with a new one.
It was so simple and probably would have taken less time if I had the freezer already defrosted.
Now the refrigerator is working like new and I fixed it all by myself without the help of my husband!!!!